You’ll Be Next (A Megan York Suspense Thriller—Book Two)

By Ava Strong

Small town police officer and single mom Megan York is summoned to a dramatic crime scene in a neighboring town: a serial killer has left a victim dangling from a water tower. As Megan struggles to crack this killer’s mysterious M.O., her violent ex has been released from prison—and may just be an even bigger threat.



“The plot has many twists and turns, but it is the ending, which I did not see coming at all, that totally defines this book as one of the most riveting that I have read in years.”

—Reader review for Not Like Us



You’ll Be Next is Book #2 in a long-anticipated new series by #1 bestseller Ava Strong, whose bestseller NOT LIKE US (a free download) has received over 1,000 five star ratings and reviews.



A page-turning crime thriller full of jaw-dropping twists and packed with heart-pounding suspense, the Megan York mystery series introduces a brilliant new female protagonist and will keep you on the edge of your seat. Fans of Rachel Caine, Teresa Driscoll, and Robert Dugoni are sure to fall in love.



More books in the series are also available!



“This is a chilling, suspenseful page turner that just might leave you scared at night!”

—Reader review for Not Like Us



“Very intriguing, kept me turning page after page… Lots of twists and turns and a very unexpected ending. Cannot wait for the next in this series!”

—Reader review for Not Like Us



“A roller coaster ride of events… Can’t put down until you finish it!”

—Reader review for Not Like Us



“Excellent read with very realistic characters that you become emotionally invested in… Couldn't put it down!”

—Reader review for The Death Code



“An excellent read, lots of twists and turns, with a surprising ending, leaving you wanting to read the next book in the series! Well done!”

—Reader review for The Death Code



“Well worth the read. Cannot wait to see what happens in the next book!”

—Reader review for The Death Code



“Quickly became a story I couldn’t put down! I highly recommend this book!”

—Reader review for His Other Wife



“I really enjoyed the fast-paced action, plot design and characterization... I didn't want to put the book down and the ending was a total surprise.”

—Reader review for His Other Wife



“The characters are extremely well developed… There are twists and turns in the plot that kept me guessing. An extremely well written story.”

—Reader review for His Other Wife



“One of the best books I have ever read… The ending was perfect and surprising. Ava Strong is an amazing writer.”

—Reader review for His Other Wife



“Holy cow, what a rollercoaster… Many times I absolutely KNEW who the killer was—only to be proven wrong each time. I was completely surprised by the ending. I have to say, I am thrilled that this is the first in a series. My only complaint is that the next one isn't out yet. I need it!”

—Reader review for His Other Wife



“An incredible, intense, spellbinding, enjoyable story. It will keep you captivated until the end.”

—Reader review for His Other Wife

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ava Strong
• Release date: Jun 13, 2023
• ISBN: 9781094330990

Book preview

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y o u’ l l   b e   n e x t

(a megan york suspense thriller—book 2)

a v a   s t r o n g

Ava Strong

Ava Strong is author of the REMI LAURENT mystery series, comprising six books (and counting); of the ILSE BECK mystery series, comprising seven books (and counting); of the STELLA FALL psychological suspense thriller series, comprising six books (and counting); of the DAKOTA STEELE FBI suspense thriller series, comprising six books (and counting); of the LILY DAWN suspense thriller series, comprising five books (and counting); and the MEGAN YORK FBI suspense thriller series, comprising five books (and counting).

An avid reader and lifelong fan of the mystery and thriller genres, Ava loves to hear from you, so please feel free to visit www.avastrongauthor.com to learn more and stay in touch.

Copyright © 2023 by Ava Strong. All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior permission of the author. This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return it and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictionally. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. Jacket image Copyright Andrei Baskevich, used under license from Shutterstock.com.

BOOKS BY AVA STRONG

MEGAN YORK FBI SUSPENSE THRILLER

YOU’LL BE SORRY (Book #1)

YOU’LL BE NEXT (Book #2)

YOU’LL BE MINE (Book #3)

YOU’LL BE FIRST (Book #4)

YOU’LL BE GONE (Book #5)

LILY DAWN FBI SUSPENSE THRILLER

STILL ALIVE (Book #1)

STILL HOPE (Book #2)

STILL AWAKE (Book #3)

STILL HERE (Book #4)

STILL MAD (Book #5)

REMI LAURENT FBI SUSPENSE THRILLER

THE DEATH CODE (Book #1)

THE MURDER CODE (Book #2)

THE MALICE CODE (Book #3)

THE VENGEANCE CODE (Book #4)

THE DECEPTION CODE (Book #5)

THE SEDUCTION CODE (Book #6)

ILSE BECK FBI SUSPENSE THRILLER

NOT LIKE US (Book #1)

NOT LIKE HE SEEMED (Book #2)

NOT LIKE YESTERDAY (Book #3)

NOT LIKE THIS (Book #4)

NOT LIKE SHE THOUGHT (Book #5)

NOT LIKE BEFORE (Book #6)

NOT LIKE NORMAL (Book #7)

STELLA FALL PSYCHOLOGICAL SUSPENSE THRILLER

HIS OTHER WIFE (Book #1)

HIS OTHER LIE (Book #2)

HIS OTHER SECRET (Book #3)

HIS OTHER MISTRESS (Book #4)

HIS OTHER LIFE (Book #5)

HIS OTHER TRUTH (Book #6)

DAKOTA STEELE FBI SUSPENSE THRILLER

WITHOUT MERCY (Book #1)

WITHOUT REMORSE (Book #2)

WITHOUT A PAST (Book #3)

WITHOUT PITY (Book #4)

WITHOUT HOPE (Book #5)

CONTENTS

PROLOGUE

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

EPILOGUE

PROLOGUE

Oh God… that is a long way down.

Alex froze on the ladder halfway up the old water tower, his fingers turning numb as they wrapped around the cold metal rungs. As he looked down, the ground seemed to rush right back up at him, and for a moment he felt like he was losing the battle with vertigo. He pressed himself tightly against the slight incline of the ladder and clenched his eyes shut.

What are you, scared? his friend Jake’s voice rang from higher up the tower.

Alex’s eyes flew open. Suddenly, he was trapped, with fear of falling on one side, and the scorn of older boys on the other.

His gaze met the stars sprinkled along the horizon. The height wasn’t so bad when he wasn’t looking straight down, he told himself.

Shakily, he took one hand off the ladder and thrust it upward, grasping a new rung higher above. Then, the same with the other.

Let’s go, Alex! That’s it! Look, guys, he’s actually coming. Told you, he heard Jake say from above.

Pride surged through him, galvanizing his movement. He found a rhythm in his climb, forgetting the previous sight of the ground below. Before he knew it, he had made it to the top of the water tower, hauling himself up the last few rungs onto the upper catwalk—still shaking, but now with excitement just as much as fear.

Alright, that’s it, kid, Jake said, clapping him on the back.

The other boys had already set to work unzipping their backpacks on the catwalk. Quickly and efficiently, they unpacked more than a dozen cans of spray paint. Jake bent down to pick one up.

Well, you made it up here. I think you’ve earned the right to go first, Jake said, shaking the can and then offering it to him.

Alex didn’t waste a second. He grinned and took it.

The laughter and banter of the other boys diminished as Alex made his way around the bulbous head of the tower, looking for the perfect spot to begin his artwork. It felt good to finally feel like one of them, he thought—and he resolved he was going to mark the occasion with a tag for the ages.

He dared to turn around on the catwalk, facing the night sky, and his breath caught. He was frighteningly high up for sure, but more than that, he found himself simply enthralled with the view.

The stars twinkled above, the only light aside from a sliver of a moon. But even still, he could see for miles. Cutting through the vast, dense northern Minnesota forest, the empty nearby highway, almost directly below, stretched to the horizon in both directions.

Yeah—this right here’s the perfect spot.

Whatever he painted on that side of the tower would be seen by every single driver of every single car passing along that stretch of road. He’d practically be a legend back at school.

He shook the can again and popped the lid, determined to get to work.

It felt like barely five minutes had passed when he noticed the sky getting ever so slightly brighter, and a faint warmth on the back of his neck. Only halfway done, he turned around slowly, keeping the collar of his shirt held over his nose against the fumes of spray paint.

Dawn was emerging from night. He saw a pair of far distant shimmering lakes that poked two holes in the forest cover right below the horizon, rays of the sun’s first light reflecting off of them.

But even at this height above ground, he hadn’t thought the sun was supposed to rise that early. He pulled out his phone to check the time, and to his surprise, an hour really had gone by.

But another light suddenly began to brighten the world.

Yo, get down! A car’s going by down on the road! hissed Jake, from around the bend of the catwalk.

A jolt shot through Alex, his heart leaping. He scrambled to get out of view of the highway, but in his hurry he nearly dropped his phone. He shifted awkwardly to catch it, then slipped on the smooth wet surface of the catwalk and fell hard on the metal.

They see us? he heard a voice say.

I don’t know… they just stopped. I think someone got out! Yeah, he’s walking toward the tower! hissed another.

Flat on the metal surface, Alex rubbed the back of his head, trying to clear his vision, as the other boys whispered frantically to each other. More and more rays of dawn light filtered around the tower, making everything look different than it had only a few moments ago.

Yo! He’s right at the bottom of the tower! one of the boys whispered, frightened.

 Are we gonna get in trouble? hissed another.

Did he see any of us? Why isn’t he telling us to get down?

As Alex finally managed to coax his vision into focus again, he realized that, from where he still lay flat on the platform, he was looking at something out of the ordinary.

There was a man’s face staring back at him.

He blinked repeatedly.

Before, the pitch-black shadow of the tower’s legs had been completely shrouded in darkness. But with the sun rising, rays of light were being cast underneath its structure.

And a man was there, Alex could see, from his nearly prone position on the catwalk. The man was hanging, deathly still, dangling by a rope around his neck. And as Alex’s gaze slowly crawled up to the man’s face, he saw the visage was bloated and purple, twisted in a frozen mask of pain.

Atop the water tower, Alex’s scream carried far across the open sky.

CHAPTER ONE

Megan flipped the pancakes in her skillet and cringed, her heart fluttering, as she saw a small crust of burnt, black residue stuck to their undersides. She swallowed, weathering the sudden pang of anxiety that followed, then peeled the first finished batch onto the serving plate.

She could scrape off the residue, but she wished her skillet would just wash clean already. Uneasy memories bubbled to the surface of her thoughts when she remembered the way her skillet had burned in the first place—when he had suddenly appeared at her door.

She didn’t know how long it would have taken her to feel emotionally ready to face him again, but it certainly hadn’t been as quickly as he had come to see her. Just the sight of his sad puppy dog eyes, and everything they entailed, had in one stroke exhumed multiple years’ worth of her buried pain and trauma. It was hard to remember that you had food burning on your stove when something like that blindsided you first thing in the morning.

She closed her eyes for a long moment, fighting all those emotions and anxieties back down. She wasn’t going to let anything ruin her morning, she thought to herself, as she picked the last of the black crust off the batch. She wasn’t going to let any unpleasant thoughts of…

Of Spencer…

Of anyone. She wasn’t going to let unpleasant thoughts of anyone hijack her mood.

Emma trudged sleepily into the kitchen, brightening when she saw the breakfast. Suddenly, it was all worth it to Megan.

Thanks, Mom! Emma said, as she picked up a plate from the table and began heaping on the pancakes, topping them with a very generous helping of syrup. Megan thought about telling her to slow down, but decided against it, only smiling to herself instead. Emma was a growing girl, after all.

Megan sighed contentedly as she watched her daughter begin to demolish her breakfast. The natural light of that quiet early morning was filtering into their kitchen, illuminating everything in a serene beauty, and Megan realized she wanted that exact moment to go on for as long as it could.

Of course, it was then that the phone rang.

Megan stared at the receiver for a second. There weren’t many reasons to get a call that early. As she walked over to pick it up, for the first time in her life, she hoped she was getting some kind of spam.

Hey, Megan, said Lachlan’s voice, when she finally answered the call.

She breathed a sigh of relief, hearing it wasn’t Spencer’s voice—but then her imagination quickly took a new tack. Lachlan was the county sheriff, her boss. If he was calling her right before her shift, it wasn’t a good sign of anything, for all its own reasons.

We’ve got a… situation down by the highway exit just outta town. A dead body, Lachlan said.

What, a crash? Megan asked.

Well, no, Lachlan said. "The body’s hanging from the water tower that’s near the exit. Hanging, as in, by a noose. Mariani called it in—found it trying to get the drop on some teenage vandals."

Megan said nothing for a moment, involuntarily imagining the grisly scene.

So much for the serene beauty of the morning, she thought.

Mariani and Jennings are both on the scene, but apparently the body’s visible to the public, and they’re getting swamped. I need you out there to start getting a handle on things, he said.

Yep. Got it. Megan sighed, glancing back over at Emma.

Great. Niall got in a few minutes ago, so I sent him over to pick you up. Good luck, Lachlan said, before hanging up.

Megan watched Emma happily eat her pancakes for one final moment, savoring it, then went over to her, gently rubbing her shoulder.

Hey, honey. Mommy’s got to go to work early today, okay? You’re gonna have to get to school all by yourself this morning.

Okay, Emma said between bites, nonplussed, barely looking up.

Megan pulled away, wondering if she should say anything else. Her thoughts immediately went to the possibility of Emma running into Spencer while on her way to school, on the off chance he happened to be on his way to pay the two of them another visit. She glanced out the window again almost compulsively, but of course didn’t see him.

But she couldn’t afford to accommodate that anxiety right then. And Emma’s school wasn’t far away, so she’d only be by herself for a few blocks, she told herself. There wasn’t any kind of warning about Spencer she could give Emma that would make sense to her anyway, not before going through everything with her about the whole her dad getting out of prison situation.

She sighed, forcing herself to move away from the kitchen and trust that Emma could handle herself, if just for that morning.

She hurriedly suited up for work. Getting dressed, assembling all the equipment on her tactical belt, then finally stepping into her boots—nothing she hadn’t practiced thousands of times before, enough to be quite quick at doing it when she needed to.

By the door, she lingered for a second on a glimpse of herself in the mirror. She never thought of herself as so short, so it always felt like a bit of a surprise when she was reminded of it. She tied her brown hair into a bun, knowing it was in need of being brushed, which was something for which she certainly didn’t have the time to spare.

Once she was ready, she looked one last time over her shoulder at Emma placing her school supplies in her backpack, before finally pushing herself out the front door.

She had to admit, some part of her was glad Emma was learning to be so capable and independent. On the other hand, it was bittersweet to be watching her grow up so fast. Emma deserved to have her fair share of just being a kid, Megan thought sadly to herself.

But on the other side of the threshold, she put her game face on. She knew the situation she was going to be wading into wouldn’t call for any sort of motherly wistfulness.

She had barely taken her hand off the doorknob when a police cruiser pulled up to her driveway. With the window rolled down, Niall became visible, his huge linebacker physique seeming a little cramped in the driver’s seat, as it always did. Megan jogged around to the passenger side and hopped in.

You know the situation? Megan asked, buckling her seatbelt.

Probably not as much as you. There’s a body—a suicide, maybe, that’s what I know, her partner replied, as he reversed out of Megan’s driveway, then put the car in gear. Lachlan was sparse with the details—for my sake, probably. So I guess… I’m not gonna like what I see.

Megan shook her head.

No… from what he told me, you probably won’t.

His uneasy frown deepened. But he didn’t press her for any further description, so Megan didn’t offer one. An apprehensive silence settled between them.

The situation awaiting them at the water tower wasn’t the only thing Megan was holding back from Niall either, she realized, as she again thought