EXCERPT and GIVEAWAY
Ultimate Fear
(Ultimate CORE Trilogy Book 2)
(Ultimate CORE Trilogy Book 2)
by Kristine Mason
Ultimate Fear is the second book in the Ultimate CORE Trilogy. Also available: Ultimate Kill (read my blog post).
Ultimate Fear is currently on tour with Goddess Fish Promotions. The tour stops here today for an excerpt and a giveaway. Please be sure to visit the other tour stops as well.
Description
When a deranged mother's grief drives her to replace her dead son over and over, obsession leads to murder...
Chicago detective Jessica Donavan will never stop looking for her missing daughter. Her obsession has destroyed her marriage, but the search is the only thing that helps keep her sane and her mind off of everything she’s lost—her husband and her baby girl. When she uncovers a string of unsolved disappearances and reappearances of a number of baby boys, Jessica turns to her soon to be ex, Dante Russo, a former Navy SEAL turned investigator for the private agency, CORE, to help her fit together the pieces in this perplexing puzzle. But as Dante helps her, she realizes just how much she still craves his support—and his touch.
Dante is still in love with his wife and would do anything to have her back in his life again. He’s been miserable since she left him to deal with the grief over their daughter’s abduction, never understanding how much he grieves as well. When Jessica tells him about the case she’s working, he jumps at the chance to take part in her investigation. He's hoping not only to save their marriage and ease his personal pain over the loss of their daughter, but to stop a serial kidnapper from taking another victim.
As Jessica and Dante work side by side, pregnant women begin to turn up missing or dead, and they start to uncover the consequences of another woman's unfathomable grief. The childless mother doesn’t just want a baby. She wants a newborn straight from the womb.
And when forced to confront the dark and twisted perversion of a mother's obsession, can Jessica and Dante find their lives again…or merely more death?
Excerpt
Jessica’s eyes stung with tears she refused to shed. At least, not now. Later, when she was back in her crappy apartment she could cry herself to sleep. And she knew in her knotted-up gut, she would do just that. Every time she’d visited her former home, she’d catch herself reminiscing, then later, dwelling. Later still, crying, regretting and questioning why. Why them? Why their daughter?
She drew in a shaky breath and swiped at a tear that managed to escape, then turned away from the door. After dealing with the Palmers’ murder-suicide today, then having to meet with their family, she didn’t think she could face Dante and the memories.
Maybe your ‘devil’s own sell’ is Sophia. Have you ever thought of that?
Alex’s words taunted her. She shouldn’t have come here tonight. Her baby girl was always on her mind, so was Dante. Although she didn’t consider herself a fragile person, that about summed up how she was feeling tonight. Fragile, vulnerable.
Lonely.
Yeah, this was a mistake and she needed to go to the apartment. She started down the brick path. No good could come from being here. She’d likely end up arguing with Dante over something stupid, like why hadn’t he used the damned cayenne pepper spray.
“Going somewhere?”
She stopped a few feet from the driveway and let his soothing voice sweep her away to another time. “It’s late,” she said without turning. Dante was the sexiest man she’d ever met and had a way of making her melt with just the sound of his voice—which was why she tried to stick to texting.
For the past three weeks, she’d managed to avoid seeing and speaking to him. That last meeting had ended in a heated argument over her obsession with finding their daughter. But even then, when they’d been fighting, she’d wanted to throw herself into his strong arms. She’d wanted to know that there was one steady thing in this world she could depend on—Dante. He’d been her rock, her best friend and lover. Even when he’d been overseas with the SEALs and distance had separated them for months, she’d known in her gut and her heart that he’d come home to her, that he’d loved her.
“It’s never too late.”
To drop by and check out the vegetable garden, or for them?
Featured Review
This was such a terrifying story. From the first page I was faced with one of my greatest fears, complications in childbirth. The details had my heart fluttering and gave me nightmares. Mason writes her story from two different direction converging into one heart stopping moment. Both couples are searching for children. Although the lost was different for both couples they both had the lost of a child. The scariest part of the book for me was that this can actually happen. It is so well written and I cannot wait to read more from Mason. If you're looking for an amazing suspense thriller you need to grab this book!
From the Author
I didn't pick up my first romance novel until I was in my late twenties. Immediately hooked, I read a bazillion books before deciding to write one of my own. After the birth of my first son I needed something to keep my mind from turning to mush, and Sesame Street wasn't cutting it. While that first book will never see the light of day, something good came from writing it. I realized my passion, and found a career I love.
When I'm not writing contemporary romances and dark, romantic suspense novels (or reading them!) I'm chasing after my four kids and two neurotic dogs.
Giveaway
Enter the tour-wide giveaway for a chance to win one of five $5 Amazon gift cards.
The author is also running a contest on her website. Join her newsletter for a chance to win a $50 Amazon gift card.
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