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Back Black Rock Bay Save as PDF
Chapters (42)
  1. TITLE PAGE
  2. COPYRIGHT
  3. DEDICATION
  4. CONTENTS
  5. PROLOGUE
  6. CHAPTER ONE
  7. CHAPTER TWO
  8. CHAPTER THREE
  9. CHAPTER FOUR
  10. CHAPTER FIVE
  11. CHAPTER SIX
  12. CHAPTER SEVEN
  13. CHAPTER EIGHT
  14. CHAPTER NINE
  15. CHAPTER TEN
  16. CHAPTER ELEVEN
  17. CHAPTER TWELVE
  18. CHAPTER THIRTEEN
  19. CHAPTER FOURTEEN
  20. CHAPTER FIFTEEN
  21. CHAPTER SIXTEEN
  22. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
  23. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
  24. CHAPTER NINETEEN
  25. CHAPTER TWENTY
  26. CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
  27. CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
  28. CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
  29. CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
  30. CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
  31. CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
  32. CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
  33. CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
  34. CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
  35. CHAPTER THIRTY
  36. CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
  37. CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
  38. CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
  39. CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
  40. CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
  41. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  42. ABOUT THE AUTHOR

The body lurched to the side as a wave slammed into the boat, and Brandon finally lost the contents of his stomach to the ocean.

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER ONE

MIA

Black Rock Bay, Maine
Thursday, January 17

Detective Mia Hart sank deeper into the warmth of her field jacket as the ferry’s engine roared its displeasure with the choppy bay. It had always been tradition for her to stand at the bow and watch St. Lucy’s come into sight, no matter the time of year or how painful the weather.

“You’re insane,” Detective Izzy Santiago yelled as she came shoulder to shoulder with Mia. Izzy was off-balance as only a kid raised nowhere near a boat could be, and she bumped into Mia with each wave.

“Go back inside,” Mia urged her partner. “I won’t think any less of you, I promise.”

As Izzy angled her bare and vulnerable face away from the wind, she shivered beneath a thin winter coat that was useless against Black Rock Bay’s merciless bite.

“We’re almost there, right?” Izzy asked, ignoring Mia’s suggestion.

Mia traced the blade-thin scar on her wrist through layers of gloves and jackets and long johns before turning her eyes back in the direction of St. Lucy’s. “Yes.”

Even as she spoke, the Bell mansion, which sat as an imposing sentry on the island’s northern cliffs, began to take shape, cutting through the thick mist that had settled into Black Rock Bay. Soon they would be able to see the lighthouse to the west.

A briny tang hung heavily in the air, coating Mia’s nostrils as she inhaled, and she concentrated on the soft expansion of her lungs instead of the way her skin suddenly felt too tight stretched across her bones.

It had been fifteen years since she’d been back to St. Lucy’s, yet she could still count the seconds it would take for the smooth, white slope of the lighthouse to emerge from behind the jut of cliffs after the ferry passed the mansion.

Izzy whistled, low and impressed, when it came into sight, the water-slick black rocks lending a bleak, ominous look to the scene. “It’s like a scary postcard.”

Mia laughed, amusement cutting off the anxiety that had been coiling in the depths of her belly, winding tighter with each minute they crept closer.

Izzy was good for that, easing the tension. They’d been partners for only about two months, ever since the woman had transferred up from Dallas under apparently less-than-ideal circumstances, but Mia liked her.

She was a few years younger than Mia’s own thirty-one and about half a foot taller than her. She was loud and sarcastic, often leaning into the self-deprecation that was the cornerstone of her humor. Her spiky pink hair, tattoos, and piercings had proved to be an asset more often than not, letting them blend into places where Mia struggled not to look like a cop.