By: Lynn Crandall
Released Dec 16th, 2013
The
presence of a ghost in her life doesn't alarm Lacy Aegar, in fact it makes her
happy. Two and a half years ago when her dead husband Nicholas reappeared in
her life as a full-bodied spirit, she questioned her sanity. But with Nicholas'
explanation that there are things about life that are not as she's always believed,
she settled into a pleasant routine of working with her sister at their private
investigation business and enjoying home life with her now 10-year-old son –
with Nicholas never very far away.
Lacey's
complacency and sense of stability is sent topsy-turvy when she runs into
Jackson Carter, the son of powerful and influential business tycoon, William
Carter. Typical of the Carter reputation, Jackson's slick new private
investigating business is siphoning off clients from the Aegar sisters'
business, creating financial difficulty. It's a recurring nightmare for Lacey,
who has already seen damage done by the Carter family, and when she encounters
Jackson, she wants nothing to do with him.
But things
are not what they seem when it comes to Jackson Carter, either. Unbeknownst to
Lacey and her sister, Jackson is fighting a battle to preserve his business,
too, and his integrity. For him, it's a fight for his soul, and he enlists
Lacey's help because of her unique investigative skills and open heart. When she
uncovers a mole in his business, she also discovers that one of his clients'
drug trials has been given the green light to go to the next phase based on
falsified data. As they work together to save both their businesses, Jackson
and Lacey not only face death, they must come to grips with their feelings
about love and life.
Excerpt
Walking
into the master bath, Lacey stopped short. “Geez! Now, that’s a bathtub,” she
exclaimed. Her voice echoed slightly against the marble tile walls and gray
slate floor. Jason waited patiently at the doorway while her gaze moved from
one opulent element to another. A large white and gold marble whirlpool tub,
deep enough to disappear in, was framed on three sides by frosted glass windows
and a small garden of palms and feathery ferns. On another wall stood a shower
stall sporting a gold rain-head showerhead and etched glass doors.
“Hi, Uncle
Jake.”
Jason’s greeting
jolted Lacey out of her skin. Retreat was impossible. She turned to face the
square shoulders, tall frame, and solid jaw of a dark-haired man. “Uncle Jake,
I presume?” She wasn’t doing anything wrong, so why did she feel her as though
Brad Pitt had just caught her picking her nose?
“I know who
I am. Who are you and what are you doing in my bathroom?” The man’s voice was
clipped velvet. His arm circled Jason protectively.
She stuck
out her hand. “I’m Lacey Aegar. And as for what I’m doing here…”
“I hired
her, Uncle Jake. She’s going to find Snickers.”
She looked
from Jason’s cherubic face and up into the glistening brown eyes of his uncle
and felt her composure melt into the cold slate beneath her feet. “Umm…I’m a
private investigator. And your nephew has asked me to…”
“I think
you’ve seen enough, Ms. Private Investigator or gossip columnist or whoever you
are.” The man grabbed Lacey’s elbow and began to usher her briskly out of the
room.
“But Uncle
Jake—”
“If you’ll
just hold on a minute I can explain.” Lacey’s face burned at the man’s
insinuation. With Jason at his heels, the man swept Lacey down the stairs and
was heading toward the front door, where she spread out her hands and planted
them against the hard wood. "Stop,” she demanded, whirling around to face
him head-on. “I’m not leaving until I finish what I came here for, and that’s
to help Jason find his dog.”
Noting that
the receptionist’s desk was empty, Lacey glanced at the wall clock and casually
wondered why Michelle wasn’t at her desk by 10:30 a.m. But the thought was
quickly forgotten when sounds of anguish spilled out from behind the door of
the private office she shared with Sterling.
“I can’t
believe it!” Sterling fumed.
“Can’t
believe what?” Lacey walked to her desk and tossed her purse in a nearby chair,
slightly alarmed by her sister’s dismay.
“Oh, when
it rains it pours, I guess.” Sterling’s sleek, chestnut hair fell over her face
as she leaned her head on her hands.
“If it
weren’t for bad luck we’d have no luck at all?”
“We’re
between a rock and a hard place,” Sterling came back with from under her hair.
“Well, what
doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” It was a common game for the sisters,
something to test their edge and sometimes to relieve stress. But Lacey knew
this time something was serious. “Wanna tell me what’s up?”
Sterling
lifted her head but didn’t meet Lacey’s eyes. “I just got off the phone with my
husband. Ben said the word from the higher-ups is keep the overtime down.”
“I see.
Well, that will give you more time together. He’s been working an awful lot of
hours lately. Homicide work can be very taxing. It’ll be good for him to have
more time with you and the family.”
Sterling
sighed, shifting back into her seat, before turning a sad face to her. “Always
looking on the bright side, aren’t you, sis. Well, there’s more. The city is
negotiating with the police union, but so far it looks like the cost of health
insurance is going to go way up.”
“Oh, more
out-of-pocket expenses.” Lacey knew that Sterling and Ben wouldn’t scrimp on
health care for one-year-old Joshua—the namesake of Sterling and Lacey’s
father—but with the agency’s dwindling income, the couple had already tightened
their belt. “A few more macaroni-and-cheese dinners?” she offered
halfheartedly.
Then
Sterling delivered the final blow. “Lacey, this building’s being sold and the
new owners are announcing a raise in the rent.” She grabbed the rental
agreement papers from her desk and shook them in the air. “It’s the curse, all
over again.”
Lacey knew
exactly what her sister was talking about. It was something they jokingly
attributed life’s challenges to—the Aegar Curse. It had been haunting them
since their father’s death when they were young girls. In moments of
lightheartedness or when no other explanations made sense of things, they joked
that the curse was handed down from their mother’s side. A
great-great-great-grandfather spit on somebody’s grave and— voila! The Aegar
curse was born and now signified the sisters’ only inheritance from their
maternal side.
She knew
that neither one seriously believed in a family curse. Their father had been a
cop and it was a criminal who took his life. When their mother had become
clinically depressed, it was the loss of her husband that was to blame, not a
curse. And when Lacey’s husband was killed by the same crime family that stole
their father’s life, it was a perverted mind that pulled the trigger. Still, in
the deepest parts of her heart, sad questions remained, stabbing her like hot
steel and wondering, why?
“I don’t
know what to do, sis.” Sterling shook her head and slumped into the couch that
stood against the far wall of the office. “I love what we do. I love this
office. I love this couch, the file cabinet. But we’ve lost too many clients to
Carter, Inc. He’s like a vacuum sweeper, sucking up all the work. He’s the
shiny new thing in town so he’s attractive, but it’s not fair. We’ve worked
hard for what we’ve built and we are good at what we do.”
“Hello?”
Lacey’s heart leapt into her throat as speak-of-the-devil Jackson Carter poked
his head through their office door.
“Can I help
you?” Sterling stood and walked toward the man.
“I didn’t
see anyone at the front desk and I heard someone was looking for a vacuum
sweeper.” Jackson’s eyes sparkled mischievously.
Lacey
blinked hard. Words stuck in her mouth. This ubiquitous devil was starting to
make a habit of taking her off guard. Deliberately, she turned to her sister.
“Sterling, this is Jackson Carter. Mr. Carter, this is my sister and partner,
Sterling.”
“Aka,
vacuum sweeper.” Jackson stepped forward, his eyes a little too merry, and
offered his hand.
As
Sterling, looking more than a little awkward, stuck out her hand to the wise
guy and acknowledged the introduction, Lacey heard the outer door open and
close. Why didn’t I hear that a minute ago? A little warning would have been
nice? Where are those keen PI skills when I need them?
Buy Links
B&N:
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/always-and-forever-love-lynn-crandall/1117506755?ean=9781440574733
Trailer: http://youtu.be/0RvUZESWhX4
Author Info
Lynn
Crandall lives in the Midwest and writes in the company of her two cats. She
has been a reader and a writer all her life. Her background is in journalism,
but whether writing a magazine or newspaper story or creating a romance, she
loves the power stories hold to transport, inspire, and uplift. In her
romances, she focuses on vulnerable, embraceable characters who don't back
down. She hopes that readers discover, over and over, stories of ordinary
people who face ordinary life challenges and are transformed by extraordinary
love.
Author Links
@lynncrandall246
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