A Wrong Way Home by Alice Orr by Alice Orr
A WRONG WAY HOME – Riverton Road Romantic Suspense Series
Book 1 – Matt & Kara’s Story
Going home can be dangerous…
Kara Cartwright returns to her hometown on the same night Anthony Benton is murdered. But she knows nothing about that or how it will unhinge her life. She only knows she vowed never to come back to Riverton or to see Matt Kalli – the man she once loved then ran away from.
Matt has made a vow of his own. He’ll never forgive Kara, the woman who loved him then betrayed him nine years ago. And he can’t forgive himself for the way she’s stuck in his heart.
All these two have in common is their undeniable attraction for each other and their hatred of Anthony Benton. Now Benton’s dead and they could be suspects. People they care deeply about could be suspects too. That gives Matt and Kara something else in common – a perilous search for the real killer before he murders again.
A Wrong Way Home is the first book in The Riverton Road Romantic Suspense Series featuring the Kalli family, the four Kalli brothers and others who find safety and a warm welcome at Kalli Corner on Riverton Road. A Year of Summer Shadows is Book 2 and launched on June 22, 2015. A Villain for Vanessa will be Book 3.
Description
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About the author:
Alice is married and has two grown children and two perfect grandchildren. She lives with her husband Jonathan in New York City. To find out more email Alice at [email protected] Check out her website at www.aliceorrbooks.com and visit her blog there too. She would love to hear from you.
What inspired you to write your book?
This story was inspired by a conversation I overheard as a child while hiding in a stairwell eavesdropping on my parents. They never would have said the things they said that day if they knew I was listening. Because – as my mother repeated often – “Little pitchers have big ears.” She was right. My big ears heard my father tell a bit of gossip – or maybe a bit of truth – about a wealthy relative. What my father revealed to this little pitcher was a secret – a scandalous secret. And it was about somebody I’d believed I should revere. That secret re-imagined – plus other secrets – are at the center of this story, Especially secrets within a family and how they can tear the fabric of that family until one of two things must happen. Either the secrets must be hidden further and deeper by a thick blanket of lies. Or the truth must be excavated – brought into the light – and adjusted to so that life may go on in that same light – or at least enough light that we can make out which directions we should take to find the right way home.
Here is a short sample from the book:
A WRONG WAY HOME
Riverton Road Series – Book 1
Contemporary Romantic Suspense
Matt & Kara’s Story
Prologue
Anthony Benton
Anthony Benton wasn’t in the habit of walking across the lawn to his condo complex, especially not on a miserable night like this one. He valued his Bruno Magli’s too much for that. What if somebody saw him slipping and scrambling through wet leaves like a snake in the grass?
Good thing nobody important enough to care about would be out here in this damned weather. It was supposed to be spring, but you’d never guess that in this godforsaken place.
Spindly young trees whipped in the wind as far as their short trunks would bend while Anthony counted the weeks backward in his mind – one, two, three, four, a month. This crap had only been going on for a month. Aggravation made it feel a lot longer.
He woke up each morning with anger churning inside him. He could barely remember when he didn’t have to think about things like whether taking the straight route across the lawn was safer than the longer way around the curved sidewalk.
How could he have ended up in such a humiliating position? Scurrying from his car to his house like a scared animal. He’d worked too hard making himself into Anthony Benton for this to be happening. Worst of all, there was nowhere in this jerkwater town he could turn for help.
What was he supposed to say? “My dim bulb ex-wife is persecuting me?” He’d be the butt of jokes from every hayseed in the county. Too many people envied him, and most of them were dim bulbs too. He’d have to put up with their sneers or be roasted all the more. That’s how it was in a place like Riverton.
The damp mist had turned into steady drizzle. Anthony cursed under his breath and walked faster. He’d left his umbrella in the car. A month ago he would never have made that miscal¬culation.
He’d have had a plan all laid out in his mind with each step thought through and not a single flaw in the thinking. He’d have grabbed the umbrella from under the driver’s seat and had it at the ready in the outside pocket of his briefcase.
He’d parked under those dripping trees tonight because the walkway to the complex was only a few yards across the macadam from there. He’d done that because of her, to cut down on the chance she’d catch up to him between the car and the building, the way she did two nights ago.
She’d shouted and sniveled and grabbed at his clothes. He was sure some of his neighbors must have witnessed the scene from their windows. She’d made threats, too, said she’d get a gun and come after him.
He’d itched to pick her up and throw her as hard as he could onto the pavement right then. He was plenty strong enough to do that. He’d picked her up and thrown her before, but that was in private. If he laid a hand on her in public and somebody saw it, he’d be the one in trouble.
That’s how it went these days with bitches like her. They’d whine about being victims and everybody was on their side. But he knew what to do about that. When payback time came for all of this, he intended his revenge to be very sweet, with an extra measure of punishment for the soggy leaves on his car. And he’d make sure payback time came soon.
The wind picked up in a chill, wet blast down Anthony’s neck. He didn’t have a raincoat any more than he had an umbrella. He hunched as far as he could into his saturated shirt collar. Payback was on its way for this, too. He’d make her regret every discomfort he’d suffered because of her. He’d commit himself a thousand percent to that happening.
She whined about how unhappy he’d made her in the past. Those days would feel like a kindergarten picnic compared to what was coming in return for these past four weeks. With tonight at the top of his list of reasons for making her sorrier than she ever thought she could be.
He hated her so much it almost warmed him up on this frigid night. He hated her so much he’d love to choke her dead with his bare hands, squeeze harder and harder till he felt her bones snap under his fingers.
As soon as he could figure out a way to kill her, he’d do it, not with his own hands because he’d be too likely to get caught. He’d have her killed without a second thought or a single regret. He knew guys who’d do that for a price, one guy in particular.
The bitch deserved it, but that pleasure would have to wait. Right now all he wanted was to get out of this rain and into the classy condo he loved almost as much as he loved his car.
Anthony flashed on an image of Victoria opening the door the way she liked to do every now and then, wearing nothing but the fur coat he bought her last Christmas. She wasn’t anything like his ex-wife.
Victoria was the kind of woman who knew how to make a man feel good. He almost smiled. Maybe it was the vision of Victoria slowly opening the coat for him that caused Anthony to relax his cautiousness for just an instant.
Or, maybe he was forced to pay too close attention to his footing. The harsh Northern New York State winter, the first since this condo complex was com¬pleted, had already heaved some flagstones out of line with the others, making for treacherous walking in the cold April rain.
Whatever the distraction may have been, Anthony didn’t hear the footsteps behind him or sense the jagged rock lifted above his head as he finally reached the top of the stairwell leading down to the basement service door that was the building entrance closest to the parking area.
He did have time to feel the edge of sharp pain and hear a voice echo out of long-ago memory. It was his mother calling to him, though she’d been dead a dozen years.
“Be careful, Tonio! Don’t fall!”
Then everything went black and silent for Tonio Bento, aka Anthony Benton, and would remain that way forever.
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