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TWISTED LIES
Mystery Romantic Suspense
BY C.B. CLARK

Blurb

TWISTED LIES
Mystery Romantic Suspense
BY C.B. CLARK

Excerpt

 Twenty-one days.

Twenty-one days sober.

Other people talked about abstaining from alcohol in terms of months or years, but in the three years since her drinking started impacting her life, the longest Athena Reynolds had been dry was seven days.

So, twenty-one days was good.

Damn good.

Abstinence was an ongoing battle. Every hour, every minute, every agonizing second of the past twenty-one days, her body ached with a bone-deep desperation. She’d made it that long, but today, the thirst was like a beast inside her, screaming to be fed. Her hard-won sobriety was about to end. She craved a drink. Now. She’d never wanted one more.

Sinking onto the couch, she smoothed the crumpled envelope on her lap and reread the address label. Her stomach knotted. The knowledge someone knew her real name, and that she lived in the bustling foothills city of Calgary, Alberta, rocked her to the depths of her soul.

How was it possible? After all these years? The past she’d been running from had found her. Was the nightmare back? The envelope fell from her shaking hands. Her legs wobbled as she rose and stumbled out of the living room and down the short hall to the kitchen.

Afternoon sunlight streamed through the window above the sink. The cozy kitchen, with its walls painted a cheerful yellow, and the well-scrubbed laminate countertops gleamed. The steady hum of the refrigerator and ticking of the clock on the wall were the only sounds in the silent house. The pungent smell of fried onions and roasted garlic, from the spaghetti sauce she’d made for supper the previous night, hung in the air.

The efficient kitchen, with its breakfast nook and view of the tidy, fenced backyard and the rolling, grassy foothills and snow-crested Rocky Mountains beyond, was the reason she’d bought the small rancher. This was her favorite room—the place she sought refuge when life overwhelmed her. These days, her drink of choice was a cup of herbal tea or unsweetened apple juice. Alcohol was off the table…had been for twenty-one unendurable days.

But today, all bets were off.

The brown-paper-wrapped bottle sat on the counter taunting her. She’d read the letter, then rushed down to Larry’s Liquor Outlet on the corner and bought a twenty-sixer of vodka. The alcohol called to her with the siren song of a mermaid, leading her, like the sailors of old, to certain destruction.

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Special Giveaway: C.B. is giving away an ebook copy of TWISTED LIES to one lucky reader who comments on her Karen’s Killer Book Bench blog.

Happy Reading!

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Thanks, C.B., for sharing your story with us!

Don’t miss the chance to read this book!