Closer Than Yesterday
Land’s End, #3
by S.W. Frontz
Date of
Publication: April 21st 2017
Cover
Artist: S.W. Frontz
Genre:
Mystery, Romantic Suspense
BLURB
Samantha Patrick's cousin Sarah
has lived with an abusive husband for thirty years. After a brutal attack, she
finally finds the courage to leave. Sarah goes to Land's End looking for safety
and comfort with her family on this small, idyllic island but the horror is not
over yet. Someone is stalking Sarah. Is it the abusive husband or someone else?
Will Land's End be the place where Sarah finds new life, or it will be where it
ends?
Buy Links:
Prologue
Johnson City, TN April 25, 2016
Leslie
Jennings carefully folded the last of her husband’s shirts and zipped up the
suitcase. She picked it up, struggling as she did. Leslie was only
5’2, and very slim. The suitcase was almost as big as she. Leslie
managed to get it to the floor, where she raised the handle and rolled it to
the top of the stairs. Now she had to get it downstairs without making
too much noise. Carter would accuse her of trying to destroy his Louis
Vuitton luggage. After ten minutes of pulling the luggage down one
stair at a time, Leslie finally rolled it to the front door. She ran
quickly back upstairs and grabbed his garment bag. She had already packed
this and she hurried back downstairs.
She was
waiting by the luggage when Carter came downstairs, his briefcase hanging from
his shoulder. He was dressed in a sharp gray suit, white dress shirt, and
patterned gray tie. Leslie studied him while he glanced through his
phone. Carter was of average height, with graying brown hair and
eyes. He had sharp features and rarely smiled. His only pleasure
was making a sale. He owned a real estate company and it was very
successful. They had been married for thirty years and they had no
children.
Carter
didn’t like kids, so they didn’t have any. He glanced up from his phone and
gave Leslie the once-over. She was wearing her scrubs, ready to go to work
at the hospital after she dropped Carter off at the airport. She worked
the seven p.m. to seven a.m. shift when he was gone on business trips. He
thought if she worked at night, she wouldn’t be out doing anything else. She
didn’t know why it mattered if she was seeing anyone or not.
He was
not the affectionate type and most of the time he acted like he hated Leslie.
It wasn’t an issue anyway, Leslie didn’t go anywhere outside of work and her
grandmother’s house. The only people she talked to were her co-workers and her
grandmother Jody. Carter didn’t allow her to socialize with anyone other
than someone he approved, and he didn’t approve of anyone. “Looks like you’re
ready to go. Is this all my stuff?”
Carter
waved his hand over the luggage. Leslie nodded. “Yes, that’s it. I
packed everything you had on the list.” Carter picked up his garment bag and
gestured for Leslie to get his suitcase. She picked it up and carried it
to the car waiting right outside the door in their driveway that curved around
the front of the house. She couldn’t roll it; Carter would get
upset. She managed to get it in the trunk of his Mercedes. He
got in the driver’s side and Leslie in the passenger side. Silently they
drove out of the subdivision.
Carter
finally spoke when they had gotten to the highway. “Tell me your schedule,” he
commanded. “After I drop you off, I’m going home to get my car. I’ll put
yours in the garage. Then, I’m going to Jody’s to fix her supper, then
I’m off to work. I work the night shift. I get off at seven
a.m. I’ll go back to Jody’s and fix her breakfast, then home for a few
hours of sleep. Then I’ll get up and complete the to-do list that you
made.”
Carter
nodded in satisfaction. “Very good. I approve.” Leslie stared out
the window. How she would love to hit him right in his arrogant face.
Well,
that was all going to change tonight. When she finally made it to work
tonight, she was going to leave her cell there. Carter had a tracking app
on it. She had already spoken to her supervisor and he had promised that
he would help Leslie in any way that he could.
Leslie
was going to get on a Greyhound bus tonight and start her journey away from
Carter. She had been saving money for months, a little at a time and
squirreling it away at Jody’s. She would go get the money and see Jody
one more time. After that, she was going to leave her car at the bus terminal
and take the bus to Memphis, rest, get on another bus to New Orleans, and
slowly make her way around the southeast coast to a little island town in North
Carolina called Land’s End.
Leslie
had heard Jody talk about the little town for years. Leslie’s first
cousin, Samantha, lived there with her husband, Andy, who was also the sheriff
of the town. Samantha had never contacted Jody, but through the internet,
Leslie had been able to track them down for Jody. Even though she knew where
they were, Jody wouldn’t contact her. She was waiting for Samantha to
come to her. She knew what Samantha had been through, and Jody didn’t want to
bring back sad memories to Samantha until she was ready. Leslie thought
it was a good a place as any to start over. Maybe she and Samantha could
become friends. Carter didn’t know about Samantha. Jody had quite a bit
of money and owned a large historical home.
Carter
thought that Leslie was going to inherit all of it. He didn’t mind if
Leslie took care of Jody, in fact, he insisted that she go there before and
after work. If he knew that there was someone else to split the
inheritance with, he would be very angry with Leslie, even though it wasn’t her
fault. Leslie was tired of being the recipient of his anger. When they
first married, she wasn’t aware of his violent temper or that he was a control
freak. She thought that the reason he watched her every move and told her
what to wear, who to be friends with, etc., was because he cared about her.
Her
parents had died when Leslie was ten. Her grandmother had taken her in and
raised her. Leslie loved Jody, but she had missed her parents, especially
her father terribly. That was one of the things that had attracted her to
Carter. He was several years older than she was. He owned his own
business, home and he was very settled and mature for a man in his early
thirties.
The first
time she did something he didn’t approve of they had been married for a year.
He had backhanded her and bruised her cheek so badly that she had to wear
pancake makeup for over a week. It took her while to figure out what set
him off, but over the years she had managed to get into his routine and kept
herself from getting hurt.
They were
getting close to the airport and Carter started droning out instructions to
her. She could recite what he was telling her in her sleep; but she
answered him in the way he liked for her to respond. No sense in getting him
upset. It was so close for time for her to leave; she could deal with him
for a few more minutes. He pulled up in front of the doors in the unloading
zone. Leslie got out and waited for him to open the trunk. She
handed him his garment bag, then pulled his suitcase out. He took the
handle from her. “I’ve got it from here. Get my car home and put
away. I will see you in a week.”
Without
any further words, he went inside the terminal and Leslie got in to drive his
car home. He had always told her that he would kill her if she left. When
she had celebrated her 55th birthday in January, Leslie had known that this
year was the year she had to leave. Living like this was killing her, and
she deserved a chance for happiness sometime in her life.
Buy Links:
Author Info
S.W. Frontz is the author of the
Land’s End Series, which includes: When the Morning Comes, Don’t Look Back, and
Closer Than Yesterday. S.W. is a native of Charlotte, NC but was raised
in East Tennessee, where she still resides with her husband, Rusty, of 21
years, and their furbaby, Mandy.
S.W. has been an avid reader
since a child. Her favorite genres are mystery, suspense, and Southern
humor. Favorite authors include John Sanford, Erica Spindler, Karen
Robards, Lee Childs, James Lee Burke, and Fannie Flagg.
S.W plans on continuing the
Land’s End Series, at least for a few more books. Book four is in the
first draft stage.
S.W. is a nominee for the 2017
Top Female Author and a member of the Southeastern Writer’s Association.
Author Links:
Presented by
No comments:
Post a Comment