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eBook Category: Erotica/Suspense/Thriller
eBook Description: After a devastating hit-and-run accident, Taylor Cole emerges from a coma to find her life completely changed. She's lost everything--her job, her boyfriend, and most importantly her peace of mind. Every night she finds herself being stalked--in her dreams. Now she's forced to work side by side with the hotter than sin homicide detective in charge of the case, Cade Wills, who doesn't believe a word she says.... Rating: Contains adult language, sexual content, and violence.

eBook Publisher: New Concepts Publishing, Published: 2005
Fictionwise Release Date: January 2006

20 Reader Ratings: Great Good OK Poor

Available eBook Formats [MultiFormat - What's this?]: Adobe Acrobat (PDF) [915 KB], eReader (PDB) [181 KB], Palm Doc (PDB) [172 KB], Rocket/REB1100 (RB) [153 KB], Microsoft Reader (LIT) [159 KB] - PocketPC 1.0+ Compatible, Franklin eBookMan (FUB) [201 KB], hiebook (KML) [431 KB], Sony Reader (LRF) [234 KB], iSilo (PDB) [142 KB], Mobipocket (PRC) [177 KB], Kindle Compatible (MOBI) [216 KB], OEBFF Format (IMP) [225 KB]
Words: 55753
Reading time: 159-223 min.
Microsoft Reader (LIT) Format: Printing DISABLED, Read-Aloud ENABLED
Adobe Acrobat (PDF) Format:  Printing DISABLED, Read-Aloud ENABLED
All Other formats: Printing DISABLED, Read-aloud DISABLED
ISBN: 1-58608-761-4

She felt his hot breath sticky on her neck, smelled the rancid stench emanating from him. Her skin crawled as his hands slid over her body. Nausea rolled through her belly.

"Take anything you want, just please don't hurt me." She whispered her plea, forcing the words over the terror, but he made no sign that he heard her. Bending down, he trailed his tongue from her jawbone up her right cheek to the tear at the corner of her tightly squeezed eye.

The knife in his hand glistened overhead. It was too late to scream. He plunged the knife deep into her chest, piercing her lung and making it impossible for her to cry out for help. She felt the life drain from her body.

Soon she floated high above the man, staring down at the beautiful face of a woman, a face that wasn't the one she saw in the mirror every day.

Taylor wanted to scream, to run from the scene before her, but she knew it was impossible. The only way out was to go forward. To focus on what her eyes were seeing. To find some detail to help nail this piece of scum. She watched in horror as he drew the knife out of the woman's body and wiped the blood down the length of her torso. Taylor cringed in horror.

"Take the mask off and let me see your face, you lunatic!"

Willing him to listen, to hear her, she yelled again. This time louder. Anger and fear seared through her at the wasted effort. It was useless, he couldn't hear her. She really didn't know how much more of this she could take.

The killer untied his victim's hands from the headboard and placed them over the bloody pool marring her chest. Taking a single red rose out of his sweatshirt pocket, he threaded it through her limp fingers.

Taylor wanted this sick maniac behind bars, so she tried to burn into her memory everything she could. His blurred image gave her the impression that he was around six feet tall, maybe two hundred and fifty pounds, and dressed completely in black from his black ski mask to his leather gloves. He seemed like an angel of death. For all that this vision showed Taylor, it still wasn't enough to go on. It wasn't enough to catch him before he killed again.

The freak always whispered, making it hard to pinpoint an accent or speech impediment, anything to give the police a lead. No fingerprints were ever found and since he didn't rape his victims, no DNA samples were found either. He was meticulous, a murderer prepared for anything, and Taylor was at a loss as to what to do next. Fear settled like a lead brick in the bottom of her stomach. She couldn't shake the feeling that she recognized this victim.

Leaning over his victim, he whispered in the young woman's ear, "Sweet Evita, you were too lovely for this world to bear. Please forgive me."

It was always the same thing. He always said they were too lovely for this world to bear. He always asked for forgiveness. What did it mean? If only she could figure it out so no one else would have to die.

He rose from the bedside and began to look around the room. This was different. Had he dropped something? He turned and looked up at Taylor. Usually he disappeared into the night without a trace. This time though, he stood and stared right at her. He couldn't hear her and had never acknowledged that he was aware of her presence in any way. But now he was looking right at her. Can he see me? Taylor felt a chill run through her as the thought took hold.

He reached out a gloved hand towards her just as a loud bang pulled her from her dream, followed by the smooth, silky voice of her sister Lana calling out her name.

She jerked awake and stared into the worried eyes of her sister, brown, soulful eyes that were filled with fear. "It happened again, didn't it?" Lana placed a cold rag on her forehead. "He struck again?"

Taylor nodded. Tears were streaming down her cheeks at the thought that another woman's life had ended because this lunatic was still free. She hadn't asked for these visions, and most days she sure wished that whoever gave them to her would take them back.

Taylor allowed herself to be wrapped up in the loving arms of her older sister. These dreams took so much out of her. Ever since this crazy person had started killing young women, Taylor's life had been plagued with nightmares of terror and death.

Taylor found control again, her sobbing subsiding enough for Lana to release her and grab a pad and pen from the end table. Lana made herself comfortable on the matching sofa across from the tan leather recliner Taylor huddled in.

"Okay, give it to me straight. What happened this time, did you see any clues as to who this guy could be?" Lana seemed to wait with bated breath, her pen poised over the pad of paper.

Taylor pulled in a deep cleansing breath, squared her shoulders, and recited every detail she could recall about the scene that had played out before her, even mentioning that she had a fleeting notion that she might know the young lady. Her voice came out as a monotone, as if she were reading the instructions to setting up a stereo system. She left out the part about the killer noticing her there, reaching for her. Taylor needed to mull over those details before scaring her big sister. What could it all mean?

"Taylor ... Taylor, are you okay?" Her sister's strained voice floated through the air.

What she wouldn't give for a full night's rest. With no nightmares.

Dragging her hands through her tangled, mousy brown curls, Taylor blew out an exasperated breath. "I'm fine. I just, well, to tell the truth I'm exhausted. Even the sleeping pills don't stop the dreams long enough anymore." She met her sister's worried gaze.

Lana gave a quick nod and stated encouragingly, "We'll beat it, sis. We'll figure it out, and then you can sleep for a week if you want. I promise."

Taylor barely managed to smile at her sister's attempts to help. She knew it was a promise that couldn't be kept. If not this crime, it would be something else. She wondered exactly how long it would take for her to go as crazy as the criminals in her visions. A few more months of little to no sleep ought to do it.

Her life had been normal up until eight months ago when a hit-and-run accident left her in a coma for two weeks. Before that, she'd had a boyfriend and friends who considered her one of the sanest people they knew. Now she was the crazy woman in apartment 2B.

Her boyfriend, Tommy, deserted her a month after she came out of the coma when she first started having these "dreams."

The vividness of the visions frightened Taylor at first, but the dreams were harmless, just brutal to her peace of mind. They were haunting images of a girl being abducted from a playground or of vicious pit bulls mauling an older woman out for an evening jog.

When the newspapers later depicted exactly what she saw in her visions, she approached the police with what she knew. They, of course, had looked at her like she had grown a second head on her shoulders. That was when Tommy said he "needed some alone time, but he still wanted to be friends." Yeah, that had happened! He took off for parts unknown and didn't even bother leaving a forwarding address.

Gradually, the police began to believe her. They even came to her for information she might have concerning any other crimes. She'd been proud to assist in bringing two young girls home safe after being kidnapped from the school bus stop.

The police agreed never to mention her involvement to the families or reporters. Taylor didn't want to be labeled a head case, but something obviously leaked out to her neighbors, because they avoided her like the plague.

Even Lana had thought her a little crazy at first, but eventually she came around. They'd only had each other since their parents' death. If not for Lana, Taylor didn't know if she would have made it through these last few months.