From Sourcebooks Casablanca
Saving Mercy by Abbie Roads
Fatal Truth, #1
First in a chilling new paranormal romantic suspense series from award-winning author Abbie Roads
He's found her at last
Cain Killion knows himself to be a damaged man, his only saving grace the extrasensory connection to blood that he uses to catch murderers. His latest case takes a macabre turn when he discovers a familiar and haunting symbol linking the crime to his own horrific past-and only one woman could know what it means.
Only to lose her to a nightmare
Mercy Ledger is brave, resilient, beautiful-and in terrible danger. The moment he sees Mercy, Cain knows he's the one who can save her. He also knows he's beyond redemption. But the lines between good and evil blur and the only thing clear to Cain and Mercy is that they belong together. Love is the antidote for blood-but is their bond strong enough to overcome the evil that stalks them?
He
stepped out of the shower, nabbed a towel and dried himself as he walked into
the bedroom.
And
nearly ran into her.
A
towel—a mere piece of cloth—wrapped her body, the edge of it tucked in just
above the swell of her left breast. Her skin shone pink from her bath and her
hair hung in a tangled wet mess over her shoulders. She’d never looked quite so
lovely.
When she
didn’t say anything he forced his gaze to rise above the towel to her face. Her
eyes were aimed downward, toward his—
“Fuck.”
He’d been standing there just holding the towel in his hand, not even thinking
to hide the log—that hadn’t gone away—jutting straight out from his body. He
slapped the towel over his dick, nearly decapitating it.
“I was…”
She swallowed and looked at him. “…looking for something to wear. I didn’t want
to interrupt you.”
She
wanted something to wear? His ears heard the words, but all his brain could
focus on how easy it would be to get that towel off her. She didn’t need to
wear anything.
“Cain?”
Alarm sounded in her voice. Her eyes widened.
He took
a step back, ass-smacked into the edge of the bathroom door.
“You’re
bleeding.”
It
wasn’t her words, but the concern in her voice that knocked him out of the
stupor he’d been in. He glanced down at himself. A rivulet of blood ran down
his chest from the gunshot wound high up on his shoulder.
She
moved closer to him. He couldn’t move away. All he could do was press his ass
harder into the wall.
With
steady hands, she unhooked the secure edge of her towel, let it swing from one
hand in front of her. He caught a glimpse of pink breast and pale thigh, before
he clamped his eyes shut. But he’d seen enough. His dick went granite. The
unrequited longing painful. He smothered a groan.
She
pressed her towel low on his abdomen, so low her hand brushed his—the one
covering himself with a towel. His dick leaped, strained for her touch.
She
raised the material, stroking up his skin, higher and higher—until she gently
pressed it to his wound. “You want me?” Her voice was thick and husky as if she
were having a hard time talking.
He
forgot how to speak, but his body remembered the universal sign for yes. He
nodded. Or at least he tried to. Maybe he was having a stroke or something
because suddenly he felt paralyzed. And confused.
“Open
your eyes. Look at me.”
Disobedience
didn’t exist. He opened his eyes. She looked at his hand trying to cover his
erection, then met his gaze. “I can tell. I just thought I’d ask.” A sweet
smile—shy as a spring sunrise, and stunning as summer sunset settled on her
lips.
She
peeked under the towel on his shoulder and he peeked at her body.
Glorious.
Long slender muscles and bones. Her breasts weren’t large, instead they were
perfect with peach colored nipples he longed to taste. The only imperfections—the
fading green bruise on her ribs and the filigreed cross scarred into the flesh
over her heart.
He
pointed at the cross. Jesus. What was wrong with him? He’d forgotten how to use
words.
She
glanced down at herself and then settled her hand over the raised flesh as if
to pledge her allegiance. “It’s to protect me. I know it sounds weird, but I
felt that if I had this symbol carved into my body I’d be safe from the demons
in the world.”
She
grabbed his free hand and placed it over the scar. The coolness of the damaged
flesh imprinted on his palm. She tugged at his other hand—the one covering
himself with the towel. No way could he deny her. The material fell from his
fingers and she guided his other hand up to the puckered ring around her throat—where
his father had cut her neck—and settled it on that scar as well.
A jolt, almost a shudder ran
through him at the dual connection. He melted in to her. Merged with her.
Became a part of her. Somehow touching those places was more intimate than anything
they could do sexually. She had given him her greatest gift. Her vulnerability
and trust.
Dark and with a heavy doze of blood, this one boarders between horror and suspense yet it is the fated romance that captured my mind and spirit.
Serial killers are not my normal fare but I've enjoyed this authors suspense so I dug right in and I fell immediately for Cain. He blames himself for who he has become and every bad thing that happens. He has reasons for this. His father is a convicted serial killer and set Cain on that same path. Yet Cain is not that. He is something else altogether. He struggles through the bad to be the good. Others see it in him but he can only see the monster his father created. And he can't let others in. But the love of a few has the power to safe him.
Mercy deserves her name. The survivor of Killion's attempts to destroy her family, Mercy is just trying to survive the center. Accused of going insane, she has been locked up and tortured. When she's freed, the puzzle begins to take shape. And what a puzzle it is.
The story dances among pieces that feel disjointed and unconnected but all is not as it seems. And all the while, Cain and Mercy are thrown together to discover they complete each other. They need each other. Of course, neither will risk the other so it's not that simple. But as the danger increases and lives are on the line, who will sacrifice who to survive?
This is the kind of book that cannot sit unread. Once you start, you must know the secrets the story holds. And while you watch the story unfold, you hope and you worry. I only pieced it together near the end and the picture this story paints is not what anyone would expect. I was satisfied. Content. Excited to read book two and what I hope will be...yes, but I can't tell you that.
When your stories need more than romance...a little paranormal...a lot of danger...a lot of uncertainty...then this author, this book is where you should look.
Abbie Roads is a mental health counselor known for her blunt, honest style of therapy. By night she writes dark, emotional novels always giving her characters the happy ending she wishes for all her clients. SAVING MERCY is the first book in her new Fatal Truth Series of dark, gritty, romantic suspense with a psychological twist.
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