by Lauren Dawes
To say she was tired was an understatement, but she couldn’t rest yet. She still had a few more things to bring in from the car.
“Avah?” Detective Smith sounded amused on the other end of the line.
“Chris, hi,” she said, slipping inside her apartment and nudging the door shut with her foot. “How are you?”
“Have I caught you at a bad time?”
Depositing the box of brightly colored bottles onto the small round dining table in the kitchen, she pushed back her hair and let out a breath. “No. I was just bringing in one of the boxes from the car.”
“Boxes? Going somewhere, Avah?”
“Gone,” she corrected. “Great Falls.”
“You got the job?”
She glanced around the fully-furnished apartment she’d somehow managed to find on short notice, a smile pulling at the corner of her mouth. “I didn’t actually, but they did offer me something just as good.”
“That’s great to hear.” He cleared his throat. “I take it with the move you won’t be interested in the missing girls cases then?”
“I’m interested,” she blurted out. “What have you got? How’s your colleague? Any news?”
There was a rustling of paper over the line, like he was leafing through a report. “Still nothing about Murphy’s niece, but I’ve been making some inquiries, hitting up my contacts around the country, and I found something interesting. There’s a report here from a woman about an attempted abduction.”
Avah lowered herself onto the arm of the powder blue sofa. “She was the victim?”
“No. The woman’s neighbor. She’d reported it after witnessing seeing a van pull up outside her neighbor’s house while the young woman who lived there was taking out the trash.”
Her fingers tightened, and her next words were barely a breath. “What happened to her?”
More pages flipping, then the soft tap, tap, tap of fingers on a keyboard. “According to the report, the young woman assaulted the man who attacked her and fled into the house. The man and the driver of the van escaped straight after.”
“Please tell me they got a look at the plate on the van.”
“Afraid not. Said it was blacked out.”
Avah rubbed at a small spot on her jeans, running her index finger along the unique shape. It looked like a paw print. “The local police are investigating?”
“They’ve looked into it, but the woman who was attacked refused to talk. I’d love to go there myself, but it’s out of my jurisdiction so…” He drifted off, letting Avah pick up the slack.
“It’s not out of my jurisdiction though, is it?”
He chuckled. “I guess not, no. You’re a journalist after all. Grace, Wyoming is only about six and a half hours from Great Falls.”
She bit her bottom lip, thinking it over. She only had about thirty hours until she started work on Monday. She could drive down to Grace, get an interview with the neighbor and the young woman, then be back in time.
Sucking in a breath, she let it go slowly. “I’ll let you know what I find out.”
Bonus Content
Need more of Neve and Drake?
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Get a FREE bonus scene deleted from the original manuscript here.
“Shadowed Lover” Playlist
1. Stitches - Shawn Mendes
2. Rare - Selena Gomez
3. Mirrors - Boyce Avenue
4. This Love - Camila Cabello
5. Issues - Julia Michaels
6. Mercy - Shawn Mendes
7. Fix You - Coldplay
8. Hand to Myself - Selena Gomez
9. Bohemian Rhapsody - Panic! At The Disco
10. 99 Problems - JAY-Z
11. Work It - Missy Elliot
12. …Ready For It - Taylor Swift
13. Bounce - Timbaland
14. Bleeding Love - Leona Lewis
15. Sway - Big Runga
16. Worse In Me - Julia Michaels
17. Say You Won’t Let Me Go - James Arthur
18. Physical - Dua Lipa
19. Shake It Off - Taylor Swift
20. U Know It’s Real - Ant Saunders
21. Past Life - Trevor Daniel
22. Cruel Intentions - Delacey, G-Eazy
23. Kitty Kay - Theia
24. RUNAWAY - REI AMI
25. New Way - Renforshort
26. Sometimes - H.E.R
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Listen here on Spotify
Still need more?
Check out the inspiration board on Pinterest, or find out more about the Revenant and the prides on my website.
Also by Lauren Dawes
The Half Blood Series
(Available on Kindle Unlimited)
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Half Blood
Half Truths
Half Life
Half Cast
Half Bound
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Half Blood Bundle (Books 1-3)
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Half Blood Novellas
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Hunter
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The Dark Trilogy
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Dark Deceit
Dark Desire
Dark Devotion
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Blood Bound Series
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Shadowed Lover (2020)
Shadowed Pain (2021)
Shadowed Past (2022)
Shadowed Lust (2023)
Shadowed Secrets (2024)
About the Author
Lauren Dawes is a USA Today Bestselling Author. She writes dark urban fantasy and paranormal romance and is the author of the Half Blood series, the Dark Trilogy and the Blood Bound Series. She likes her vampires dangerous, her shifters vicious and her Norse gods ruthless.
When she’s not writing, she’s reading, hanging with her young daughter or designing book covers. She currently lives in Canberra, Australia.
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Visit her at: www.authorlaurendawes.com
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