Title: Fatal Stand
Author: Michelle Godard-Richer
Genre: Psychological Thriller
Publisher: The Wild Rose Press
Book Blurb:
Two years earlier, Jessica witnesses a serial killer, David, in action, and becomes his next target. With help from Jon, a former FBI agent, she manages to survive his murderous wrath and believes him dead.
On the day of their daughter’s birth, Jessica and Jon learn David is alive and plans to come after them again. Running with a newborn daughter and a nine-year-old son isn’t an option. Instead, they fortify their homestead with high fences and a sophisticated security system, preparing to make a final stand.
Despite being surrounded by allies, Jessica struggles to care for her newborn under the strain of their living situation. Alone in the night, she sees and hears things the cameras don’t capture. She questions her sanity but refuses to break, determined to protect her family from the monster of her nightmares—David.
David can’t forgive Jessica, and he can’t move on. Instead, time fuels his obsessive need for revenge. With a new identity and a surgically altered face, they’ll never see him coming.
Excerpt:
Later that night, Jessica’s eyes flew open, struggling to adjust to the dark as the hair prickled on the back of her neck. She scrambled out of bed and picked up her phone from the nightstand. Three in the morning, and Cassie wasn’t making a peep.
What had woken her and set her on alert?
The kids.
She rushed into the hallway and pushed open Bryce’s door. His chest rose and fell in sleep. Jessica stepped over the toy cars he’d left on his floor and peered out his window. Hay stalks swayed in the field that was otherwise empty. No creepy man. Maybe the memory of the last time Jon was away during the night had weighed on her subconscious mind.
Jessica left Bryce’s room, shutting the door behind her, and stepped across the hall. The door stood open a crack from when Cassie had woken an hour earlier to feed. She peered inside and smiled at the calm expression on her baby’s sleeping face.
Satisfied all was right with her world, Jessica went back to bed. With any luck, she’d catch another few hours of sleep before Cassie woke again. She curled her arm under her pillow and shut her eyes.
“Jessica,” a male voice whispered.
She leaped out of the bed and searched the dark corners of her room. Nothing.
“I see you, Jessica.” The same spine-chilling whisper came from the baby monitor.
Her ears rang and her pulse raced. Cassie! Jesus!
She yanked open the drawer of her bedside table. Her clammy hand slipped on the grip of her revolver. She wiped her hand on her pajama bottoms, picked up the gun, and ran into the hallway.
With her bare foot, she pushed open the nursery door, and with the gun poised to shoot in front of her, she dashed inside. She swept the room fast, the way Jon had taught her. No one. But she still needed to check the closet. Steeling herself, she crossed the room. The closet door creaked as she tugged it open. Nothing except Cassie’s baby clothes.
Bryce!
She shut the door to the nursery, then swung open Bryce’s door, and charged inside, gun at the ready. No one except Bryce, still fast asleep. Her foot landed on one of his toy cars, the metal pressing into the sensitive skin covering the ball of her foot. Resisting the urge to cry out, she swung open the closet. She shifted his clothes around. Thankfully, no one hid behind them.
Jessica took a deep breath to slow the tremors in her hands. The kids were safe. What next?
She stood in the hallway between the two rooms, heart in her throat, and forced her brain to work. Two receivers came with the baby monitor. One sat on her bedside table and the other was on the kitchen counter. That made sense for an intruder because the back door was in the kitchen.
She didn’t want to leave her children. But with no one in her room or the kids’ rooms, the intruder couldn’t be behind them. The only room between her and the kitchen at the opposite end of the hallway was the main bathroom.
Jessica could scream for Trent and Cynthia, but they were in the spare room on the opposite side of the kitchen. Besides, if someone waited in the kitchen with Trent and Cynthia unaware, they could walk into a trap.
With the gun steady in her grip, Jessica scurried the few feet down the hallway to the door of the bathroom. The door stood ajar. From the hallway, the shower stall and toilet were visible in the mirror hanging over the vanity. Again, no one.
Saliva pooled in her mouth, and she swallowed it around a lump in her throat. Oh, God. Now the kitchen.
She plastered her back to the wall and sidestepped along the hallway toward the kitchen. Luckily, the carpet muted the sounds of her movement. Steeling her nerves for whatever was to come, she stepped around the corner with the revolver raised.
The kitchen was also unoccupied, and the baby monitor sat where she’d left it beside the coffee maker. With the open floor plan, she could see into the living and dining areas, and they were also clear. If the voice didn’t come from either receiver or Cassie’s nursery, then where the heck had it come from?
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Author Biography:
Michelle Godard-Richer is a multi-award-winning and Amazon bestselling author of eight books, including Into The Fog and The Fatal Series. She also has an Honours Degree in Criminology from the University of Ottawa and was named Best Canada Author of the Year by N.N. Light’s Book Heaven.
Her fascination with crime and human behavior, combined with a lifelong passion for the written word, led her to realize a childhood dream of becoming an author. She enjoys crafting strong protagonists and diabolical villains with realistic and believable characteristics while making their lives as complicated and dangerous as possible.
When she isn’t writing, you’ll find her in the garden or with her nose in a book. She lives in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains in Alberta with her husband, two children, four dogs, and a cat.
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