Fear of Flames

By day, Michelle Holdcraft is the quiet woman-next-door in small-town Indiana. But by night, she's D. Valentine, a bestselling thriller author with a mind for murder and secrets. Her real life? Completely ordinary. Until one unplanned trip to visit her estranged father in Iron Falls, Massachusetts, flips everything upside down.

She wakes to a gunshot only to find her father's body in a pool of blood on the first floor and flames engulfing the walls. She barely escapes the burning house. Fleeing barefoot into the snow, Michelle becomes the only witness to a crime that no one in Iron Falls wants solved. Especially the sheriff.

Hiding in the snowy pines as she watches her father's home burn, Michelle doesn't know what to do, until a mysterious man appears, offering to help her—to save her life.

Michelle has never met Fletch—surely, she would remember this handsome and dangerous man if she had. However, Fletch knew her father and knows a lot about her, including her alter ego and her mother's mysterious death.

With limited options, Michelle accepts Fletch's help. It isn't until she sees the large tattoo across his wide shoulder blades that she is shaken to the core. Michelle has seen that exact tattoo before—on her father.

Fletch might be her only ally . . . but he is hiding something. Somehow, her life has become one of her thrillers. This time, the heroine doesn't get to write the final page. The story's out of her hands—and the ending might just kill her. Have you been Aleatha'd?

Contains mature themes.