Prologue
Monterey Bay, California 1997
The past, figuratively, had been stooping over Gabriela Martinez’s shoulder all morning long. Now it rode copilot on the drive home, laughing like a psychotic macaw at her feeble attempts to staunch the memories. Hell. It was not as if this battle was new. For four years, Gabriela had been sparring with her past and its mockery, its unexpected hounding, its inconvenient ambushes, and its vicious pouncing with a relentless force of will.
It was harassment, plain and simple, implacable, the transformative memories slithering unbidden into her consciousness: a soft caress that made her tremble, gray eyes that bored into her soul, arms that held softly or protected, and, oh God, lips that made her feel things she had never felt in all her married life.
That’s because it wasn’t your husband who made you feel them, her past snickered. Well, hell. Score.
Past: one. Gabriela: zero. She rammed the clutch. She really needed to snap out of this self-pity buffet she was dishing out today. With a practiced move, Gabriela downshifted to second and the BMW sedan slowed on cue.
She veered southbound onto the last leg of her journey home, grateful she was only a few miles away. Focus, she ordered. Time to snap out of my-life-is-just-a-smorgasbord-of-misery crap. Today, she didn’t have time for self-pity or memory lane flashbacks. Now that her meeting with her manager, Jean-Louis, about the upcoming auction was over, she had a nightmare of scheduling to organize.
There was no time for the past and her thoughts. The better and more efficient undertaking was to keep the gear in second, give her brakes some respite, and focus on this downward gradient of road, which had more twists than a pretzel.
The Book of Hours Description:
1997. For artist Gabriela Martinez, psychopaths do hit twice.
After catching a glimpse of Gabriela’s new work, The Book of Hours, Arnold Wickeham has been like a man possessed. Now, he will do anything—anything—in order to claim it, and nothing, especially not Gabriela, will stand in his way. Richard Harrison has never given up his true love, Gabriela. Now someone new is threatening her life, and he will risk everything to protect her.
But the stakes are now higher, and there is much more to lose. And, if he doesn’t stay one step ahead of the danger, her life, but especially, their future, may very well go up in flames. In The Coin, Gabriela and Richard were cruelly used by fate—and destiny isn’t done. In the shadow of this new threat, their choices may not just save their lives, but also their love.
