High-Stakes Homecoming
Willa North couldn't forget her first love–or what really happened to tear them apart.All she wants now is to hold on to her home, provide for her daughter and not get hurt again. Now Penn Ramsey's back in town, and a sudden storm throws them together in the isolated farmhouse that they both claim to have inherited. While the storm rages, more danger lurks outside in a series of suspicious–and deadly–accidents.They're forced to band together to keep themselves and Willa's daughter alive. But how can they fight the mysterious threat–and reignite the heat that blazes between them–if they can't let go of the pain of the past?
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He took her by surprise when he reached out and tucked a finger under her chin, looked at her steady in the eyes.
Her breath caught and she couldnât move.
âI came all the way from the big city and have to tell you to relax, Willa?â he said quietly.
She didnât know what to say. Obviously he could tell she was tense and nervous and on edge. Admitting he was what was making her so tense and nervous and on edge wouldnât help matters, either.
âYouâre about to get offended now, arenât you?â he said. He let his hand drop.
He wasnât touching her anymore, and damn, sheâd liked it. Just that teeny, tender touch. Sheâd liked it.
She swallowed hard. âNo.â
âAll right,â he said, his voice still soft. âThen Iâm making progress, arenât I?â
âProgress to what?â she blurted out. Not a question she should really be asking, but there it was. She wanted to know the answer.
Dear Reader,
Something supernatural this way comesâ¦. Anything can happen in one tiny West Virginia mountain town where an earthquake triggered positive ions and a wave of paranormal activity. In High-Stakes Homecoming, Penn Ramsey comes home to Haven to claim the old family farmâ¦only someone else has already claimed itâand sheâs one tough competitor in this battle of opposing wills. Willa North is also the love that broke his heart, and soon theyâre mysteriously trapped in the old farmhouse together. Is the house enchanted, or is someone with a secret agenda terrorizing them both? Only by discovering the truth can they hope to surviveâ¦. and claim the happiness together that is their true inheritance.
This book, in part, as are all the HAVEN books, is based on my own farm in the hills of West Virginiaâthough I hope nothing this scary ever happens here! Itâs far, far more fun to simply imagine, and I hope youâll come with me as you open the pages of this book.
Romantic, chilling and otherworldlyâ¦welcome back to Haven, WV!
Love,
Suzanne McMinn
SUZANNE McMINN
lives by a lake in North Carolina with her husband and three kids, plus a bunch of dogs, cats and ducks. Visit her Web site at www.SuzanneMcMinn.com to learn more about her books, newsletter and contests. Check out www.paxleague.com for news, info and fun bonus features connected to her PAX League series about paranormal super agents!
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Epilogue
Chapter 1
Coming back to West Virginia would be a big mistake.
The anonymous text message heâd received on his cell phone just that morning came back into Penn Ramseyâs mind at the exact moment he slammed on his brakes, barely avoiding a six-point buck leaping across the rough, rock-based road, and just as barely avoiding a skid off a sheer, thirty-foot drop in the process. The haunting backcountry, with its thick, wild woods and narrow, twisting byways, was as unforgiving as it was forbidding. Rookie mistake, swerving to spare a deerâs life, when the maneuver could cost your own.
Yeah, coming home was a mistake. He couldnât argue with that one.
He stared at the buck, where it had stopped frozen in his high beams. A tight beat passed, and then the animal turned, bounded madly up the opposite bank, and disappeared. Penn wondered again who would have sent him that cryptic message, a message that was either a mysterious note of concern or a sinister and veiled threat. He couldnât come up with an answer now, any more than he could while heâd been sitting on the plane.
Penn waited an impatient beat to make sure Bambi didnât have company. Despite his mistake, he had grown up in the country, and where there was one deer, there was often another. When none appeared, he pressed the gas. The rented Land Rover bounced on the rugged road. It was just starting to rain, and fog slid phantom fingers across the narrow lane as he came around the next bend.
New York Cityâs blinking neon, blaring horns, and skyscraping buildings seemed a planet away. The countryside outside Haven, West Virginia, was as he remembered from his childhood, some kind of lushly-forested alternate universe, filled with memories and ghosts, overgrown hills and meadowsâand quiet. Way too much quiet.
Quiet in which to remember, reflect; to once again experience guilt.
The fog cleared and he spied a porch light down below the road, saw the mailbox with its cheap, stick-on gold numbers and letters flash in his headlights. The box leaned over as if it had been run into one too many times, but the address remainedâ2489 Laurel Run Road.
He was four miles from Limberlost Farm, he knew that now. He knew that because he knew exactly how far it was from the old family place to 2489 Laurel Run.
A big, old black walnut tree stood in a curve two miles up, halfway between Limberlost and that house on Laurel Run. The sweet spot. He and pretty Willa used to meet there when he was young and dumb and full ofâ¦
