Shelter In The Tropics
She's got nowhere left to runAfter a year of searching, ex-marine turned private eye Tack Reeves has finally located Cate Allen. She’s traded in her high heels for flip-flops but Tack would recognize the stunning beauty anywhere. He just needs proof. Posing as a tourist at her Caribbean resort is the perfect cover. Except that the closer Tack gets to Cate the less his case makes sense…and their intense attraction is only fueling the confusion. When he learns that the mom and her four-year-old son are hiding from her abusive ex, he vows to protect them. But Cate may not let him when she learns why he's on the island…
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Sheâs got nowhere left to run
After a year of searching, ex-marine turned private eye Tack Reeves has finally located Cate Allen. Sheâs traded in her high heels for flip-flops but Tack would recognize the stunning beauty anywhere. He just needs proof. Posing as a tourist at her Caribbean resort is the perfect cover. Except that the closer Tack gets to Cate, the less his case makes sense...and their intense attraction is only fueling the confusion. When he learns that the mom and her four-year-old son are hiding from her abusive ex, he vows to protect them. But Cate may not let him when she learns why heâs on the island...
âCate. Cate Dalton, St. Anthonyâs Resort,â she said, not missing a beat.
The lie came out of her mouth smooth as silk.
Cate. The woman hadnât even changed her first name. Now it all seemed so obvious, but before, when heâd been rummaging through hundreds of records, he never wouldâve guessed sheâd done something so careless. Everything else, every bit of her trail, had been so carefully scrubbed. Sheâd left hardly any clues. But sheâd kept her first name.
He wanted to know why.
A tiny little scar barely the length of a nickel ran across her chin. It hadnât been in the photographs heâd pored over, and he wondered what it was from.
âWe spoke on the phone,â she said. âThis is your first time to the Caribbean?â
âThatâs right.â
He could lie, too. No need to tell her heâd been hopping from island to island for the last four months, on one goose chase after another, starting to wonder if he needed to rethink his new career as a private eye.
Iâm excited to share with you my new book, Shelter in the Tropics, a story about two people running from their pasts and desperately hoping for a fresh start. It takes place on a Caribbean island I created, St. Anthonyâs, after the patron saint of lost things.
I loved the idea of a place where people who might be lost in different ways come to find themselvesâand each other. This is the first story I wrote on this island, and I hope it wonât be the last!
Cate has fled an abusive relationship with her child, hoping to hide from her very powerful and very rich ex-husband, who will stop at nothing to get her and his son back. Tack Reeves, riddled by guilt from his service in Afghanistan and haunted by a dishonorable discharge, is a private eye hired by Cateâs ex.
Except Tack discovers very quickly that his own redemption might come by protecting Cate from the man who wants to destroy her.
Together, Cate and Tack must learn to face the demons of their pasts and move on. Together, theyâll find the strength to do it on this very special island.
I think life can be complicated and we all deserve second chances. Sometimes, the hardest thing to do is to forgive ourselves for mistakes weâve made, but with love and patience, I believe we can do it. I hope you enjoy this book and St. Anthonyâs Island.
Hereâs to the restorative power of Caribbean sunshine, love and forgiveness!
All my best,
Cara
CARA LOCKWOOD is the USA TODAY bestselling author of more than fourteen books, including I Do (But I Donât), which was made into a Lifetime Original Movie. Sheâs written the Bard Academy series for young adults and has had her work translated into several languages around the world. Born and raised in Dallas, Cara now lives near Chicago with her two wonderful daughters. Find out more about her at caralockwood.com, friend her on Facebook, www.Facebook.com/authorcaralockwood, or follow her on Twitter, @caralockwood.
Dedicated to my daughters, who challenge me to be my best self.
Contents
St. Anthonyâs Island, the Caribbean Sea
WELCOME TO THE Island of Lost Causes.
Tack Reeves couldnât help but shake his head at the sign that greeted him at St. Anthonyâs baggage claim. Looking around at the crowd of tourists in T-shirts and flip-flops, nothing seemed very lost about this tiny Caribbean airport. He grabbed his old faded olive green seabag from the ground near his feet and moved with the tourists, though his jeans and plain black T-shirt looked out of place in the sea of neon around him. People herded together like this reminded him of the markets in Kabul, Afghanistan, where it was impossible to tell the citizens in the crowd from the insurgents. He felt that old familiar steel ball of unease at the center of his stomach.
One redhead wearing too-high platform sandals bumped into him, making him flinch. She looked up, smiling sheepishly as she apologized for the accidental contact. The old Tack, the one before his sixth deployment, wouldâve found time to talk to the twentysomething in the barely there sundress. Maybe even had the clothes off that fit little body before sheâd managed to get her first tan lines. But those carefree days were long gone.
