Since Second Chance is the first book in my new Lake Placid Series, with a whole new cast of characters, I decided to do things a bit differently.  I’m going to post the prologue today and release a few chapters (starting in November) on my blog as teasers of what is to come.

Hope you enjoy this new series!

Prologue

Eighteen tomorrow. Her eighteenth birthday. Freedom. Or so she’d always thought, even hoped. Only it wasn’t to be.

She needed to get away.

Away from this house and this godforsaken city. Away from everything that was holding her back, suffocating her…threatening her.

Dreams of going away to college were gone. She was smart, but not smart enough for a full scholarship, which was the only way she could leave.

Her mother wouldn’t co-sign any loans for her. No, that was wrong; her mother couldn’t co-sign any loans for her.

Mallory could only go where her stepfather was willing to send her. And that meant the community college close to home. Still living at home.

She was stuck.

Sitting down on the bench in the backyard, she looked up at the moon, pondering her next move. She couldn’t stay here after tomorrow. If she did, she knew what would happen and she’d rather die than go through that.

How could she leave though? Where would she go? She didn’t have any money, so she didn’t have a way out.  Desperation was a horrible feeling.

She heard a rustling to the right and turned her head but didn’t see anyone.

Her nose was running now. She hadn’t even been aware she was crying, but she was. There was no holding back the tears anymore. She had nowhere to turn, nowhere to go.

“Mallory?” she heard whispered, and looked back to the right, recognizing the voice. “Go pack your bags.”

“What? What do you mean?”

“I can help you, but time is limited. I can get you away. I can take you from here and you’ll be safe. I promise.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

No one knew what was going on in her life. No one. She’d never uttered a word.

“We can stand here and argue, or you can run to your room and take everything you can stuff in a bag. I’ll provide the rest. Your choice.”

Mallory gulped. There was no choice, she knew that. Run or stay. Staying was a worse fate than running, so she had nothing to lose. “When?”

“Tonight. Go to your room, pack what you think you need, and meet me back here at midnight.”

“Midnight?”

“You know why it has to be midnight. For your protection and mine.”

She did know why. She’d be eighteen, not a minor anymore. Nodding her head, she said, “I’ll be here.”

She had to be. It was her only way out.

Second Chance is up for Pre-Order right now!