Adirondack Chairs Nearby

"Did you kill him?" The detective asked again."I've already answered you like a thousand times... Yes, he was a monster. Yes, he beat me up a lot but I didn't do it. I didn't kill Jude!" Amanda replied."I'm sorry. I know what it's like to be a victim of abuse and all that, but you need to understand that murder is a serious case too. You'll have to forgive us for asking you continually it's just that you were the closest to him we've got here.""I wasn't. There was someone else he was seeing that knew a lot about him than I ever did," Amanda replied.*******The night was growing colder and the rains seemed to have agitated in full force. Amanda sat on one of the soft leather chairs that squeaked with her every move in the living room with tears in her eyes as she watched the rains drop on the floor forming small pools and waited for Jude to come back. She was worried sick about his whereabouts even though all his presence caused her were pain and more tears. The protruding bump on her stomach, made it quite difficult to move around at ease so she was stuck with calling his busied line while she watched the clock tick its way into the midnight mark.*****A heart rending story told differently. Stronger than Pain captures a dysfunctional Nigerian home where a callous man, beats his wife on a daily basis. Time flies and now he is dead. All the characters have a reason to kill him, but she's their number one suspect. The Question still remains, who pulled the trigger?

Arianna Reynolds, second year med school student of King's University attracts the hottest player to ever exsist in the city of London, Damon King, who practices his internal training for cardiology. She was betwichingly gorgeous, and alluringly innocent. A perfect angel with good grades and a little devil who loves chaos. Damon King, the most arrogant badboy and the most cruel heartbreaker. His world toppled when she entered all in her glory as his junior. She excited him, and challenged him when she acted blind to his charms. His excitement turned to anger when she punched him. He was evrything she hated in a guy. Nonetheless, she found him slowly changing for her. Her brown orbs always seemed to tempt his heart with whirlpool of exotic emotions and he was sucked into it when ever she locked his gaze with him. ------------- "You are mine Ria," he yelled slamming her onto the nearby locker. "No," she deadpanned with annoyance. "I love you," he confessed nearning her petite figure, invading her personal space. Her breath clogged for a second as she was stunned with his confession. Her eyes hardened again when she said," No, you wanna play with me." Pushing him back lightly she looked away. "I need you Ria, trust me. It's no sick game of mine. I am had over heels for you. Please, just give me a chance," he begged her with moist eyes, closing the distance again. Her stance grew guarded as the cruel heart breaker was confessing with vehement emotions stirring in his eyes. "Prove that your intentions are true," she said pushing him back from her personal space. Leaving him drown in her thoughts, she walked away from him. "You are mine Ria. I will prove myself worthy of your love. You belong only to me," he promised to himself watching her retreating figure.

I stepped closer. Close enough to smell his cologne—cedarwood, leather, and power. My hand moved. Smooth, practiced. The pistol slide from under the apron into my palm. I raised it fast. But before I could pull the trigger— BANG. Not my shot. A scream tore through the restaurant as another man launched himself toward Romano’s table, blade flashing. Another assassin. What the hell— Romano didn’t flinch. He shoved the table forward, knocking the attacker off balance. The blade scraped across wood, not skin. I ducked instinctively as the room erupted into chaos. Gunfire cracked. Glass exploded. People screamed and dove for cover. “Get him out—NOW!” one of the guards barked. I aimed for the second attacker. Didn’t even hesitate. One shot—head. Gone. The guard saw me. Confusion flashed in his eyes. Then rage. I ran. I weaved between overturned chairs, plates, and screaming bodies. The smell of blood was real now, thick in the air. One of the guards grabbed me. I slammed my elbow into his ribs, twisted, and brought the butt of my gun down on his skull. He dropped like a sack of bricks. Out. I had to get out. My boots pounded the floor as I tore through the narrow hallway. But then— “Elisa.” His voice stopped me cold. I turned. Antonio Romano stood in the middle of the carnage, suit untouched, blood spattered behind him like art. His eyes were on me. And he was smiling. It was darker. Slower. Like a hunter seeing something worth chasing. Somehow, he knew who I was. “Interesting,” he said softly, tilting his head. “They sent you.” I didn’t answer. I ran. But that voice followed me. He knew my name. And he let me go. This wasn’t over. It had just begun.

With the chaos that happened, Nathalia's grave was not finished. It was half filled. Wasted flowers scented the grounds. Shovels lie useless. Chairs scrambled in the area. A forlorn sight for the most feared woman in the society. As the rest of the people squandered for their lives, one man remains. The oldest friend. Three other men came. They picked the shovels as the old man orders. Slowly, they packed the unfilled grave. The old man held his hands to his back. Stared at the freshly dug soils. All these years, he lived behind the shadows of Nathalia. Hiding from the morbid influence of his kind. It's time to step out of the dark. To tell a story, Lucifer: Untold.

A concerned sister… Chloe Madison would do anything to find her missing brother. When she stumbles upon some information that leads her to a nearby military science facility, she doesn’t hesitate to sneak under the barbed wire fence and steal some files. Everything seems to be going to plan. That is, until a handsome soldier finds her with her hands in his filing cabinet. Instead of reporting her, he lets her go. She hurries home, his golden eyes all she can think of. A broken soldier… Captain Jackson Wolfe just returned from a hellish tour of duty in Afghanistan. Scarred and hiding terrible secrets, he is sent to a desk job. He just recently found out the hard way that he was a werewolf. Not only that, as far as he knows, he’s the only one of his kind. He knows he shouldn’t be around people and keeps to himself until he sees Chloe stealing files. He knows he should stop her, but her scent and something in her eyes stops him. A coverup worth killing for… When Wolfe follows Chloe to the library, he discovers that he’s not the only one of his kind. Someone doesn’t like that Chloe has been digging around, threatening to expose the secrets of her brother and the wolf shifters. In fact, they’re willing to kill to stop her. Wolfe knows that he must protect Chloe. After all, she may be the only thing that can save him from himself.

Minnow Venandi grows up in a wealthy business family. One night on her way home from a party, she gets attacked by two men. Minnow hides the truth and tells no one about the assault. On her eighteenth birthday, she receives an unexpected introduction to the actual family business- hunting werewolves. As her family teaches her the skills needed for this craftmanship, she realises that her attackers were werewolves and an act of blind revenge begins to grow. Minnow soon understands that she has been born with a specific skill set and hunting werewolves comes naturally to her. She tracks her attackers to the nearby Moonfall pack led by the proud and fearless Alpha Miles and begins to hunt his pack with clinical skill and determination under cover of night. Alpha Miles confronts her, but can he get through to Minnow and make her see he's not the enemy, and can he help her heal what's been so mercilessly broken.

Tantalizing crimson eyes and jet black hair were all Lily could remember in the features of the enigmatic young man who saved her ten years ago when she was kidnapped. One day, she accidentally saw him again after ten years in the middle of a busy street in an unexplainable situation. Time froze for few seconds, people around her stopped moving, and in his snap of finger defreezes time, as the car in front of him lose control and crashed with the nearby truck. She was left dazed by what had just happened in front of her. The scene shocked her and triggered her memory of him. "The guy who saved me was no human," she murmured staring blankly, remembering their uncanny encounter a decade ago. "Grim Reaper?" Confusion was written on her face. He shook his head. "Non, I am Doom, and I bring death to people." After the street incident, she couldn't forget his face and his lines kept replaying in her dreams like a broken tape which made her wonder if this was part of the after-effects of her trauma or if it was destiny that aligned their stars to collide.

His face turned to stone, and he grabbed my arm, dragging me into the janitor's closet. "I, Derek Thayne, reject Roxanne Meyers as my mate," he spat, and I snarled. "I accept your rejection." *** Alphas always have to be careful when it comes to their children; they are the perfect targets to the pack's enemies. No one was prepared though when the rogues attacked the Black River Pack and kidnapped the Alpha and his family. For months they were tortured, focusing mostly on the youngest child: Roxanne Meyers. Roxanne endured the abuse for months, constantly reminding herself that she was the daughter of an Alpha, that they would not break her. But one day she had no choice but to succumb to their demands. She returned to a pack that hated her; she killed their Alpha and Luna. Even her older brother turned on her. She became the lowest ranking wolf in the pack: the omega. Every attempt to escape the pack's abuse failed and her only hope was to find her mate. But her mate was none other than Derek Thayne, the son of the Alpha who took over following her parents' deaths. After accepting his rejection, she escaped to a nearby pack with the help of her new Alpha. She was thriving and rising up the ranks in her new pack. But unfortunately for Roxanne, Derek was far from finished with his rejected mate. And he wasn't going to let the threat of war stand in his way.

When Izzy finds out her fiance and long-time boyfriend is cheating on her. She dumped him and went to a nearby bar to get wasted. Crazy fate when she stumbles on Fabian -the dangerous billionaire who is having a hard time and a bad day like her. Izzy wasn't aware of who Fabian was! As they say, broken people meet together to help each other to mend what is broken. As the night passes by, they finally find each other talking comfortably and enjoying themselves. When fate decides to play with you, it's more dangerous than marrying a dangerous man. In order to live perfectly and fit in the society that hates her, Izzy agrees to the marriage contract he offers. The contract will just last for two years or depends if they still need to add another year. She needs someone who will stand by her side now that her heart is crippled. Before the contract was terminated, someone from his past came to take him back at all costs. Unfortunately, they were already entangled with the contract unknowingly. Will they tear up the contract to fight the inevitable together or will they take matters into their own hands to make it happen for real? What measure will his past and his family take to tear them apart? Can she become the billionaire woman she dreams of? What inevitable instance will Cupid do for them?

Eidolon Avenue: Where the secretly guilty go to die. One building. Five floors. Five doors per floor. Twenty-five nightmares feeding the hunger lurking between the bricks and waiting beneath the boards. The sequel to Eidolon Avenue: The First Feast (“a great read...powerful and jarring” - Cemetery Dance) returns to the voracious Eidolon as it savors The Second Feast. A narcoleptic man in apartment 2A battles a vengeful past determined to rob him of everything as he runs from the barbaric disaster of a delusional love. A woman in 2B, reinventing herself to please a callous boyfriend, discovers the horrors that wait in the shadows of her self-renovation. The man in 2C, a teacher at the nearby Catholic girl’s school, collapses beneath the brutal consequences of his lecherous desires. An older woman in 2D, after decades dedicated to the church, is cornered at last by the grisly carnage beating at the hollow center of her faith. And a college student in 2E, hungry to escape an ignored life of invisible anonymity, finds herself captured between the pages of a ravenous book. All thrown into their own private hell as every cruel choice, every drop of spilled blood, every silent, complicit moment of cowardice is remembered, resurrected and relived to feed the ancient evil that lives on Eidolon Avenue. ©️ Crystal Lake Publishing