Pretend You're Safe

Book excerpt: A Missouri woman and a former lawman fight an obsessive serial killer in this romantic thriller series debut by the New York Times–bestselling author. After the floods came the bodies. The victims—strangled, then buried along the shores of the Mississippi—have finally been unearthed, years after they disappeared. The killer remembers with satisfaction each woman he laid to rest. But there’s only one he truly wanted. And fate has brought her within reach again. Jaci Patterson was sixteen when she found the first golden locket on her porch. Inside were a few strands of hair wrapped around a scrap of bloodstained ribbon. Though the “gifts” kept arriving, no one believed her hunch that a serial killer was at work. Back then, Rylan Cooper was an arrogant deputy sheriff convinced that Jaci was just an attention-seeking teen. Now he knows that ignoring her warnings was a fatal mistake. With Jaci back in town, the nightmare is starting once more. But this time, Rylan will do whatever it takes to keep her safe. “Alexandra Ivy gives readers a nice balance of romance and suspense in her fast-paced, well-plotted novel.” —Kat Martin, New York Times–bestselling author