Night Is Darkest, Jayne Rylon [ebook e reader .TXT] 📗

Table of Contents

Dedication

Prologue

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter Twenty-Two

Chapter Twenty-Three

Epilogue

About the Author

Look for these titles by Jayne Rylon

Some secrets refuse to stay hidden.

Lacey Daughtry’s perfect weekend is interrupted by tragic news of her brother’s murder in the line of duty. Plagued by a rash of mysterious phone calls, she turns to her brother’s best friends and fellow officers for protection…and comfort.

Spending time in close contact with Mason and Tyler, the two men she’s dreamed of since her first girlhood crush, seems like the answer to a prayer. Especially when they begin to explore the desire she’s harbored for so long.

But the partners are holding out on Lacey. Determined to suppress the most extreme facets of their lust, they agree to settle for sharing the woman they crave while concealing their desire for each other. Until Lacey cracks their resolve, unleashing a torrent of emotions that threatens to distract them when they can least afford it.

Their blossoming relationship is complicated by secrets. And the only way to evade the killer threatening their lives is to bare their souls in the darkest hours of the night. Or everything will come crashing down, just before the dawn.

Warning: After reading this book you’ll never look at a pair of hot cops, a cemetery or a can of Spaghetti-O’s the same way again.

eBooks are not transferable.

They cannot be sold, shared or given away as it is an infringement on the copyright of this work.

This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.

Samhain Publishing, Ltd.

577 Mulberry Street, Suite 1520

Macon GA 31201

Night is Darkest

Copyright © 2009 by Jayne Rylon

ISBN: 978-1-60504-800-0

Edited by Angela James

Cover by Natalie Winters

All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

First Samhain Publishing, Ltd. electronic publication: November 2009

www.samhainpublishing.com

Night is Darkest

Jayne Rylon

Dedication

For all the members of the Samhain reader café yahoo group. I enjoy the time we spend chatting about our favorite books and all the wonderful feedback you’ve given me. Special thanks to the moderators, both past and present, for keeping the party going!

Prologue

Lacey Daughtry grinned at the grandfather clock standing sentinel in the moonlit entryway as she kicked off her orthopedic sneakers. Three seventeen a.m. She’d gotten off shift on time for once. A lack of bus collisions, late night fires, drunk drivers or second shift construction accidents had kept the ER relatively quiet.

She’d parked close to the house since Rob’s absent patrol car left a gap in their cracked cobblestone driveway. The only response following her shout of, “I’m home,” pinged from the century old pipes in comforting creaks. She rarely got in before her big brother. She started singing the infectious melody of a pop song that the hospital’s music system recycled often as she sloughed her scrubs en route to her girlhood bedroom. Funny, how it still felt like home even after years away at nursing school.

With a few moments to herself before her brother swung in from his beat, she kicked off three glorious days of freedom with a whoop. This had the makings of a world class weekend.

Lacey dumped the wad of clothes in her wicker laundry basket at the entrance to her adjoining bathroom then twisted the four-pronged knob on the bathtub faucet until steamy water gushed into the claw foot tub. She filled the black and white tiled space with the echoes of her off-key rendition of Jason Mraz’s “I’m Yours” while she waited for the relaxing bath about to leach away the aches inflicted by another shift on her feet.

After a luxurious soak capped with an extra dollop of the designer shower gel she’d splurged on, she snagged her worn but comfy bathrobe off the pedestal sink. She took mental stock of the pantry as she bounced down the scarred oak stairs. It’d take some creativity to whip up a home cooked meal to share with Rob but he’d enjoy a warm dinner ready and waiting.

A chuckle escaped her when she wondered if you could be late to a four a.m. supper. They’d both worked the graveyard shift long enough it seemed normal. Maybe Rob ran late because he’d stopped at the twenty-four hour convenience store. Though she did most of their shopping, he pitched in whenever he could. Cooking up something simple was the least she could do.

They’d split chores and looked out for each other since the death of their parents in a car crash, ten years before. At just eighteen, Rob had become the backbone of their family unit. He’d kept her thirteen-year-old world from imploding. She worshipped him for never once shirking his responsibilities—for the endless sacrifices he’d made to ensure their life stayed as normal as possible.

Sure enough, within minutes, strobing red and blue lights tinted the kitchen in his silent signal for her to come help him unload. She turned from the enamel sink, wiped her hands on her terrycloth-covered hip then stuffed her pink-painted toes into a pair of abandoned flip-flops by the front entryway. Though the summer had waned, she could handle the few seconds of exposure it’d take to dash out and collect an armful of groceries. She swung open the heavy oak door with its old-fashioned etched glass, nearly smacking into Rob’s two best friends—and fellow officers—shifting from foot to foot on the whitewashed porch.

Her eyes widened.

Dread dispersed her giddy joy in a millisecond.

Lacey’s heart plummeted through her stomach at the somber formality masking Mason Clark’s rugged features. Her pulse pounded when her gaze flicked to Tyler Lambert, taking in his clenched fists and the copious blood smeared over his