The only thing worse than having a hot neighbor you’re too intimidated to talk to is accidentally hitting his cat with your car. Felix Lane was perfectly content to spend the rest of his days with Sunny, his canary life companion, in their quiet little corner of the suburbs. But then Kirk Shoo with his unusual eyes moved in across the street, and Felix’s carefully constructed life is starting to unravel. When your every bad-boy fantasy lingers at the mailbox, stands too close and smells too damn good, what’s an under-appreciated administrative assistant to do? Besides sneak out the backdoor to go to work? But when Kirk’s cat runs out in front of Felix on his way home, he has no choice but to face the music and his dream man. Unless ... What starts as a tragic accident turns into something far more bizarre. And when Felix’s backyard begins to look like a pet cemetery, he has no choice but to come clean. That is, if he can manage to find his sexy neighbor at all.

Nine Stones

Felix laid the cat down on the lawn and got out the spade from the garage. He didn’t look at the other graves while he dug the eighth, didn’t check to see if they’d been disturbed, didn’t look for prints or pebbles and flowers out of place. He didn’t want to know. He buried the white cat, found it a headstone, and before going back to Kirk he glanced at the row of the other headstones—all eight were there.9


A thunderstorm rolled in over Willow Point. Felix threw doors and windows open to let in the scent of summer rain. The fragrance made him remember childhood downpours when he and Lexi had run down their street soaking wet. Grinning, he stepped out on the patio. He wouldn’t run out on the street, but no one could see him in his backyard.


With his arms spread wide, he tilted his face to the sky and allowed the raindrops to slide over his skin. He wished they could wash away all the deaths haunting him, allow him a fresh start.


Chapter 24