OTHER TITLES BY L.A. CASEY
Slater Brothers Series
Dominic
Bronagh
Alec
Keela
Kane
Aideen
Ryder
Branna
Damien
Alannah
Brothers
The Man Bible: A Survival Guide
Collins Brothers Series
Dateless
Maji Series:
Out of the Ashes
Ripples in Time
Standalone Novels
Frozen
Until Harry
Her Lifeline
My Little Secret
Forgetting You
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, places, events, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Text copyright © 2021 by L.A. Casey
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.
Published by Montlake, Seattle
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Amazon, the Amazon logo, and Montlake are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc., or its affiliates.
ISBN-13: 9781542023320
ISBN-10: 1542023327
Cover design by Plum5 Limited
For my mother.
CONTENTS
PROLOGUE FRANKIE
CHAPTER ONE FRANKIE
CHAPTER TWO RISK
CHAPTER THREE RISK
CHAPTER FOUR RISK
CHAPTER FIVE FRANKIE
CHAPTER SIX RISK
CHAPTER SEVEN FRANKIE
CHAPTER EIGHT RISK
CHAPTER NINE FRANKIE
CHAPTER TEN FRANKIE
CHAPTER ELEVEN RISK
CHAPTER TWELVE FRANKIE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN FRANKIE
CHAPTER FOURTEEN RISK
CHAPTER FIFTEEN FRANKIE
CHAPTER SIXTEEN FRANKIE
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN FRANKIE
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN RISK
CHAPTER NINETEEN FRANKIE
CHAPTER TWENTY FRANKIE
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE FRANKIE
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO RISK
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE FRANKIE
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR FRANKIE
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE FRANKIE
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX RISK
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN FRANKIE
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT FRANKIE
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE RISK
CHAPTER THIRTY RISK
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE FRANKIE
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO FRANKIE
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Did you enjoy . . .
PROLOGUE
FRANKIE
Nine years ago . . .
I awoke to the heart-stopping sound of thunderous banging.
I shot upright and stared around my darkened bedroom. I reached over to my left, expecting to find the warm body of my boyfriend, but his side of the bed was empty and cold. I didn’t have a spare moment to think of where he was because the banging quickly resumed. I kicked my duvet off my body and hopped down from my bed. The harshness of the hallway light almost blinded me the second I opened the door. I rubbed my eyes with my fingers as I scurried down the narrow passageway and came to a stop at my front door.
“W-Who is it?”
“It’s Michael, Frankie. Open up.”
I felt relieved when I recognised the voice. I undid the lock, pulled the door open and stared up at the tall, stocky, brown-haired man who I was not expecting to be banging down my door in the middle of the night.
“Dr O’Rourke?” I blinked tiredly. “What’s wrong?”
“Frankie.” His hands were on his hips, his bushy eyebrows drawn in tight. “I’ve been callin’ ye for the last hour.”
Dr Michael O’Rourke was a Dubliner, from Ireland, but had lived in Southwold for a long time. He was my GP and had been for as long as I could remember. A mentionable fact was that he was also my mother’s boyfriend. My mum having a boyfriend wasn’t a problem for me, it was actually welcomed. I had just turned eighteen and she was a forty-six-year-old widower who deserved to find a good man who loved her. It was just a little bizarre that that man was my GP. They had been dating for a little over three months and I still didn’t know how to act around Dr O’Rourke so I always remained polite, but a little standoffish.
“It’s on silent.” I shivered as the crippling cold of the winter’s night slithered around me. “I was out until late with Risk.”
Upon saying my boyfriend’s name, I remembered where he was. He was a musician who lived and breathed music. When he and his band, Blood Oath, weren’t travelling around the UK playing as many gigs as they could get, anywhere they could get them, they were in a tiny studio writing and recording. Risk Keller spent as much time in that studio as he did with me; if he wasn’t by my side, he was there.
Dr O’Rourke coughed into his elbow. “Can I come inside?”
“Of course.”
I backed into my home as Dr O’Rourke stepped inside and closed the door behind him. For a few moments, neither of us spoke and all that could be heard was the low whistle of the wind outside. It was awkward.
“Uh, would you like a cuppa tea?”
“Please.”
On autopilot, I turned and entered my small kitchen, flipping on the light as I went. I grabbed my kettle, filled it up with water, set it on its stand, plugged it in and switched it on. I grabbed two cups, popped a tea-bag into each one then turned and leaned my lower back against the counter-top. Dr O’Rourke was seated at my two-person table. His eyes were on his hands, which were resting on the table’s surface. They were clasped tightly together.
“Dr O’Rourke—”
“Michael.” He looked up with a tired smile that didn’t reach his brown, hooded eyes. “I’ve been datin’ your ma for a few months now, Frankie. I think ye can call me by me name. Don’t you?”
“I’m sorry,” I said, flushing. “It’s a force of habit, I’ve only ever called you Dr O’Rourke.”
He nodded and we fell back into an awkward silence.
I looked from him to the clock on the wall and stared at the two hands. Twenty-five past five in the morning. Dr O’Rourke was in my home at twenty-five past five in the morning. He had never been inside my cottage before, let alone this early and unannounced. I felt my body began to shake as an overwhelming sensation of dread filled the pit of my stomach. It was an odd experience, to feel my body fall into a hole of panic so rapidly. I could already hear the familiar tell-tale musical sound from my lungs that told me an asthma attack was fast approaching.
“Something’s happened to my mum,” I rasped. “Hasn’t it?”
When Dr O’Rourke looked my way, his clouded eyes were filled with untamed despair and I suddenly felt like I couldn’t breathe. My chest tightened and drawing in air became increasingly difficult, like someone had poured concrete down my throat. I felt
