Midnight Vigilante
Leonor Bass
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise without written permission from the publisher. It is illegal to copy this book, post it to a website, or distribute it by any other means without permission.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters, and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or localities is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2021 by Leonor Bass
Second Edition
Contents
Acknowledgements
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
About the Author
Acknowledgements
To my dearest friends from the Writing Community, you’ve been my support, my rock and my shoulder to cry on for years, you have no idea how important it is to have you with me.
To my friends Tiffany, Marita, Diana, Paige and Dawn. If it wasn’t for you I’d be completely lost. I love you all with my heart and soul!
To my family, now YOU know what it means to have an artist in the family. I swear I’m not crazy when I’m talking to myself, I’M PLOTTING.
Chapter One
Riley Spencer never thought she’d be hopping on a train in the middle of the night to run away. She wasn’t the type of woman to run from a threat. Except that one time, but she’d had no other choice then. She liked to plan things out in detail; if she were to leave, she liked to be prepared for the packing involved, tickets to buy, and people to call. But this trip involved none of that; just a small handbag, suitcase, and a couple of bucks in her pocket.
She could have said no when her friend and right-hand told her she had to leave. It was imperative, he had said, and Riley trusted him enough to know if he used a big word like that, it was because he was right. He also mentioned something about a gun and two men paying him a visit, so in the end, there wasn’t much of a choice.
It was a pity, though—she had been starting to like the city again.
Now with a handbag and one direction to follow, Riley was ready to start a new life.
The transition between one way of life and another was going to be hard. The city she was leaving behind was big, full of large buildings, cabs, crowds, and a tremendous amount of noise. It had been hard to get used to it, but after a few weeks, she hadn’t felt like an outsider any longer. Once she had made it a home, she relished it.
Now, returning to her hometown after ten years would most certainly turn her world upside down, especially considering it was rather small and bursting with gossip. She’d grown used to the anonymity the city provided, and if she could have chosen any place for an extended stay like the one ahead of her, she would have stayed as far away from LinHill as possible. Sadly she couldn’t. She could only look at the bright side: at least LinHill would be the last place those people would look for her.
The inspector announced her stop was five minutes away; Riley sighed heavily as the people around her gathered their belongings. She was not in a hurry, so she remained seated, staring through the window as the trees passed by and chaos ensued all around her.
When the train stopped and Riley walked out, the cold autumn wind hit her face in a biting surprise, but the scarf Mickey had strategically put on her suitcase brought a grateful smile to her face. She watched as the people around her dispersed, each one in their own hurry, and realized she had a lot of time on her hands. All she wanted was to delay her arrival home as much as she could. Being back meant too many memories of her last day home were too close.
There was a time, when she was younger and her father was still alive, that she could put up with everything her mother and sister did. Usually her father interfered and calmed her mother enough to leave Riley alone. Since he’d died, though, Riley had learned to bear the brunt of her mother’s raging episodes by herself, but she knew she could only bend so far before she snapped, especially since she’d learned the truth.
When Riley was 15 years old, she had found her birth certificate in her father’s desk. The mother’s name was different from the woman who’d raised her, and when Riley had asked her father, he’d confirmed it—her birth mother had been gone since she was a baby. He’d planned to tell her someday, he’d said, and she’d understood. She knew her father would never keep a secret to hurt her.
But after her father died, the secret gave her power. The respect her stepmother commanded wasn’t due out of familial obligation; it was a tactic of manipulation. Riley quit wondering why her younger sister, Lydia, was the favorite. Lydia was actually her stepmother’s daughter, and Riley was just baggage that came with marriage to Riley’s father. Whatever Lydia wanted, Lydia received. Whatever Lydia accused Riley of doing, Riley was automatically guilty.
“I told you to leave my stuff alone!” Lydia shrieked. “Why do you have to be so fucking nosy all the time?” She threw articles of clothing at Riley with each word. “Why aren’t you saying anything? You think being quiet is gonna save your ass?”
As their mother climbed the stairs at Lydia’s command, Riley’s heart raced with anxiety.
