Praise for the novels of New York Times bestselling author
Heather Graham
“An enthralling read with a totally unexpected twist at the end.”
—Fresh Fiction on Deadly Touch
“Heather Graham delivers a harrowing journey as she always does: perfectly.... Intelligent, fast-paced and frightening at all times, and the team of characters still keep the reader’s attention to the very end.”
—Suspense Magazine on The Final Deception
“Immediately entertaining and engrossing... Graham provides plenty of face time and intimate connection, all lightened with humor, to reassure and satisfy romance readers.”
—Publishers Weekly on A Dangerous Game
“Taut, complex, and leavened with humor, this riveting thriller has...a shade more suspense than romance, it will appeal to fans of both genres.”
—Library Journal on A Dangerous Game
“An intense murder-mystery that kept me turning the pages. Graham never fails to pull me in... Offers rich history, an interesting murder-mystery and a new romance.”
—Caffeinated Book Reviewer on The Seekers
“Will keep you glued to the pages...[with] the danger, drama and energy.”
—Fresh Fiction on The Seekers
“Graham strikes a fine balance between romantic suspense and a gothic ghost story.”
—Booklist on The Summoning
Also by New York Times bestselling author Heather Graham
Krewe of Hunters
DREAMING DEATH
DEADLY TOUCH
SEEING DARKNESS
THE STALKING
THE SEEKERS
THE SUMMONING
ECHOES OF EVIL
PALE AS DEATH
FADE TO BLACK
WICKED DEEDS
DARK RITES
DYING BREATH
DARKEST JOURNEY
DEADLY FATE
HAUNTED DESTINY
THE HIDDEN
THE FORGOTTEN
THE SILENCED
THE BETRAYED
THE HEXED
THE CURSED
THE NIGHT IS FOREVER
THE NIGHT IS ALIVE
THE NIGHT IS WATCHING
THE UNINVITED
THE UNSPOKEN
THE UNHOLY
THE UNSEEN
THE EVIL INSIDE
SACRED EVIL
HEART OF EVIL
PHANTOM EVIL
New York Confidential
THE FINAL DECEPTION
A LETHAL LEGACY
A DANGEROUS GAME
A PERFECT OBSESSION
FLAWLESS
Cafferty & Quinn
THE DEAD PLAY ON
WAKING THE DEAD
LET THE DEAD SLEEP
Harrison Investigations
NIGHTWALKER
THE SÉANCE
THE PRESENCE
UNHALLOWED GROUND
THE DEATH DEALER
THE DEAD ROOM
THE VISION
GHOST WALK
HAUNTED
Bone Island
GHOST MOON
GHOST NIGHT
GHOST SHADOW
The Flynn Brothers
DEADLY GIFT
DEADLY HARVEST
DEADLY NIGHT
For more titles, visit TheOriginalHeatherGraham.com.
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Look for Heather Graham’s next novel
THE FORBIDDEN
available soon from MIRA.
HEATHER GRAHAM
THE UNFORGIVEN
New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author Heather Graham has written more than two hundred novels. She is pleased to have been published in over twenty-five languages, with sixty million books in print. Heather is a proud recipient of the Silver Bullet from Thriller Writers and was awarded the prestigious Thriller Master Award in 2016. She is also a recipient of Lifetime Achievement Awards from RWA and The Strand, and is the founder of The Slush Pile Players, an author band and theatrical group. An avid scuba diver, ballroom dancer and mother of five, she still enjoys her South Florida home, but also loves to travel. Heather is grateful every day for a career she loves so very much.
For more information, check out her website, theoriginalheathergraham.com, or find Heather on Facebook.
To Patrick DeVuono, musician, teacher, writer...Kind, giving, bright and thoughtful. All-around great guy!
And my cousin, who also grew up with stories of banshees and leprechauns, and a feisty great-gran and a few other delightfully crazy Irish who gave us gifts of stories, art and songs.
Contents
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
EPILOGUE
PROLOGUE
There was nothing like being in the water, and nothing at all like diving. The sea, all around her. The calm, rhythmic sound of her breathing through her regulator, the sun streaking through the water, catching on the brilliant colors of a yellow tang, a blue angelfish or the orange of a clown fish.
Larger creatures swam by as well: snappers, grunts and even a giant grouper that must have been hundreds of pounds.
Katie Delaney was in ecstasy.
She had gotten her junior PADI diving certification at the age of ten. At five, she’d wanted to be a mermaid. Her parents had laughed and assured her that as soon as she was old enough, she could get her diving certificate and become the next best thing. Now that she had turned fifteen, she’d upgraded to the certification that had no junior attached to it, and she was proud and delighted.
She loved the water, the sun, the sand and the sea.
It ran in the family. Both of her parents had been in the navy; her dad had been a SEAL.
Today, they were diving out of Key Largo. There were so many places she wanted to go. But their home was Key West, and while she wanted a trip to the Great Barrier Reef and other renowned dive sites, her dad had assured her many times the reefs off the Florida Keys offered fine diving.
They were lucky—she needed to realize that. They lived right by the only living continental barrier reef in the United States. And while she might go down time after time, she would never see all the wonders there—right in her own patch of the ocean—that might be seen.
Naturally, she had her favorite things to do in all the islands of the Florida Keys. And that morning, she and her parents had done one of them: Captain Slate’s Creature Feature. They had fed nurse sharks and rays and other incredible sea beings, and the fish would come and play with the divers. A giant nurse shark had been swimming right above her head!
Today was a birthday and congratulations present from her parents. They had done the Creature Feature with Captain Slate’s crew, done a second dive with them and then gone back in to shore just to go back out again to maybe dive on their own.
And now, they had been joined by her folks’ best friends and a younger couple the two had recently met when they’d been out at a local restaurant or somewhere. Her mom and dad were happy to bring out-of-towners out on their boat with them for the day.
Katie didn’t care—today was her birthday for her folks day.
Her actual birthday had been last week, and she’d spent it with her friends, including her boyfriend, Brad. Her parents had been great about it.
But being fifteen didn’t change her love for her family or the water. In fact, it brought her closer to her dream. She’d go to college. She’d learn
