Never Again (Dangerous Secrets Prequel)

Ken Shepherd's witness is murdered, leaving him to want more than just to arrest the criminals and walk away. A new career in Witness Security gives him the opportunity to help people who made bad decisions find a second chance. But will high expectations lead to happiness or is death lurking around the corner?

Never isn't as far as it seems in this action-packed prequel to the Dangerous Secrets series will keep you turning the pages until the very end.

Rush hour. Why did it have to be rush hour?

Ken Shepherd groaned as he darted and zagged through the Denver traffic, horn blaring as he screeched by passing cars. Nearby drivers swerved in a panic as he tore past, but they didn't have a reason to be afraid. Specialized training taught him how to drive, and how to stay cool under pressure.

He zipped in between a gray sedan and a navy van. No problem with the driving although he felt anything but cool. Instead, perspiration beaded his forehead as Ken checked the time. It'd been ten minutes since the call came through, and every passing
second could be the difference between life and death for the witness.

How things got so out of control… Local patrol had been assigned to keep Nate Dunnican safe. If he died, someone would have to answer for the failure.

Ken's eyes narrowed, questions playing over in his mind. Why he got the call was a mystery, and how Nate got a hold of his private number a bigger one. Ken wasn't the
man's attorney or his protector. As an FBI agent, Ken's job had been arresting Nate, bringing him in to face the charges. From there, Nate's case had been turned over to witness protection agents who put in place all the pieces which
allowed Colton to rat on his organized crime buddies in relative safety.

So why would he come back to Ken?

Ken's jaw set in a cold, hard line. It didn't matter. The call didn't bother him nearly as much as the fear in Nate's voice.

"I'm going to die," he had said, "I'll die if you don't come here now."

Something in the words screamed of truth: the desperate, raw kind that ripped at a man's core and stripped him bare. The chill clung to Ken’s bones and, though
he shouldn't care, no one would ignore that kind of terror. Not unless they were a monster. He dealt with enough of those kinds in his career, but thus far at least, hadn’t become one himself.

Ken sped through the last red light, gritted his teeth, glanced at the clock again. Fifteen
minutes since the call. Nate hadn't said if anyone else was in the house, or where
the threat was coming from, but fifteen minutes was a long time if someone wanted Nate dead. The turn of a dime, a single second, and the key witness would be lost.

If he made it time, Ken thought, the plan was to get Nate through the night. After the trial, Nate would leave the city for good. Ken gripped the steering wheel. Agents
thought the substantial risk of bringing him back to New York could be managed. Clearly, they were wrong.

A mixer truck barreled into the intersection and Ken tore at the wheel as he swerved and
narrowly missed a collision. He grumbled and stomped on the gas pedal as he glanced in the rearview mirror. The truck skidded to a stop behind him and avoided hitting another car by a fraction of an inch. Any other time, Ken would
have stopped and checked for injuries, but there was no time for that now. Nate waited.  

Ken pulled into the post-war neighborhood. For the most part, it was a quiet suburb with little crime. A decent place to hide a safe house where witnesses could feel a sense
of security. But there were always exceptions to every rule, and Ken searched
for hints of those exceptions as he raced past two blocks of homes.  

The car jolted forward as Ken threw it into park in front of a tiny brick bungalow. He glanced around. No one on the streets, no apparent threat. He pulled the sidearm from his
holster and stepped onto the sidewalk. The small brick home appeared quiet enough. Maybe Nate panicked with what he was about to do the next day in coming face-to-face with men who would rather he was dead than ever see the inside of
a courtroom. It was a possibility.

Ken headed up the walkway, careful, and with his gun in hand. His long legs took the two concrete steps in one stride to a small, open porch. Back against the brick exterior,
Ken peeked through one window into a small living room furnished sparsely with
a couple of lawn chairs and a small television. No people. He shimmied a few inches to another window to find an empty dining room littered with clothes, garbage, no furniture, no people.

He knocked on the door. "FBI. Open the door."

Number of Pages: 64 pages

Estimated Time to Read: 1 hour

Word Count: 11,455 words

Series & All Books in Series: Dangerous Secrets (Never Again & Until Tomorrow)

Formats: ePub & Mobi

Devices: Kindle, Apple, & Android Devices, Nook & Kobo Readers, Computers

Delivery Time & Method: Instant delivery to domestic and international readers via the email address provided at check-out

Also available on:Amazon, Nook, Kobo, Apple, & Smashwords