Fault Lines and Foundations, a free romance serial on this site. Start at chapter 1 and read each chapter in order.
Operation Trojan Horsepower, as Maya had dramatically dubbed my infiltration plan (claiming “Operation Sneaky Preservationist” lacked pizzazz), felt significantly less clever and considerably more insane as I stood sweating slightly in the overly warm service corridor behind the Oakhaven Valley Inn’s main kitchen. The borrowed catering uniform – black slacks a size too big, secured …
His voice, smooth as river stones yet carrying the distinct chill of polished steel, hung in the night air between us. “Can I help you?” Not ‘What are you doing here?’ Not ‘This is private property.’ Just that cool, infuriatingly polite inquiry, as if finding a woman lurking behind barrier tape with a camera outside his newly acquired, historically …
The box cutter sliced through the packing tape with a sound like a final, ragged sigh. Appropriate, really. My return to Oakhaven, the town I’d fled faster than a sprayed cat eighteen years ago, felt less like a homecoming and more like a strategic retreat ordered by a general who’d already lost the war. The …