DISCOVERING Veronica
The prequel to Laura’s Secrets
by Shannon Greenland
Release Date: March 2007
ISBN: 978-1-59080-537-4
Publisher: Echelon Press

Veronica Burns moves across the country to Amelia Island in search of a fresh start. She accepts a job at an elite private school where Dr. Rico DeAngelo is the headmaster. As Veronica acclimates to her new, independent lifestyle, strange, eerie, unsettling things begin to happen. A stalker has targeted her and Rico's six-year-old daughter, too. Trust is the one issue that has scarred them both, but trust is what they have to give each other in order to stay alive.

REVIEWS

“….well written and engaging.”
D. Riordan/The Daphne du Maurier

“A romantic mystery that will build your tension to a fevered pitch.”
Judith Saul/The Best Reviews

“I could not put it down until it was finished.”
Dawn Myers/Escape To Romance

“….an exciting contemporary romantic suspense….”
Harriet Klausner/Reader To Reader

“4 Stars….escalates with every turn of the page.”
Hattie Boyd/Scribes World

“….filled with great characters and a thoroughly disturbing subplot….”
Denise Clark/Road to Romance

“This book makes you want to stay with these people long after the story ends.”
~Arm Chair Interviews

I would recommend this story to anyone.
~Book Crossing

EXCERPT

Joe slid icy mugs in front of both women. “Hey, your boss is working my kitchen tonight.”

Veronica’s stomach started the polka. “Rico? Why is he in your kitchen? Is Maria here, too?”

Joe nodded to some men at the end of the bar, then turned back to Veronica. “No, Maria’s at a friend’s house. Rico’s helping me out ‘cause my kitchen guy got sick and went home.” He tapped the counter. “You ladies enjoy those. I gotta see what these people want.”

Veronica glanced toward the swinging door that led to the kitchen. A waitress hipped it open and emerged with a tray of food. Veronica leaned over and peered through the opening, but didn’t see Rico.

Gillian nudged her. “So, since you turned down sexy Joe, mind if I move in?”

Veronica took a sip of her beer. “Help yourself.”

Gillian wiggled her eyebrows. “Thanks, I will.” She hopped down from her stool. “I gotta go to the bathroom. Be back in a few minutes.”

Veronica nodded, then swiveled in her seat to observe her surroundings. An interesting mix of people filled the saloon-tourists with their guidebooks, sailors with their creased faces, locals with their casual attitudes.

She listened in on the conversations, curious of the local gossip. A young couple sat at a corner table making plans for the next day. A few guys from the local factory smoked and discussed their boss. Some crusty old men leaned against the far wall embellishing fisherman’s tales.

Veronica continued to scan the room, sipping her beer, content. Then her gaze collided with his, and her whole body jolted. He was leaning on a pool stick all the way across the room, and he was staring right at her.

Junior.

He said something to the guy beside him and then motioned with his head toward her. They both chuckled as he continued to leer at her.

Gillian hopped back onto the stool beside her. “You gotta check out that bathroom before you leave. There’s a hand-painted mermaid on the inside of the door.”

Feeling underdressed and under close scrutiny, Veronica tugged the hem of her mini skirt and shifted to her roommate. “I know that guy over there,” she whispered. “He really creeps me out. I want to get out of here.”

Gillian winked at the bartender. “Don’t worry, there’re lots of people here. What can he do?”

“Probably nothing. But-”

“Relax. There are tons of men gawking at you. Flirt a little, it won’t kill you.”

Veronica tried not to get annoyed with her roommate. She hadn’t told Gillian about Junior and couldn’t blame her for her casual attitude.

Gillian looked at her then, as if she just recognized Veronica’s uneasiness. “Oh, honey, I’m sorry. I didn’t realize…yeah, let’s get out of here.”

Relieved, Veronica breathed, “Thanks,” and dug in her purse to pay for her drink. She glanced in Junior’s direction one last time, and froze.

Where had he gone?

“Looking for me,” Junior said from behind her.

Veronica slowly turned her head. His huge gut hung over the waistband of his pants, yellow stains streaked his shirt, greasy hair hung in clumps about his ruddy face, and his lascivious smile revealed gaps. She smelled his body and mouth and wanted to gag.

She cleared her throat. “Excuse me, Junior, I’m leaving.”

He took a gulp of beer. His gaze dropped to her breasts and then her legs.

Veronica wished she had worn a huge overcoat. She straightened on her stool in an attempt to look brave and turned to Gillian. “I’ve got to get up early. Let’s go.”

Gillian looked from Junior to Veronica. She slapped some dollars down on the bar and grabbed her purse to leave. Veronica swiveled around on her barstool and hopped to her feet. Junior pretended someone bumped his arm and tossed beer down the front of her white, silk blouse. Veronica gasped and looked down at her breasts, now on display through the wet shirt. Junior lunged forward with a napkin, wiped her blouse, groping her breasts in the process. Gillian tried to maneuver between them, only to be shoved aside by Junior who turned and grabbed Veronica’s arm.

He jerked her hard against him. “Don’t flaunt your goods unless you’re ready to follow through,” he hissed.

Veronica stared at him, not sure how she wound up pressed against him. Everything had happened so fast. What did he mean she flaunted her goods?

She tried to jerk her arm from his grasp, which made him tighten his hold and pull her even closer.

“Let me go.” She hated her voice shook.

A waitress scurried in the kitchen. Rico looked up from the stove, about to tell her the fish was ready, when she said, “Rico, Joe’s around back, and some guy’s harassing some girl. You got to come break it up.”

Rico wiped his hands on a nearby towel and walked across the kitchen. He pushed through the door, grabbed the baseball bat from under the bar, scanned the crowd for the commotion, and froze.

Veronica.

He vaulted over the bar, pushed his way through the crowd, and came up right behind the large man that had her pressed up against him. Rico stood taller than him, but the oversized man outweighed him by at least a hundred pounds.

Good, fat meant slow.

Rico laid the bat on the man’s shoulder. “Take your hands off the lady and back away.”

The glutton glanced over his shoulder. With a snarled lip, he scanned Rico from top to bottom, then settled his gaze on the bat. He turned back to Veronica. “I’ve been watching you,” he whispered.

Rico grabbed the guy’s arm and twisted it behind his back. He pushed him toward the door. “That’s enough. Let’s go.”

Without any struggle, the man allowed Rico to walk him from the pub, then he disappeared into the night. Rico had dealt with a lot of similar problems in the times he worked the bar helping Joe. But something was different about this particular harasser. Usually they were drunk and disorderly. This guy, though, had an exact focus, and it was Veronica.

Rico walked back inside, grabbed his jacket off the coat rack, and headed toward Veronica. She stood next to her roommate staring at the pub’s swinging doors. She looked dazed and shaken.

Rico wrapped his jacket around her shoulders to cover her wet shirt. “You all right?”

Veronica blinked, lifted her gaze to meet his. “Call the police. I’ve got evidence now.”

An hour later, the cop finished up the report. Veronica sat on the hood of her car while Rico stood nearby, arms folded over his chest, feet braced apart. He hadn’t said a word in the past hour. He didn’t trust himself to speak.

He took a deep breath and looked up at the dark sky. When he walked out of the kitchen and saw Veronica in that man’s grasp, he’d lost all coherent thought. Some man had had his hands on her without her permission. Rico would never forget the look on her face-confused, stunned, terrified, lost.

And that oversized glutton of a man had a name. Junior. Rico ground his back teeth together. Junior had been harassing Veronica for months, and Rico hadn’t known anything about it. Why hadn’t Veronica told him? Didn’t she consider them close enough?

“Thanks,” Veronica interrupted his thoughts

Rico glanced past her, watched the cop get into his car, then leveled his gaze on her. “Why didn’t you tell me you were having problems with that man?” He heard the irritableness in his own voice.

She slid off the hood of the car. “It’s not your problem.”

Rico shoved all ten fingers through his hair. “Well it’s a damn stupid thing to keep to yourself. He said he’d been watching you, or didn’t you hear that part?”

Veronica walked around to the driver’s side door. Gillian sat in the passenger seat. “Yeah, I heard that part.” She opened the door, turned to face him. “Why don’t you try talking to me tomorrow when you’re not so angry and snappy. I’m not in the mood right now.”

She slid into her seat, shut the door, started the engine, then drove off without so much as a glance back. He glared at her taillights, his thoughts spinning around the facts she’d given to the cops: eerie phone call, picture with slut written on the back of it, feelings of being watched, missing panties, taunting comments, the incident with the bra.

Junior was stalking her, had been for months, and she’d kept it to herself. What was she thinking trying to handle something that huge alone? Well whether she liked it or not, Rico planned to stick his nose into her business. Because tonight was a small taste of what Junior could really do to her.

Rico turned and stomped back to the pub. “Damn, stupid, independent, I-can-take-care-of-myself woman."