Twisted Shadows

by Potter, Patricia

• ISBN13: 9780515134391
• ISBN10: 0515134392
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-12-31
• Publisher: Jove

Summary

From USA Todaybestselling author Patricia Potter comes a riveting novel about a man who thought he'd escaped his criminal past, a woman who didn't know she had one, and the FBI agent who threatens to blow both their worlds apart.

Author Biography

In 1988, Patricia Potter won the Maggie Award and a Reviewer’s Choice Award from Romantic Times for her first novel. She has been named Storyteller of the Year by Romantic Times and has received the magazine’s Career Achievement Award for Western Historical Romance along with numerous Reviewer’s Choice nominations and awards.

 

She has won three Maggie awards, is a three-time RITA finalist, and has been on the USA Today and Walden’s bestseller lists. Her books have been alternate choices for the Doubleday Book Club.

 

Prior to writing fiction, she was a newspaper reporter with the Atlanta Journal and president of a public relations firm in Atlanta. She has served as president of Georgia Romance Writers and board member of River City Romance Writers, and is a former member of the national board of Romance Writers of America.

 

Excerpts

Prologue Boston, 1968 She was running for her life. And the lives of her children. She clutched the twins, one in each arm, her purse slung over her shoulder. A cab. She had to reach a cab. She knew she would soon hear footsteps behind her. Heavy. Hurried. Her guard--her husband's guard--would discover she'd left the doctor's office through another door. His life would be as much at risk as her own if he failed. If he lost her. This would be her one and only chance to escape her husband. She knew that. If she failed, he would kill her. He would find out what she knew--and to whom she had given information--and then dispose of her as his family had disposed of irritants before her. Fear eddied in her stomach. Her breath was short from both terror and the exertion of carrying two eight-month-old babies, their necessities and the largest purse she owned. It contained everything she could carry without giving away her intention. Unfortunately, her possessions did not include a weapon. Nick squirmed, protesting her protective hold. For a moment, feared she would lose her grip. She stopped, balancing him on her hip, getting a stronger hold on him. In a moment he would start wailing. That would probably inspire Nicole to do the same. Each always followed the other's lead. They reached out for each other when separated. They seemed to take comfort in each other's company. A loud wail now would be disastrous. She cooed quietly to him, frantically balancing the two heavy babies. She started down the steps again, trying to run without dislodging the two children. She feared the elevator. She could be trapped in an elevator. No, the stairs are safer. She'd spent days considering her options, the best escape route. And, hopefully, preparing safeguards. But her husband was unpredictable. He would be so angry, he wouldn't care that his actions could send him to prison. Or send the policeman who served the family to the electric chair. She heard a door slam above her. Joey. Such an innocuous name. But he was not an innocuous man. He was a made man, a man who had killed before. That she was a woman would mean little to him, particularly since his own life might well depend on his stopping her. One more floor.She was wearing tennis shoes that made no noise. She had purposely been hitting tennis balls just minutes before returning to the side of her twins. Then she'd used a heating pad on Nick's and Nicole's faces to simulate a fever. Her husband was out of town. So was her father-in-law. When she'd screamed that the children were sick with high temperatures, she'd finally won permission to go to the doctor. She'd been to the pediatrician before. She knew the offices. She knew a way out that avoided her so-called bodyguard in the waiting room. "Bitch!" Joey's voice roared down the stairwell. She could see the door below her. She moved faster than she thought possible, shifting, Nick again as she grabbed for the knob and jerked the door open. Nick wailed loudly. Another curse echoed from the stairwell as she ran across the lobby. Please, God, let the cab be there.She'd called from the nurses' station, ordering a cab, promising an extra fifty if it waited outside the professional offices for a woman with two babies. If it wasn't there... She darted between people, bumping one. "Taxi waiting," she muttered, then made the door. She turned to see Joey bursting out from the stairwell door. Nicole started wailing, too. Tracy knew that every eye was on her. She'd already started thinking about what she would do if Joey caught her. She would yell "Kidnap." If some brave good Samaritan... And if there was gunfire? If she caused an innocent's death...? Someone entered the revolving doors, and she jumped inside one of the partitions. Then she saw the t