Guarded Secrets

Guarded Secrets
Leann Harris

If I die, it won't be an accident. At the time, Lilly Burkstrom brushed aside her ex-husband's words. Then he dies–"accidentally"–in a convenience store robbery, and she starts to wonder. Turning to the police doesn't help. They don't see the danger closing in on her, not even when someone breaks into her house and her ex-husband's apartment.Only Detective Jonathan Littledeer understands her fears, having lost his own family. He's determined to keep the single mom safe. He's not going to let another "accident" claim Lilly or her daughter before he can bring the killer's guarded secrets to light.

She gasped as she looked at the mess in her kitchen.

Someone had been in here, searching for…what?

Grabbing her purse, she looked for Jonathan Littledeer’s business card. She found it and dialed the number.

“Littledeer.”

“Detective, this is Lilly Burkstrom. I just walked into my house. It looks like my ex-husband’s apartment wasn’t the only place ransacked.”

“Your house was broken into?”

“Yes.”

A crash from the bedroom made her gasp.

“Lilly?”

“I heard something crash.”

“Get out. Go next door and call nine-one-one.”

She turned and ran out the garage.

LEANN HARRIS

When Leann Harris was first introduced to her husband in college she knew she would never date the man. He was a graduate student getting a PhD in physics, and Leann had purposely taken a second year of biology in high school to avoid taking physics. So much for first impressions. They have been married thirty-eight years and still approach life from very different angles.

After graduating from the University of Texas at Austin, Leann taught math and science to deaf high school students for a couple of years until the birth of her first child. When her youngest child started school, Leann decided to fulfill a lifelong dream and began writing.

Leann presently lives in Dallas, Texas, with her husband. She is a founding member and former president of the Dallas Area Romance Writers. Guarded Secrets is her second novel for Steeple Hill Books. Visit her Web site, www.leannharris.com.

Guarded Secrets

Leann Harris

God is our refuge and strength,

an ever-present help in trouble.

— Psalms 46:1

Jennifer, DQ, Daniel and Crystal—

each of you is a blessing.

CONTENTS

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

EPILOGUE

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

ONE

T he door stood ajar, and panic raced through her veins. She’d locked her ex-husband’s apartment door after retrieving his clothes for the funeral.

“Mom, did you forget to lock the door? You know Daddy always made me—” Tears clogged Penny’s throat.

Lilly Burkstrom pulled her daughter into her arms.

“I don’t understand, Mom,” Penny sobbed into her mother’s waist. “Why did Daddy have to die?”

It was a question Lilly asked herself. Peter had been murdered in a convenience store robbery gone bad.

It didn’t make much sense to her, a twenty-nine-year-old woman, so how could she expect her eight-year-old daughter to understand it?

“I don’t know, sweetie. I know you miss him. I do, too.”