"Will the past keep them from a future together?"
Reviewed by Annetta Sweetko
Posted November 19, 2013
Romance Suspense
Lani Cameron returns to Dragon Harbor, Maine, and despite
the fact that she cannot remember the details of her twin
sister's death in a fire she finds she has stirred up a
hornets nest. Having been ONCE BURNED she only wants to
find the truth. Maybe it will dispel the feeling of guilt
and stop the nightmares that have plagued her.
Jake Westcott, an ATF agent is using a recent injury to go
undercover in his hometown. While, healing and renovating
his grandmother's home he is looking for proof of a Mexican
drug-weapons cartel's New England operation. In his spare
time he finds himself looking into the fiery death of his
girlfriend, back then it was called an accident but after
his years in law enforcement he is seeing that it looks
more like arson.
When Lani and Jake meet up again they both feel an
immediate attraction but both hold back. His fear is that
he will be unable to protect her and hers is ... is he
seeing
her or the ghost of her sister. The girl that dumped him
all those years ago, just before her death.
ONCE BURNED is action packed, with a number of twists and
turns that will keep the reader guessing and reading. Both
Jake's and Lani's fears are understandable and the author
[Susan Vaughn] deals with them in a realistic and
understandable way. You get to watch as the love grows
between them as they work through the past and all their
fears. ONCE BURNED is book 2 of Ms. Vaughn's Task Force
Eagle
books
and is an excellent action romance series.
SUMMARY
Once burned ATF agent Jake Wescott goes undercover in his Maine hometown of Dragon Harbor to find the local connection to Mexican drug–and–arms cartel El Águila's New England operation. Who would suspect a local son living on a boat and fixing up his grandmother's house? On his own time, he can't resist digging into the old fire that killed his girlfriend. What he finds makes him suspect the cause wasn't accidental but arson. Twice shy Lani Cameron's return to Maine throws her into a tinderbox of danger. She has no memory of the fire that killed her twin sister and scarred her, inside and out. When she learns Jake is investigating the cause of the fire, she wants in. She couldn't save her twin but maybe she can dispel the guilt and nightmares by finding the truth. Seeing Jake again revives attraction she kept hidden, but who does he see when he touches her, Lani or her twin? And into the fire Because of his girlfriend's death and that of a colleague, Jake doesn't trust himself to protect anyone, especially Lani, as daring and determined as she is sexy. He fears she'll become a target, but he needs her lost memories of that night. When the arsonist tries to kill her, Jake becomes her reluctant protector. Their shared past and the search bind them together, and intimacy ignites passion. As they uncover secrets, they face danger more explosive than they'd feared.
ExcerptLani Cameron parked her car in the Birch Brook Farm driveway. She put the house and attached small barn behind her and crossed the pasture. As she'd done twice a day since her arrival a week ago, she stopped at the splintered frame of the burned–out horse barn's doorway.
She turned her face to the late–afternoon June sun, absorbing brightness before lowering her gaze to the blackened remains. Not much left after twelve Maine winters. She bent to pick up a scrap of pine board. Her fingers clenched around the charred wood.
The remembered smell of creosote turned her stomach. If she closed her eyes she could feel the searing heat. Hear the roar. But she couldn't see more, couldn't see Gail's body, limp on the floor, couldn't— She dropped the wood as if it scorched her hand.
The sun shining through the structure's skeleton cast eerie shadows over the witch grass and daisies. Cow vetch twined its way up one of the posts. Green life amid the ashes—a mockery.
She needed to sell the farm, but without that phone call from Nora she might not have had the courage to return to Dragon Harbor to do it herself. When school had ended the second week of the month, she finished her students' final reports and booked it out of Concord. She prayed braving the scene of the fire would end her nightmares and help her remember, but the dreams were haunting her nightly, becoming more vivid. More real. The murderous fire monster, bigger and more frightening, woke her up in a cold sweat. She rubbed her arms in the sudden chill of memory.
Dammit, she would put up with a lack of sleep if her efforts led to answers.
She strode toward the farmhouse, seeking comfort in its white clapboards, peaked roof, and front door painted shut because everyone used the side–porch entrance to the kitchen. Repairs had to be done before the real estate agent would list the property.
As she reached the pasture's edge, a blue Jeep SUV pulled into the driveway and parked behind her car. A tall man in jeans and a faded University of Maine T–shirt emerged.
She held up a hand to shade her eyes from the sun and watched as he ambled toward her. Light–brown hair and strong boned features with bold planes and angles made her pulse flutter. He stopped a few feet from her and raised his gaze.
Her heart drummed, slamming against her ribs. Jake Wescott. The same blue eyes, but older, wiser, sadder. She'd expected to see her twin's old boyfriend, planned on it, but not yet. She'd wanted this first meeting on her own terms. Never mind. She would deal.
"What are you doing here?"
"I was just—" His mouth dropped open and he took a step back as if a horse had kicked him in the gut. "Gail." Shaking his head, he blew out a breath. "Lani, is that you?"
Her throat closed. How long had it been since someone mistook her for her twin? A cruel joke, except he wasn't joking.
The best defense is a good offense. She cocked a hip and flapped a hand at the scar on the left side of her face. "Who else would it be, Jake? Mrs. Frankenstein? And I repeat, what are you doing here?"
Tension crackled in the air between them. Her heart pounded like a kettledrum.
His face was a blank mask. Time had changed him. He was taller and broader shouldered. Lines etched into his cheeks added more than the three years he had on her. No familiar crooked grin, the one that used to melt every girl in Dragon Harbor. Including her. Although she'd kept it to herself. Back then he'd been open—funny and kind. But that wasn't the Jake here today. She didn't know this Jake with the unreadable, hard eyes.
"I'm living on my boat in the harbor while I take care of some family business. Fixing up Gram's house to sell it, for one."
Not what she meant but she'd get to that. "Nora told me you've been here since March. That you're in the FBI."
"Not FBI, ATF. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives. I'm on leave. You mind me looking around in the horse barn, what's left of it?"
"No problem. Knock yourself out."
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