Kate Montgomery is a fledgling TV news reporter when she
gets an unexpected offer to cover capitol politics in
Austin, Texas. Unsure why the offer was extended because it
probably should have gone to someone with more experience,
Kate moves to Austin, determined to be a top reporter. Once
there, though, she finds herself being stalked.
After she is almost hit by a car, probably driven by the
stalker, Kate agrees to have a bodyguard, but only if she
can do a story on him at the same time. Her bodyguard,
Teague Ramos, runs a top security firm that also does
security for the capitol building where Kate spends most of
her days.
Reluctantly, reclusive Teague agrees to the story and also
the job of guarding Kate. Only he's not sure who he's
guarding her from -- a stalker or Sen. George Oberlin, who
shows an uncomfortable amount of interest in the new
reporter. Maybe they're one and the same?
As Kate settles into her new job, fending off resentful
colleagues and Oberlin, all the while worrying about a
stalker, she's also consumed with getting more information
on her birth family. Adopted as a baby, Kate is shocked
when Oberlin's wife tells her she looks like a Mrs.
Blackthorn. As Kate starts looking for information on her
family, the two things start to collide -- her stalker and
her birth story.
In the midst of all this is a fiery hot attraction between
Kate and Teague, who is determined to leave his client
alone. Easier said than done when confronted with a
determined reporter and a woman who sets your body on fire.
Ms. Dodd weaves her usual intriguing, steamy story in CLOSE
TO YOU, which tells the tale of another one of the lost
Prescott children. Kate was the baby who was put up for
adoption. I highly recommend this book -- Teague is a
fantastic character and he's well-matched by the assertive
Kate.
Caitlin Prescott was only a baby when her parents
disappeared. Adopted by a wealthy Texas oil family, she
became Kate Montgomery, and grew up with no memory of her
parents or her two older sisters and brother, who have been
searching for her, hoping to right a terrible wrong that
was committed twenty-two years ago in a small Texas town.
Now an ambitious young news reporter, Kate realizes she is
being stalked soon after landing her dream job at an Austin
TV station. Why did a car try to run her down? Who would
want to kill her? Turning her precarious situation into a
story, she takes on a bodyguard and follows him on the job.
But she didn't plan on the cool, blade-sharp strength of
Teague Ramos or the attraction that sizzles between them.
When Teague connects the death of an Austin socialite to
unanswered questions about Kate's childhood, she finds
herself unlocking dangerous doors to her past. Now, with
only her mysterious bodyguard to protect her, Kate is on a
high-stakes chase that may lead her to the family she has
never known -- or into the trap of a ruthless killer.
Excerpt
Kate's phone rang at two a.m.. Barely awake, she fumbled
for the receiver, her heart pounding in her throat.
Was it Mom? Had they gotten Mom, too?
When she picked it up, no one was there. The line was open,
but no one spoke, no one breathed. She hung up. She got up.
Caller ID showed, “Private caller.” She dismissed the call
as a mistake.
She got a drink of water and looked at herself in the
mirror.
She hated this. One call in the middle of the night and all
the fear and anguish of her dad's kidnapping came rushing
back. All the memories paraded through her mind. They were
nightmares come to life and no matter how hard she tried,
nothing could erase them.
She went back to bed and an hour later, she had just
drifted back to sleep when her cell phone rang. She got up
and looked at the phone, but she didn't answer this time.
Again it said, “Private caller.”
Coincidence, probably. A bad coincidence since both numbers
were unlisted and unpublished, but a coincidence
nevertheless.
When her home phone rang again at five a.m., she let the
answering machine pick it up. A low, growly, disguised
voice said, “Leave, bitch.”
And quietly hung up.
That day, to cover the dark circles under her eyes, Kate
wore extra make-up.
Two nights later, she discovered a slap of whitewash on her
car window. In shaky letters, it spelled out, Leave bitch.
Kate stared at the message. Her heart pounded in her
throat. Her temples tightened with fear. She whipped around
to look for onlookers, but none of the people who strolled
past paid her any attention. Yet she had to face the truth.
She had a stalker. She just didn't know what to do about
it.
She hadn't yet had the nerve to call the police. Despite
Brad's assurances about her work, there wasn't a doubt that
every reporter at KTTV would love to see her fail. If she
announced she had a stalker, she'd be regarded as a
grandstander and the laughter that went on behind her back
would turn around to blare in her face. She couldn't bear
to make things worse.
Yet Kate knew the facts. She knew that stalkers loved to
target the “girl” reporters. Stalkers were unstable, and
although hers hadn't done anything violent yet, the
incidents were likely to escalate to serious crimes — to
rape and murder.
More important, she was afraid all the time. She suspected
everyone.
The Hispanic man — he knew how to frighten a woman with a
glance.
Senator Oberlin — something about him had made her
uncomfortable, and he'd conveniently come to her rescue in
the parking lot. Perhaps he'd arranged to have the tire
slashed so he could approach her.
That other reporter, Linda — she was jealous and spiteful.
Brad, Cathy, everyone Kate met, every teenager who toured
the capitol and recognized her as a broadcaster, every man
who looked her over and flirted.
Even now, with the sun barely setting toward the west, she
glanced behind her as she crossed the street behind the
capitol complex. She had never been like this before, and
she knew that, laughter or no laughter, mockery or no
mockery she had to contact the police. Now. No job was
worth dying for.
As she crossed the white line in the middle of the road,
she heard a motor rev, tires screech. A gray car careened
around the corner — straight toward her.
She dove toward the sidewalk. She landed hard. She rolled,
frantic. Panic scraped her mind with sharp claws. Get away!
He's after you!
But the car kept going. It wavered from one side of the
street to another, out of control, almost overturning. Then
it righted and its tires threw up a pall of black smoke as
it raced away.
Kate didn't know if she'd been hit or just landed hard. She
didn't know if she could get a breath. She sprawled on the
sidewalk, her palms skinned, her pants torn at the knee.
She blinked as black specks darkened her vision.
“What the hell…?”
Kate heard that sharp, impatient voice and lifted her head.
Linda knelt beside Kate, her dark eyes flashing with
impatience. “What just happened?”
“Someone tried to hit me.” Crimson splattered the sidewalk
beneath Kate's head. She touched her chin and her fingers
came away covered with blood.
“Don't be dramatic.” Linda pulled out her cell phone. As
she dialed 9-1-1, she said, “Whoever did it was probably
drunk.”
Pain was starting to seep through Kate's shock.
“I couldn't see the driver, the windows were tinted,” Linda
must have connected with the operator, for she said into
the phone, “I need an ambulance on the corner of Fifteenth
Street and San Jacinto. There's been a hit-and-run—“
“No.” Kate shook her head heavily. “No. This was no
accident.”
Slowly Linda pulled the phone away from her ear. “What do
you mean?”
“I've got a stalker.” Kate finally admitted it aloud. “I've
got a stalker.”
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