ExcerpTuesday: Rachel Brimble

Reluctant Witness

Professional singer Julia Kershaw is leaving town and moving on with her life. She desperately needs an escape from her mother’s grief over the loss of Julia’s brother – shot and killed by an overzealous cop – and an ex-boyfriend who refuses to accept it’s over.

But when she becomes the sole witness to the murder of a man she has known all her life, how can she leave without helping to find his killer? But how can she work with a cop after everything the police have put her family through?

When Detective Inspector Daniel Conway is removed from the city chaos he thrives on, and sent to a sleepy seaside town, the last thing he expects is a murder case.  With an impeccable record that he intends to keep that way, for  both personal and professional reasons, he refuses to allow his very beautiful, sexy – and secretive to walk away from the case. Or him.

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She opened the refrigerator door. “Do you want milk or cream in your coffee?” No answer. “Marcus?” 

And then he was there. Right behind her. His breath hot against the exposed nape of her neck. She gripped the milk carton tighter in her hand as she slowly straightened to find his six-foot frame looming over her like a phantom.

Fear beat a steady pulse at the base of her throat. “What are you doing?” she asked, forcing a laugh. “You scared the hell out of me.”

“Did I, Julia?  Did I really?”

Feeling incredibly hot despite the cold air coming from the open refrigerator door, Julia swallowed. “Please, Marcus. You have to stop this. It’s madness.”

“I only want to talk to you. It’s not a lot to ask,” he said, taking a piece of her hair and curling it around his finger. “I was hoping you were going to tell me all about the new Detective Inspector?”

Her heart picked up speed. “Inspector Conway?”

“Uh-huh. You’ve been spending a good amount of time with him.”  He inhaled a shaky breath. “Which makes no sense to me after what happened to Phil.”

She closed the refrigerator door. “Don’t do this.”

“Do what?  Remind you how a cop gunned down your brother in cold blood. Mistakenly thinking him an armed robber?”

“Marcus--”

He dropped her hair and grasping her shoulders, quickly spun her around. “No, Julia, no!  The whole town watched your poor mother’s heart be broken, saw your own hatred for the boys in blue. But now you’re stepping out with one as though you’re a couple?”

“I am not stepping out with him. I’m--”

“You’re what?  Come on, let me hear it. What are you doing with him?”

His face was white with anger. His face was so close to her own that she could smell the faint scent of a cigarette on his breath. Her stomach rolled.

Rachel lives with her husband and two young daughters in a small town near Bath in the UK.  Having always believed there’s someone for everyone, Rachel started writing her own tales of love once her children were at school.  Since then, she’s had several books published with The Wild Rose Press, Eternal Press and Lyrical Press.  She has recently acquired a US agent with her second Victorian historical. A member of the Romantic Novelists Association and Romance Writers of America, Rachel cannot imagine her life without romance or writing!

When she isn’t writing, you’ll find Rachel with her head in a book or walking the beautiful English countryside with her family.  And in the evening?  Well, a well-deserved glass of wine is never, ever refused…