Closer Than Yesterday
Land’s End Series
Book Three
S.W. Frontz
Genre: mystery, romantic suspense
Date of Publication: April 21, 2017
ISBN: 978-1544728582
ASIN: B071RHTWSL
Number of pages: 206
Word Count: 62,212
Cover Artist: S.W. Frontz
Book Description:
Samantha Patrick's cousin Sarah has lived with an abusive husband for thirty years. After a brutal attack, she finally finds the courage to leave. Sarah goes to Land's End looking for safety and comfort with her family on this small, idyllic island but the horror is not over yet. Someone is stalking Sarah. Is it the abusive husband or someone else? Will Land's End be the place where Sarah finds new life, or it will be where it ends?
Excerpt:
Prologue
Johnson City, TN April 25, 2016
Leslie Jennings
carefully folded the last of her husband’s shirts and zipped up the
suitcase. She picked it up, struggling
as she did. Leslie was only 5’2, and
very slim. The suitcase was almost as big
as she. Leslie managed to get it to the
floor, where she raised the handle and rolled it to the top of the stairs. Now she had to get it downstairs without
making too much noise. Carter would
accuse her of trying to destroy his Louis Vuitton luggage. After ten minutes of pulling the luggage
down one stair at a time, Leslie finally rolled it to the front door. She ran quickly back upstairs and grabbed his
garment bag. She had already packed this
and she hurried back downstairs.
She was waiting
by the luggage when Carter came downstairs, his briefcase hanging from his
shoulder. He was dressed in a sharp gray
suit, white dress shirt, and patterned gray tie. Leslie studied him while he glanced through
his phone. Carter was of average
height, with graying brown hair and eyes.
He had sharp features and rarely smiled.
His only pleasure was making a sale.
He owned a real estate company and it was very successful. They had been married for thirty years and
they had no children.
Carter didn’t
like kids, so they didn’t have any. He glanced up from his phone and gave
Leslie the once-over. She was wearing
her scrubs, ready to go to work at the hospital after she dropped Carter off at
the airport. She worked the seven p.m.
to seven a.m. shift when he was gone on business trips. He thought if she worked at night, she
wouldn’t be out doing anything else. She didn’t know why it mattered if she was
seeing anyone or not.
He was not the
affectionate type and most of the time he acted like he hated Leslie. It wasn’t
an issue anyway, Leslie didn’t go anywhere outside of work and her
grandmother’s house. The only people she talked to were her co-workers and her
grandmother Jody. Carter didn’t allow
her to socialize with anyone other than someone he approved, and he didn’t
approve of anyone. “Looks like you’re ready to go. Is this all my stuff?”
Carter waved his
hand over the luggage. Leslie nodded.
“Yes, that’s it. I packed
everything you had on the list.” Carter picked up his garment bag and gestured
for Leslie to get his suitcase. She
picked it up and carried it to the car waiting right outside the door in their
driveway that curved around the front of the house. She couldn’t roll it; Carter would get
upset. She managed to get it in the
trunk of his Mercedes. He got in the
driver’s side and Leslie in the passenger side.
Silently they drove out of the subdivision.
Carter finally
spoke when they had gotten to the highway. “Tell me your schedule,” he
commanded. “After I drop you off, I’m going home to get my car. I’ll put yours in the garage. Then, I’m going to Jody’s to fix her supper,
then I’m off to work. I work the night
shift. I get off at seven a.m. I’ll go back to Jody’s and fix her breakfast,
then home for a few hours of sleep. Then
I’ll get up and complete the to-do list that you made.”
Carter nodded in
satisfaction. “Very good. I approve.” Leslie stared out the
window. How she would love to hit him
right in his arrogant face.
Well, that was
all going to change tonight. When she
finally made it to work tonight, she was going to leave her cell there. Carter had a tracking app on it. She had already spoken to her supervisor and
he had promised that he would help Leslie in any way that he could.
Leslie was going
to get on a Greyhound bus tonight and start her journey away from Carter. She had been saving money for months, a
little at a time and squirreling it away at Jody’s. She would go get the money and see Jody one
more time. After that, she was going to leave her car at the bus terminal and
take the bus to Memphis, rest, get on another bus to New Orleans, and slowly
make her way around the southeast coast to a little island town in North
Carolina called Land’s End.
Leslie had heard
Jody talk about the little town for years.
Leslie’s first cousin, Samantha, lived there with her husband, Andy, who
was also the sheriff of the town. Samantha
had never contacted Jody, but through the internet, Leslie had been able to
track them down for Jody. Even though she knew where they were, Jody wouldn’t
contact her. She was waiting for
Samantha to come to her. She knew what Samantha had been through, and Jody
didn’t want to bring back sad memories to Samantha until she was ready. Leslie thought it was a good a place as any
to start over. Maybe she and Samantha
could become friends. Carter didn’t know about Samantha. Jody had quite a bit of money and owned a
large historical home.
Carter thought
that Leslie was going to inherit all of it.
He didn’t mind if Leslie took care of Jody, in fact, he insisted that
she go there before and after work. If
he knew that there was someone else to split the inheritance with, he would be
very angry with Leslie, even though it wasn’t her fault. Leslie was tired of
being the recipient of his anger. When
they first married, she wasn’t aware of his violent temper or that he was a
control freak. She thought that the
reason he watched her every move and told her what to wear, who to be friends
with, etc., was because he cared about her.
Her parents had
died when Leslie was ten. Her grandmother had taken her in and raised her. Leslie loved Jody, but she had missed her
parents, especially her father terribly. That was one of the things that had
attracted her to Carter. He was several
years older than she was. He owned his
own business, home and he was very settled and mature for a man in his early
thirties.
The first time
she did something he didn’t approve of they had been married for a year. He had
backhanded her and bruised her cheek so badly that she had to wear pancake
makeup for over a week. It took her
while to figure out what set him off, but over the years she had managed to get
into his routine and kept herself from getting hurt.
They were
getting close to the airport and Carter started droning out instructions to
her. She could recite what he was
telling her in her sleep; but she answered him in the way he liked for her to
respond. No sense in getting him upset.
It was so close for time for her to leave; she could deal with him for a
few more minutes. He pulled up in front of the doors in the unloading zone. Leslie got out and waited for him to open the
trunk. She handed him his garment bag,
then pulled his suitcase out. He took
the handle from her. “I’ve got it from here.
Get my car home and put away. I
will see you in a week.”
Without any
further words, he went inside the terminal and Leslie got in to drive his car
home. He had always told her that he would kill her if she left. When she had celebrated her 55th birthday in
January, Leslie had known that this year was the year she had to leave. Living like this was killing her, and she
deserved a chance for happiness sometime in her life.
About the Author:
S.W. Frontz is the author of the Land’s End Series, which includes: When the Morning Comes, Don’t Look Back, and Closer Than Yesterday. S.W. is a native of Charlotte, NC but was raised in East Tennessee, where she still resides with her husband, Rusty, of 21 years, and their furbaby, Mandy.
S.W. has been an avid reader since a child. Her favorite genres are mystery, suspense, and Southern humor. Favorite authors include John Sanford, Erica Spindler, Karen Robards, Lee Childs, James Lee Burke, and Fannie Flagg.
S.W plans on continuing the Land’s End Series, at least for a few more books. Book four is in the first draft stage.
S.W. is a nominee for the 2017 Top Female Author and a member of the Southeastern Writer’s Association.
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