The Torment of Rachel Ames (12 page)

She knows she’s making a terrible mistake, but that’s never stopped her before. Even as she speeds down the empty highway, she’s certain nothing good will come of this trip. She can’t say why she has this belief, only that it’s deeply rooted, part of a visceral animal instinct clawing away at her insides. Call it intuition. Or call it common sense, doesn’t matter. Doesn’t change the fact that it’s the truth.

She refuses to change her destination, even if her rising sense of dread causes her heart to beat right out of her chest. She’s committed, this much is a fact, so she pushes aside all thought of turning around and focuses on the road ahead.

Before long, she pulls into the driveway of the cabin. There’s a bull’s skull standing guard, bleached white by the sun. She knocks on the door to no answer so she walks along the side of the house toward the water.

“Can I help you?” a man’s voice says to her left.

She’s so taken by the view that she doesn’t even turn.

“I don’t think you can,” she whispers.

“Will you let me try?”

She turns to the man walking toward her and meets his eyes.

“Yes,” she says. “Please.”

D
ear Reader
,

Thank you three times.

First, thank you for supporting a fellow human being’s passion. I think it makes you a good person and makes up for that one thing you did in high school (you know what I’m talking about).

Second, thank you for being part of the community of readers. Each time you write a review, recommend a book to a friend or share a new novel through social media, you help keep the fire for books alive. Those of us who scribble stories late into the night are completely in your debt. If you can write even a short review right now when the book is fresh in your mind, it would be greatly appreciated.

Lastly, thank you for your time. As a father of five and an avid reader (labels that can seem mutually exclusive at times), I recognize every book you open represents a hard choice among thousands of options. I’m awed and humbled that you chose to spend your valuable time within these pages. I hope that I proved to be worthy of your trust.

Readers have asked me more often about my inspiration for RACHEL AMES than for any other book. Many wonder if I’m trying to process a personal tragedy in my own life through these pages. Fortunately, that is not the case.

However, readers may notice the recurrence of children-in-jeopardy throughout my books. This was not intentional but just how my mind works. As a dad, I can think of nothing more devastating or irrecoverable as the loss of a child. I’m so protective and so fearful for my five kids that if I didn’t exorcise some of my demons on these pages, I don’t think I could bear it.

For those readers who have experienced the pain of losing a child, some of who have written to me that they can relate the madness on the pages here, my entire heart goes out to you. It’s said time heals all wounds. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but I like to think that it is and that even the grieving father or mother can somehow find calm and peace in their world again. That is my hope and prayer.

With appreciation,

Jeff Gunhus

J
eff Gunhus is
the author of the Amazon bestselling supernatural thrillers,
Night Chill
and
Night Terror
and the thriller
Killer Within
. He also writes the middle grade/YA series,
The Templar Chronicles
. The first book of the series,
Jack Templar Monster Hunter
, was written in an effort to get his reluctant reader eleven-year-old son excited about reading. It worked and a new series was born. His book
Reaching Your Reluctant Reader
has helped hundreds of parents create avid readers. As a father of five, he and his wife Nicole spend most of their time chasing kids and taking advantage of living in the great state of Maryland. In rare moments of quiet, he can be found in the back of the City Dock Cafe in Annapolis working on his next novel. If you see him there, sit down and have a cup of coffee with him. You just might end up in his next book.

Come say hello at:

• @jeffgunhus
  
• jeffgunhusauthor