By
USA Today Bestselling Author
Jen Talty

She’ll trust him with her nephew,
but can she trust him with her heart?

Lacy DeGeorgio has always prided herself on her independence and self-reliance. She never expected to be responsible for anyone other than herself. However, when a tragic boating accident claims the life of her sister Hannah, Lacy finds herself thrust into a custody battle for her eleven-year-old nephew, Andy. As if that wasn’t challenging enough, she also has to contend with the persistent presence of State Trooper Frank Harmon. Despite her initial resistance, Frank begins to break down her defenses and awaken desires she never thought she would have. While Lacy is willing to trust Frank with the care of her nephew, she wonders if she can trust him with her own heart.

Frank Harmon is a dedicated New York State Trooper who believes in upholding the law and serving justice. He has always followed the rules and believes in the system. However, everything changes when he responds to a domestic disturbance call at the DeGeorgio trailer and is forced to walk away, knowing something terrible is about to happen. Two days later, he discovers Hannah DeGeorgio’s lifeless body in the icy waters of Lake George, forever altering his perspective. Driven by a need for justice, Frank becomes determined to find Hannah’s killer. In the process, he unexpectedly finds himself creating a home for a family he never thought he wanted, and his feelings for Lacy begin to blur the line between duty and personal desire.

Sergeant Frank Harmon is patrolling Lake George when he spots two jet skis and their riders throwing water balloons and spraying waves at a boat full of girls. Fun he could ignore but they were driving recklessly and had already almost caused a couple of accidents. One of the riders gets away, but Frank thinks he knows him. The other one, Andy, isn’t so lucky. He doesn’t want his aunt to know but that’s just not happening, and Frank follows him to his home dock. Frank’s thinking about stopping at the Lake Pub when he gets off in two hours hoping to see the new waitress, Lacy. They’ve been flirting for a couple of months now but nothing more than getting to know each other. She’s turned him down for a date but the last time he asked she said maybe so…challenge accepted. When they arrive, Frank tells him to get his aunt, but then he sees Lacy coming toward them.

The last thing Frank expected was for the aunt to be Lacy and the other thing to be the source of his guilt. The death of her sister Hannah. He also learns that Andy’s father is harassing Lacy, and, in her opinion, no one is doing anything about it. With what he knows about what happened to Hannah, Frank finds this to be concerning. He tells her he’ll look into it and gives her his card with his business number and writes down personal cell number as well. He also tells her call him if something happens and only to call 911 if it’s an emergency but to call him as well.

The next evening while Lacy is enjoying the relatively peaceful evening, reflecting on the changes in her life and how she’s going to fight the custody suit Taylor is filing. When someone throws a rock through their trailer window.

This is a favorite scene.

The good lawyers she needed to fight Taylor cost money. Money she didn’t have. Her job at The Beach Side Hotel wasn’t enough, and Andy certainly wasn’t helping with all his shenanigans making her look like an unfit guardian. Her best bet was someone like Frank who just might believe her story. Or at the very least, check it out. No one had ever suggested there might be some validity to her complaints.

She wanted to believe in Frank, but she didn’t trust cops. They lied to cover their own asses, and they shot innocent people like her father.

Loud music echoed in the night from another trailer, but that didn’t muffle the twig that snapped from somewhere behind her. She gripped her cell phone as the air in her lungs deflated. Slowly, she turned to look over her shoulder.

The house was dark except for the single nightlight glowing in the kitchen window. It had been at least an hour since Andy had fallen asleep, so it couldn’t have been him. She heard faint footsteps right before a loud bang, followed by shattering glass. Suddenly lights flashed in the grassy roadway. A pickup truck squealed its tires as it sped through the trailer park.

“Damn you,” she whispered, fiddling with the phone and digging in her pockets for Frank’s card. With trembling hands, she punched the numbers and ran toward the house.

“Aunt Lacy!” Andy cried out. “Where are you?”

“Right here,” she hollered back. “Are you hurt?” she questioned him as she bolted through the front door. “Did you see anything?”

“Harmon here,” Frank’s voice bellowed in her ear.

She jumped. “Shit, you scared me.”

“Hey, you called me. Who is this?”

“It’s Lacy. Could you come over? Something’s happened.”

“Aunt Lacy, look.” Andy pointed to a rock.

“Someone tossed a rock through my window,” she said, knowing it had to be Taylor. Who else would want to scare her?

“I’ll be there in ten. Hang tight and don’t touch anything.” The phone went dead.

“Was that the cop from yesterday?” Andy asked, his tone back to its normal negative pitch, but terror still lurked in his almond-colored eyes.

“He’s going to help us.” She hoped. A sense of desperation had forced her to call.

“All he wants is to get into your pants.” Andy turned to leave.

“Oh, no, you don’t, buster. Sit your ass down in that chair and wait for Sergeant Harmon. And you’re going to be polite.” She opted to ignore Andy’s other comment. She knew he’d only said it to get a rise out of her. The shrink told her to focus on his attitude, not his words. “And change your tone.” Besides, she wanted to believe that Frank was being genuine, but he was a cop. And a man. Two strikes against him in her book.

He rolled his eyes. “Yes, ma’am.”

She stared at him, trying to ignore the urge to throttle him. Rarely did he call her Aunt Lacy. It usually happened when he wanted something, when he was in trouble, or when he had the nightmare. She hated the nightmare because she couldn’t figure out the parts he yelled out, and he wouldn’t clue her in on the dream. He always said it was nothing, but she knew better. That dream held some of the answers to their problems.

“What happened to you?” she whispered, but by the way Andy flinched, she knew he had heard her.

“You spend too much time talking with that doctor. She thinks I’m suffering from some post-bad-thing or something.”

“Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.”

“Whatever.” Andy plopped down on the couch, grabbed the remote, and started flipping through the channels. “Maybe if you just let me be, I’d be normal.”

Normal? Was he serious? There wasn’t anything normal about their situation. Mentally counting to ten so she didn’t say something she’d regret later, Lacy stepped out onto the front stoop. She leaned against the side of the house and waited until she could see red lights flickering from the main road. A State Trooper car rolled to a stop in front of her, and Frank stepped from the vehicle.

She tried not to notice Frank, or the reaction her body had to him, but from the moment she’d first met him, she thought he was attractive. More like damn hot. He had blue eyes, dark hair, and tanned skin. His body was long and lean, not bulky like some cops. She’d never seen him in anything other than a white T-shirt, jeans, and a baseball cap, until yesterday, when he showed up in uniform, which changed everything.

“Thanks for coming.” She pushed herself from the house and pointed to the window. “Andy was asleep on the couch. He says he didn’t see anything. All I saw was a dark pickup race away. I know it had to be Taylor.”

“Does Taylor see Andy regularly?”

“What does that have to do with a rock in my window?”

“It might go to motive,” Frank responded as he scanned the area in true cop form.

She wasn’t sure what he meant by motive, but it couldn’t hurt to answer the question. “Taylor isn’t supposed to have any contact with Andy unless it’s planned and supervised by the social worker in charge of the case.”

“I see.” Frank peered in the window and then took a few steps backward, hands on his hips as he looked around. “Who had custody before Hannah died, and why is there an issue now?”

“Hannah had custody, and Taylor rarely forced the minimal visitation he had a right to. I was named Andy’s guardian, but Taylor has all of a sudden decided he wants to be a father.” She pushed open the door and let Frank in, mentally giving herself a kick in the ass for checking him out, but he looked damn good in the uniform.

“Where’s Andy now?”

“Back on the couch, sulking.” She sighed, propping herself against the doorjamb. She was tired of seeing Andy upset and on edge all the time, but she didn’t know what to do to help him. “Things had been going well enough until the papers came indicating that visitation by Taylor would be mandatory soon,” she heard herself say. Shut up, Lacy.

Frank glanced at her. “Could Andy have done this?”

“No,” she snapped. “Or did you already forget the truck burning rubber out of here moments after it happened?” She took in a few deep breaths, trying to calm herself down. Andy might be a troubled kid, but he wouldn’t do this. She had to believe that.

“Just asking,” he said. “I’ve got a couple of buddies coming.” Frank made some notes on a pad while he looked around the kitchen. “Can you give me a description of the vehicle?”

“Dark pickup, like Taylor’s.” She folded her arms across her chest. There was no stopping the fury pumping through her veins. Damn cops were all the same.

“I know at least ten people with dark trucks. Did you actually see him? Anyone?” Frank snapped on plastic gloves as he scanned the room. He seemed intent and focused. Very different from the laid-back, easygoing guy she’d met at the restaurant.

“I heard him but didn’t actually see him.” She so wanted to lie and say she’d seen the license plate number, or saw him, or something, but if she got caught, it would only make her look bad.

He turned to face her, his eyes narrow and his jaw set in a determined line. “Anyone ever hear him threaten you? Say bad things about you?”

She paused, unsure of the turn in conversation. Why would he care? Did he believe her? “Not that I know of. Why?”

“What about Andy?”

She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I’m not sure.” All these questions were throwing her for a loop. The last time cops where here, they hadn’t seemed interested in her problem with Taylor, and had just placed the blame on Andy and his punk friends.

“Mind if I talk with Andy?”

“About what?” Even if Andy did see something, he’d never turn in his father. And she didn’t really want Frank to upset him more.

“He might be able to offer a clue, even if he doesn’t think he saw or heard anything. You never know.” Frank’s expression softened as he made eye contact with her, almost as if he cared.

“Go ahead.” She waved Frank toward the back of the trailer. “Just be careful; he can be a tad testy.”

“So, I’ve seen.”

She stifled her chuckle. It wouldn’t be appropriate, but Frank hadn’t seen anything yet. Whatever had happened to Andy had changed his soul. She watched Frank move the ten steps from the kitchen to the family room. Maybe this is exactly what the doctor ordered.

Maybe Frank, uniform and all, could break down the barriers Andy had built up, and just maybe she’d be able to figure out what Andy was hiding.

And put Taylor where he belonged.
Talty, Jen. Dark Water (New York State Trooper Series Book 2). Kindle Locations (230-300). Jupiter Press. Kindle Edition.

Frank is walking a thin line as he helps Lacy while keeping his involvement with the events leading to her sister’s death a secret from her.

I really love the way Frank works with Andy, and I really wish he had been more open from the beginning with Lacy. There’s plenty of twists in this book as Frank investigates what he can, but he also hires a private investigator in Lacy’s name to do what he can’t. Andy is a master of deflection when it comes to answering things he doesn’t want to which doesn’t help either. He’s also falling head over heels for Lacy and she for him, but his secret could destroy it all.

5 Contented Purrs for Jen!

Jen Talty

Welcome to my World! I’m a USA Today Bestseller of Romantic Suspense, Contemporary Romance, and Paranormal Romance.

I first started writing while carting my kids to one hockey rink after the other, averaging 170 games per year between 3 kids in 2 countries and 5 states. My first book, IN TWO WEEKS was originally published in 2007. In 2010 I helped form a publishing company (Cool Gus Publishing) with NY Times Bestselling Author Bob Mayer where I ran the technical side of the business through 2016.

I’m currently enjoying the next phase of my life…the empty NESTER! My husband and I spend our winters in Jupiter, Florida and our summers in Rochester, NY. We have three amazing children who have all gone off to carve out their places in the world, while I continue to craft stories that I hope will make you readers feel good and put a smile on your face.