Hunting a killer is easy, unless you’re planning a wedding.
Josephine ‘Jo’ Rayburn finally landed the lieutenant’s rank after her last case. She was exactly where she wanted to be professionally and personally now that Rhysian ‘Rhys’ Harrison had asked her to marry him. However, nothing is ever easy as Jo and her team have been tasked with helping uncover an international serial killer, one who is using a game Rhys’s brother plays and calling themselves Slenderman.
The deeper she digs the more it comes to light that the killer was actually responsible for one of Jo’s first homicide cases. A case she never solved.
Between planning a wedding that does not involve rainbow colored bridesmaids’ dresses or a virginal white wedding dress, and hunting a killer who’s plied their trade for years without being caught Jo’s two worlds are colliding.
Will this be the case Jo never solves? Or will she catch the killer while tying the knot with her man?
**Previously published through Soul Mate Publishing. Minor changes.**
Excerpt ~
“You need to quit worrying. Ian, Sullivan, and I will keep poking until something shakes loose. You’ve got Ian and me for at least another week since we’re meeting with Birmingham’s police chief and the mayor on Monday. Then we have to drive to Tennessee to give an update then to Georgia to update their brass.”
“Fine. But I’ll keep digging at least until my wedding in April.” Jo would be damned if she would let this guy get away twice. Bad enough he got away with killing Mark all those years ago. She couldn’t leave the man out there stabbing other innocent people. “I’ve got to go.”
She felt torn. On the one hand, she wished she’d given into temptation and eloped with Rhys so she would be free to focus wholly on this case. On the other hand, she knew this was a growth process because she needed to learn how to better balance her work and her personal life. A headache formed behind her eyes.
“You all still have the case. I’ll touch base with you after your dress shopping,” Redden replied and hung up.
Huffing, Jo stepped from the car and headed into the dress shop only to freeze as soon as she opened the shop door. Dresses her mother had already chosen hung on an empty rack to the right. Pink, green, blue, and yellow some dark, some light were mixed with no order. It looked as if someone puked a rainbow onto the rack. The rainbow effect became more prominent when Maddy added two more dresses, a lavender and a dark purple.
“Mom, I don’t want all these bright colors–” She groaned. This would be yet another battle. More so since she wasn’t exactly sure what colors she did want.
“But weddings are meant to be magical.” Maddy pulled Jo from her circling thoughts on how to compromise without having her wedding turn into a swirling circus of color.
Jo looked to Terry for help. She should have known they would clash over bridesmaid dresses again. Simple and elegant was one thing that Maddy knew, but Jo hated all the colors. Dragging a hand over her face, she prepared for an uphill fight. “I’m not having light pink in my wed–”
“It’s blush, dear.”
“I don’t care if it’s Moulin Rouge. I am not a pink person.” Jo motioned to her body. “I’m a black and gray person.”
Maddy’s jaw dropped, and Terry, Sullivan, and Arabelle hurried to the other side of the room. Sullivan pointed to a cute princess dress to distract Arabelle while Terry listened avidly.
“Josephine Lavette Rayburn, you are not using your gun as the colors of your wedding.”
Jo perked up. Wait. That was possible? But wasn’t black for funerals? “Oh, I didn’t think of that–”
“No!” Maddy squawked.
It was Terry who finally intervened with her calm presence. “Maddy, think of the colors more like pewter silver and black as a raven’s wing.”
Those sounded pretty when Terry said it. Black like her gun and pewter like Jo’s bullets. Oh yeah, she really wanted those colors now.
“Crap. We’re going to use guns for the wedding colors.” Maddy sighed.