If You Know Her: A Novel of Romantic Suspense

out.” She nipped his lower lip, then pulled back, staring at him. “And I was heading back. That’s where I was going, actually.”
    Law stared at her. Then, slowly, he started to smile. “Yeah?”
    “Yeah.” Curling up on the couch, she tucked herself against him and rested her head on his shoulder. “I do need to get on with my life, I know that. But I think thebest way to do that is going to involve you, Law. How do you feel about that?”
    His arms came around her, strong and sure. For a second, he didn’t respond. Then, his voice gruff, he said, “I feel pretty damn good about that, actually, seeing as how I came all the way out here to tell you that I love you.”
    She stiffened. “You … what?”
    “You heard me. Now it’s your turn. How do you feel about that?”
    Something warm bloomed inside her heart.
    Lifting her head, she laid a hand on his cheek. “I feel pretty damn good about it, too, if you want the truth. Because I think I love you, too.”
    He cocked a brow. “Think?”
    “Hey … gimme some time, Reilly.” She leaned forward, pressed her brow to his. “We got that, right?”
    “Yeah.” His hand curved over her nape. “We got all the time in the world, I guess.”
    As their mouths met, that heavy ache of pain in Nia’s heart finally started to ease.
    Yeah. All the time in the world … and maybe it wasn’t going to be the long, dark walk she’d been expecting.

Author’s Note
     
    Some creative license was taken with this trilogy. Carrington County is a fictional county set in Kentucky, roughly an hour away from Lexington.
    While I spoke with several lawyers and law-enforcement professionals while writing the stories, I realize certain aspects are still not going to be completely true to life. I hope it doesn’t take away from your enjoyment of them.

To my family, always to my family—I thank God for you. Every day, and it’s still not enough. I love you all.
    To friends who helped out along the way. Friends like Nicole, Natalie and Lime—rush jobs and crazy questions, they never faze you.
    To my agent Irene, who helps keep me sane, and my editor Kate, who has been so excited about this book, even from day one.

Acknowledgments
     
    There’s just no way I can thank everybody I need to thank, I don’t think. At least not without needing a lot more page space than my publisher can give me. But I do need to mention a few special people.
    Thank God for letting me live my dream, allowing me to use it in a way that lets me provide for the family You’ve given me.
    I know I’ve mentioned my editor Kate and my agent Irene and I could mention them a hundred times—it still wouldn’t fully express how much I appreciate them.
    Again, thanks to Terrie T, with the American Printing House for the Blind, and Kristeen H. Your help when I was trying to build Lena’s character and lay the groundwork for this trilogy was invaluable.
    The same to Detective Todd H—I’m sure he thought I was probably crazy when my husband and I showed up at his door one night and I started asking him a bunch of very
strange
questions.
    Nicole and Lime for insight into things of a legal persuasion, and fellow writer and friend Rosemary Laurey, although I can’t really explain why and how she helped me … not yet anyway.
    There are other writer friends, like Sylvia Day andShayla Black, who routinely talk me down when I’m losing it or boost me up when I’m needing it. As well as the time Allison Brennan took to chat with me at RWA, and in various e-mails while I was having numerous freak-outs … whether or not you remember, you helped me out more than you can imagine.
    Thanks to my readers as well. You are all so awesome … thanks for your support.

B Y S HILOH W ALKER
If You Hear Her

If You See Her

Read on for a preview
of the first two books in Shiloh Walker’s
thrilling romantic suspense trilogy!
IF YOU HEAR HER
and
IF YOU SEE HER

IF YOU HEAR HER
     

CHAPTER
ONE
     
    March 2010
    H ER NAME WAS C ARLY W ATSON .
    The final hours of her life were brutal.
    She didn’t know where she was. She didn’t know how long she’d been there. By that point, she was so wracked with pain, so desperate for escape, she barely remembered who she was.
    She was twenty-three. She was going to medical school. She was bright, eager, and before she’d fallen into this hell, she had loved life. Now she just prayed for it to end.
    She had been stuck in that hellish darkness for hours, days,