AFTER SHE’S GONE
BY
SHERYL BROWNE
Genre:
Thriller
Release
Date: 21st Feb 2017
Publisher:
Choc Lit (Death by Choc Lit)
He’s killed your child and kidnapped your wife. What would YOU do?
There’s evil and then
there’s Patrick Sullivan. A drug dealer, pimp and murderer, there are no depths
to which Patrick would not sink, and Detective Inspector Matthew Adams has
found this out in the most devastating way imaginable.
When Patrick’s brother is shot dead in a drug bust gone wrong, the
bitter battle between the two men intensifies, and Matthew finds it
increasingly difficult to hold the moral high ground. All he wants is to make
the pimping scum suffer the way he did … the way Lily did.
But being at war with such a depraved individual means that it’s not
just Matthew who’s in danger. Patrick has taken a lot from Matthew, but he
hasn’t taken everything – and now he wants everything.
EXCERPT
Prologue
‘Oi, you can’t park there!’ a
police officer yelled as Matthew mounted the kerb, careering his car
haphazardly to a stop on the pavement.
His gut
twisting violently inside him, his head reeling, Matthew ignored him, ramming
his door open instead to scramble from the car and set off at a run.
‘What the …?’
Vaguely aware
of the man giving chase, Matthew kept going, attempting to push past another
officer closing in in front of him, only to be caught from behind.
‘Whoa. Come
on, mate, you need to get back.’ Taking hold of his arm, the officer behind
attempted to steer him away. ‘There’s been an accident up ahead. We need to
clear—’
‘Shit, it’s
Adams.’ The officer in front intervened.
‘Who?’ The man
still hanging on to his arm asked.
‘Detective
Inspector Adams,’ the officer in front supplied warily. ‘Let him through.’
Stumbling
forwards as the guy behind relaxed his grip, his legs like dead weights beneath
him, Matthew forced himself on, bypassing other officers, who now stood
respectfully aside.
His wife was
with her. Matthew swallowed back a hard knot in his throat. She was crouched
over her, holding her impossibly small hand in her own. She didn’t look up.
Rebecca kept her gaze focussed on their daughter. His daughter. Matthew felt something break inside him as he took in
his baby’s injuries, her broken body, the slow trickle of lifeblood pooling
beneath her, staining the drab, grey road crimson.
Please don’t. Matthew prayed hopelessly
as he moved closer. Please don’t do this.
The world seeming to slow to a stop around him, the use of his legs finally
deserting him, Matthew dropped to his knees at the side of the child he’d loved
with every fibre of his being ever since he’d first glimpsed her tiny form on
the monitor.
‘Hey,
Tigerlily,’ he said, his voice cracking as Lily’s eyes fluttered open. Wide
blue eyes, once crystal clear with the innocence of childhood, they were filled
with confusion and pain as she looked pleadingly up at him, silently begging
him, her daddy, to fix it. His heart turned over as her lips parted. She wanted
to speak. She couldn’t. Please don’t try
to speak, baby. Tears he couldn’t hope to hide streaming down his face,
Matthew leaned towards her, brushing her blood-matted, beautiful blonde hair
gently away from her face. ‘Daddy’s here, darling,’ he choked. ‘It’s going to
be just fine.’
Lies. Lies. He screamed inside. It was going
to be fine. It could never be. He couldn’t fix it. How could he let his little
girl go knowing he couldn’t? Cradling his baby gently in his arms, Matthew’s
heart splintered inside him as he watched her life ebb away.
****
They were taking her away in an
ambulance. What use was an ambulance?
Panic engulfing him, Matthew took a faltering step towards it, and stopped. He
couldn’t. Couldn’t ride with her,
watch as the warmth drained from her body, her baby-soft skin turning blue and
cold. Life fucking extinct.
‘Matthew!’
Rebecca called to him as, his chest heaving, Matthew turned away. Terrified of
what he might see in her eyes, he couldn’t turn back. This was his fault. He
should have been there. He’d promised to drive them to the cinema. He’d known
Patrick Sullivan might make good his threat. He should have been there! A potent mixture of grief
and rage broiling inside him, Matthew recalled his last encounter with the
sadistic piece of scum with sickening clarity. Sullivan’s expression hadn’t
altered when he’d informed him his brother had been an unfortunate casualty in
a drug bust gone wrong. Matthew had been surprised. Sullivan’s hatred of him
went way back since they were kids in school. Guessing he would hold him
personally responsible, Matthew had been bracing himself for Sullivan to reach
across the table and attack him right there in the prison interview room.
Instead, Sullivan had reached casually for a cigarette. Lighting up, he’d
glanced down and scratched his forehead slowly with his thumb.
‘How’s that
pretty young wife of yours, DI Adams? Pregnant again, isn’t she?’ he’d enquired
eventually, blowing smoke circles into the air as he’d looked back at him.
‘Give her my regards, won’t you?’
Sullivan had
then leaned forwards, a twisted smirk on his face, his eyes as black as
molasses and swimming with pure evil. ‘I would do it myself, but I’m a bit busy
… banged up … in here.’
It had been a threat. Innocent to
all ears but Matthew’s, it had been a direct threat. And now, still sitting
pretty in prison with a cast iron alibi, Sullivan was no doubt congratulating
himself on a job well done, imagining that he’d also succeeded in warning
Matthew off pursuing him once he got out. Wrong,
you bastard.
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ABOUT SHERYL BROWNE
Heartache, humour, love, loss &
betrayal, Sheryl Browne brings you edgy, sexy, heart-wrenching fiction. A
member of the Crime Writers’ Association, Romantic Novelists’ Association and
shortlisted for the Best Romantic
e-book Love Stories Award 2015, Sheryl has several books published and two
short stories in Birmingham City University anthologies, where she completed
her MA in Creative Writing.
Recommended to the publisher by the WH
Smith Travel fiction buyer, Sheryl’s contemporary fiction comes to you from
award winning Choc Lit.
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