Happy Wednesday Friends! I hope everyone is doing great!

Special thanks to Angelica Dawson for rallying authors together to share teases every week.

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This week’s tease is from my upcoming suspense title, AWAKENINGS.

Here, Detectives, Alicia has already been suspended from the force for her actions (in last week’s MWTease) and she now has her cousin to deal with, when they receive terrible news.
(C) Kacey Hammell,2016
Alicia opened her mouth to tell her to mind her own business when her cousin’s cell phone rang. Saved by the bell. Glad for the reprieve even though adrenaline boiled in her veins as if in a fight, she turned away and grabbed her empty gun holster off the couch. She put it away on the top shelf of the armoire near her front door.
“Alicia, you know you’re not to blame for what happened to Monica. It wasn’t your fault.”
Alicia should have known Brady would tap into everything she might feel and think. There was no way to hide from him. A seer, he sometimes had a sense of what others were going through—horrific or joyful. But without him, she wouldn’t be alive right now. She owed him her life and someday she hoped she’d be able to repay him.
Her hand on his arm, Alicia smiled into his clear-blue eyes. “I know. I do, but it’s really mind over matter isn’t it?” She lowered her hand and gave him a weak smile, then turned her back on him. “This too shall pass…someday.”
“Ali….” Whatever Brady was about to say, Isabella’s curse rent through the apartment, interrupting him.
“Fucking Christ! Some days are just fucked. God dammit!”
With a flurry of movement, Isabella grabbed her coat from where she’d thrown it on the sofa and jammed her arms into the sleeves.
Alicia breathed a sigh of relief, glad Brady couldn’t lecture her on all the reasons she shouldn’t blame herself.
“Izzy, what is it?” Brady walked to her and clasped her shoulders with both hands. Instantly, Isabella’s movements slowed to a crawl and she heaved a deep sigh.
Alicia’s heart clenched at the display before her. Brady was the best thing to ever happen to Isabella. He was the calm in her soul, the root beneath her that kept her holding on. Alicia was envious of the connection the two had.
Once upon a time, she’d fantasized of her own knight in shining armor coming into her life. Now, she figured love and happily-ever-after were not all they were cracked up to be. She couldn’t keep herself safe. How the hell would she ever keep a husband or children safe in the world she lived in?
“Alicia?”
Pulled from her own thoughts by the sound of Isabella’s voice, she lifted her gaze to her cousin’s face. From the sadness and anger within her gaze, the call she’d received couldn’t be good.
“What is it?”
“Connor was on the phone. I have to get over to the Hopeful. Hannah’s been hurt.”
Alicia’s breath hitched at the thought of her friend, Hannah Isaacs, being injured. The Hopeful Shelter took in the homeless, helped battered and abused women seek another place to live, to escape an abusive husband or significant other.
Hannah helped so many women in their town, and even in surrounding areas, she deserved a medal for her goodness and her constant caring of others. She was a godsend to many children, abused women, the homeless.
“What’s happened?”
“I shouldn’t even be telling you this….”
“Save it, Isabella.” Alicia moved closer to her cousin. “You can’t give me vague answers and then just quit! We’re friends. What’s happened to her?”
With a hard sigh, Isabella met her gaze. “She was found this morning by one of the shelter’s volunteers. I don’t have all the details yet, but she’s on her way to Memorial Hospital. She was beaten and possibly raped.”
Alicia grabbed the back of the couch.
Dear God—evil, it never stops.

 AWAKENINGS releases February 24th!

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