REMEMBER ME (Secrets of Spirit Creek Book 1) Read online

  REMEMBER ME

  ―book one―

  THE SECRETS OF SPIRIT CREEK SERIES

  The secrets outnumber the population

  He can’t remember…

  She can’t forget…

  Reclusive artist Tori Amhearst is shocked to hear new DNA tests have proved the man she identified as her rapist is innocent. Consumed with guilt over her part in his wrongful conviction, Tori’s determined to make amends.

  Finally cleared of a crime he didn’t commit, Lincoln Caruso has vowed to find the monster who took ten years of his life. But an inmate fight leaves him hospitalized, with no job, no money…and no memory. Desperate to get his life back, he accepts help from Tori Amhearst, who claims to be an old college friend. The pretty woman has offered him a place to stay while recovering and it’s an offer he can’t refuse. As passion ignites and love grows, remembering gets even more urgent. Because Linc doesn’t trust himself. DNA proved he wasn’t guilty, but for all he knows, he’s as evil as the prosecutors claimed him to be.

  Tori never imagined falling in love with the man she sent to prison, and Linc’s quest to remember his past challenges their fragile bond. Tori is as desperate to see the rapist behind bars as Linc is and agrees to help him track down the monster. But if Linc’s memory returns and he discovers who she really is, she’ll lose everything.

  Misguided loyalty, bitter betrayal, dangerous obsession and covert passions…the Secrets of Spirit Creek will astound you!

  PRAISE FOR LINDA’S NOVELS

  Winner of the Daphne du Maurier Award

  Winner of the Orange Rose Award

  Holt Medallion Award of Merit

  USA TODAY Best Romance of 2012 List

  Romance Writers of America Honor Roll of Bestselling Authors

  “Linda Style writes an intriguing, fast-moving, intelligent story. I’ll be on the lookout for more.”

  —Linda Lael Miller, NY Times & USA Today bestselling author

  “Linda Style’s DETROIT RULES is a brilliant crime thriller with a gutsy, streetwise heroine! Mystery, danger, seduction, and action, this big novel has it all! –Eve Paludan, national bestselling author.

  “Trust Linda Style to always offer a fascinating story and DETROIT RULES is no exception.”

  “Fast-paced action, high emotion and many surprises along the way. I love Linda Style novels and DETROIT RULES may be my favorite book she’s written.”

  “Absolutely spellbinding. A great plot…extraordinary in every way.” —Coffee Time Reviews

  “A tale of striking intensity…a compelling romance. Style has a gift for creating intriguing settings and characterizations …escape to a world of danger, intrigue and passion. A compelling romance.”

  —Cindy Penn, Midwest Book Review

  “An exhilarating romantic suspense that keeps readers wondering until the end. Action-packed…a strong intrigue.” —Harriet Klausner, The Best Reviews

  “…Style writes with style… Style writes highly original stories that include characters with great depth. An exciting, heart-stopping reading experience you won’t want to miss. It proves once again, Ms. Style writes with style.” —Suzanne Tucker, Old Book Barn Gazette

  “A riveting read that will leave readers glued to the pages. Ms. Style has a flair for suspense. A series you won’t want to miss. —Romance Designs

  “Tense, suspenseful and full of surprises. The pages seem to turn by themselves. When a story engages my mind as well as my emotions, I know I’m hooked.” —The Romance Reader

  “Great Story! So intense, with strong feelings of love and betrayal. Mystery and danger…another couldn’t put it down story you’ll really love.” —Rendezvous Magazine

  “Brilliantly creative, an engrossing read of romance and suspense…strong characters and a beguiling plot.” —Donna Zapf, Cataromance

  Secrets of Spirit Creek Series

  In Spirit Creek, the secrets outnumber the people

  LINDA STYLE

  DEDICATION

  As always, to my beautiful (and totally awesome) family

  Chuck, Timothy & Theresa, Todd, Barry, Jason & Kelly,

  Courtney, Connor, Kylie, Luke, Jack, and Kasey

  Your everlasting love and support is what keeps me on this incredible journey

  CONTENTS

  DEAR READER

  PROLOGUE

  CHAPTER ONE

  A NOTE FROM LINDA

  TRUST ME EXCERPT

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  OTHER BOOKS FROM LINDA

  AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

  COPYRIGHT

  Dear Reader,

  My memories of the summers I spent with my grandmother in a small town in rural Minnesota are powerful and enduring. That’s why I’ve chosen a small fictional town as my setting for this series. Spirit Creek, Arizona, is a lot like the old Andy Griffith TV show, or Cheers, where everyone knows your name and people watch out for one another. But as unaffected as small-town life sometimes seems, when you dig a little deeper, you’ll find complex relationships, intrigue and drama…and lots of secrets. Spirit Creek is no exception.

  In REMEMBER ME, Tori Amhearst, aka Victoria Culhaine, has a big secret. Only her two best friends know she was brutally assaulted at seventeen and that the man she identified as her rapist spent ten years in prison because of it. When he’s now found innocent, she’s horrified and at a loss over what to do to make amends.

  Lincoln Crusoe wishes he could remember anything…or anyone. After a prison fight before his release from prison and awakening in the hospital with amnesia, he’s happy to see Tori, someone he believes is his friend. All he wants to do is get his life back. And he wants his friend Tori to help him.

  As a writer, it seemed that two lives inextricably joined by such tragic circumstances would be impossible to get together and untangle. But at its heart, this book is about love and forgiveness, and confronting the ghosts of the past, and I believed Tori and Linc needed the opportunity to try. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed spending time in Spirit Creek with Tori and Linc, and had fun with some other interesting characters who make Spirit Creek their home. I hope you enjoy them, too.

  Be sure to watch for the next Spirit Creek story, TRUST ME, book two in the series, coming soon, and after that, RESCUE ME, book three. I always love to hear from readers, and you can contact me from my web site at www.LindaStyle.com. If you’d like a FREE BOOK, and be first to get news about my upcoming releases, freebies and contests, all you have to do is sign up for my occasional newsletter at www.LindaStyle.com

  Happy Reading!

  Linda

  PROLOGUE

  Arizona State Prison

  Florence, Arizona

  “DON’T GET YOUR HOPES UP, Crusoe. You’re not going anywhere.” The guard scoffed as he strolled past Linc’s narrow cell.

  Hope. What the hell was that? Linc drew his hands into fists and gritted his teeth, forcing himself not to tell the bastard what he could do to himself.

  But it was true. He wasn’t going anywhere. Not yet. Linc still had to be processed. The ubiquitous paperwork had to be done. And the unfathomable delays made the public defender’s recent revelation seem unreal. A dream. Just the way he’d felt ten years ago.

  Only that had been a nightmare. Two years of depositions, court motions and subpoenas before he’d finally had a trial. He’d lost everything. His fiancée…his scholarship to law school…his friends…and his dog.

  His mother, who’d been battling cancer for a year when he was arrested, had passed away during the trial. She’d been his champion, never believing for an instant that he was guilty…or would be convicted. Every day she’d shown up in court, her face
drawn, dark circles coloring the thin skin under her eyes, her body rail thin and wasting away in front of him. She’d looked ten years older than the last time she’d visited him in jail while he awaited trial, and the helpless, forlorn look in her eyes haunted his dreams. He was just grateful she hadn’t been there to see him hauled away.

  Now, just two days ago, a fresh-out-of-law-school attorney couldn’t understand why Linc wasn’t excited about the news that DNA had proved him innocent of rape. The twenty-something kid, filled with the belief that justice would always prevail, hadn’t a clue how things could go sour in an instant.

  The only reason they’d done new DNA testing was because a suspect in another crime claimed he had information on an unsolved rape that was strikingly similar to the crime in which Linc had been convicted, and the similarity had prompted another look at Linc’s case. Ironically, while the findings hadn’t been conclusive in their unsolved crime, the new tests had proved Linc innocent.

  Sheer luck and newer, more sophisticated, DNA testing procedures was all it took. If the DNA testing done years ago had been as advanced, he may never have even seen the inside of prison. But the original test wasn’t conclusive and most damaging of all…the prosecution had an eyewitness.

  All these years, the only people who really knew he was innocent were Linc and the scumbag rapist who’d been free this whole time. And possibly the woman who’d sealed his fate—the woman who’d identified Linc as her attacker.

  He flopped onto his bunk, stretched out, hands behind his head. When he was outside, free to walk away and never look back—that’s when he’d get excited.

  “Yo, homey!” The distinct drawl came from the adjoining cell. Snake.

  Linc pulled upright, muscles taut. Snake, the recently transferred lowlife from the ADMAX prison in Colorado, the Alcatraz of the Rockies, where the most dangerous criminals in the US were sent, had been baiting Linc since the day he arrived.

  “We got business to finish,” Snake growled.

  They had business all right, and he wanted to finish it more than Snake did. But he wasn’t going to screw up a possible release to even a score. Payback—personal satisfaction—wasn’t worth crap if he had to do another millisecond longer in this hellhole than he had to.

  “I’m comin’ for you, pretty boy,” Snake taunted.

  Hot blood pumped through Linc’s veins. His former cell mate had warned him to watch his back around Snake, a lifer known for taking down anyone on the “good behavior” list. Especially short-timers.

  A couple of months ago, Linc’s cell mate had been one of those guys on the list, eager to go home to his wife and kids. He’d been Linc’s only real friend for the past four years. But instead of going home to his family, he’d left in a box. The yard had been full when it happened, but no one would ever know who’d done it because no con ever ratted out another. Not if they wanted to survive. Even the guards turned a blind eye. In their minds, prisoners were the bad guys and deserved whatever they got.

  Linc hadn’t seen the attack, but he knew who’d done it, and someday the guy was going to pay…one way or another.

  “I’m waiting,” Linc shouted back, tacking on an obscenity at the end. He’d learned within hours of his incarceration that he had to respond in kind—even if he did nothing to back it up. Behind bars, self-preservation was everything. Never back down, his first cellmate had advised. Stand your ground.

  But if there was even a remote chance that what the attorney said was true, he had to stay cool. And if his release was true, he’d get a hell of a lot more satisfaction walking out with a smile on his face.

  If.

  Deciding to make one last entry in the journals he’d been keeping for years, he stood to get the notepad from the shelf where he kept it. He tipped the box. Empty? What the hell… He did a 360, eyes darting, heart thumping. Gone. His journals were gone!

  His pulse pounded like thunder in his ears as he ripped the threadbare blanket from the bed, tore the thin mattress from the springs.

  Nothing.

  Ten years of writing…gone. Ten years of letting all the anger, desperation and longing to feel like a human being again bleed onto paper. It was all there. His broken spirit. His wretched soul.

  He leaned forward, head bent between outstretched arms, palms flat against the wall. His stomach knotted, all the air left his lungs, and he couldn’t breathe… as if he’d been gut punched…as if his heart had been ripped from his chest.

  The unmistakable grate of metal against metal startled him—the cell door sliding open behind him. He swung around.

  “Missing somethin’, preppy?” Snake stood in the open doorway, feet apart, a crumpled wad of yellow paper in his hand.

  The guard stood to the side, looking away as Snake chucked the paper over his shoulder.

  White-hot adrenaline roared through Linc, but just as he was about to charge the bastard, he saw the guard smile.

  Linc froze. Every muscle. Because that’s exactly what they wanted. He clenched his jaws. Planted his feet.

  “C’mon,” Snake taunted. “Come and get me. You know you want to.”

  He did. More than anything. Except his freedom.

  Getting no response, Snake stepped inside the cell and jammed his fingers into Linc’s chest with enough force to shove him back a step. Linc stood sentinel, stone-faced, tamping down the rage boiling inside. Snake jabbed him again, harder. Then again, pushing Linc back another step.

  Linc crossed his arms, lifted his chin and allowed his mouth to curve into a smile.

  Snake’s nostrils flared. He swung out, but Linc caught his arm in motion, then twisted it around to get behind the guy. Only Snake landed a kidney punch and two more blows before getting a lock on Linc’s neck.

  Blood pounded in his ears. Rage flicked like strobe lights in Linc’s head. He got off a groin punch. Snake’s hold eased just enough for Linc to lower a shoulder. He grabbed Snake’s arm and, holding it straight out, gave one swift shove to the elbow from underneath. Ligaments popped, rendering the arm useless.

  On high-octane adrenaline, his fist like a jackhammer, Linc smashed Snake’s face. Heard nose bones crunch. But at the last crush of flesh against flesh, he caught the glint of a razor-sharp shiv in Snake’s other hand. Linc dodged sideways and landed a double-fisted hammer to the back of Snake’s head. The scum fell to his knees. Linc clasped his hands and raised them up for a final strike, but searing-hot pain jagged from his calf down to his ankle. He stumbled, sucked air through his teeth. He willed away the pain. Threw another punch. Missed…

  And never saw the head butt coming.

  CHAPTER ONE

  “DO YOU KNOW anything more about her?”

  Eyebrows raised, the nurse at Linc’s side reached to help him shift position in the hospital bed. “Only that she’s been here every day sitting at your side, so I suspect you were very good friends.”

  An apple-cheeked motherly type, the nurse reached to plump his pillow. “There, is that more comfortable?”

  “It’s as good as it’s going to get.” How comfortable could anyone be with one leg up in a truss and an arm in a sling? He glanced over and saw a young woman in the shadows near the doorway, apparently waiting for the okay to come in. He could only see her in profile—dark blond hair pulled back in a ponytail. Glasses. Average height, slender. Plain. He strained his brain to remember her, but for the life of him, he couldn’t draw up an image.

  “Okay. I’ll leave you two alone so you can get reacquainted. Maybe seeing her will spark those brain cells.”

  He was up for that. Ever since yesterday when he’d awakened from a medically induced coma, he’d waited for that spark. But he got nothing. He had no idea who Tori Amhearst was. But he’d soon find out.

  His stomach tightened. He’d been told she was the only person who’d come to visit during the three weeks he’d been in the Scottsdale Trauma Center, oblivious to the world around him. He might not have been guilty of the crime, but crime or not, he was
n’t a very popular guy.

  Linc watched the nurse and the woman talking. Then the nurse left, and Tori…his “friend”…started toward him. At first, she seemed hesitant, maybe as unsure as he was.

  As she got closer, he smiled, raised his good hand. “Tori?”

  She nodded. Moistened her lips. “Hello.”

  No smile. Not even the slightest hint of a tipped lip.

  “Come over here where I can see you better,” he said.

  She came forward, looking as if someone was behind urging her every step of the way until she reached the side of his bed, eyes wide and filled with something akin to apprehension, or fear… almost as if something horrible might happen if she got too close.

  “You look nice,” he said, then reached out and took her hand in his. She flinched at the contact, eyes widening even more as she drew her hand away. If she was his friend, she sure wasn’t acting like it. “I was told we’re friends, but since I don’t remember, this is a bit awkward. For you, too, I guess.”

  Frowning, she said, “You…don’t remember…what?”

  “Didn’t they tell you?”

  She cocked her head slightly. The woman had unusual eyes, a light amber color. Long, dark lashes.

  “Tell me what?”

  “Could you get that drink for me, please?” He indicated the water glass on the tray just out of his reach. She handed it to him, and after a sip, he said, “Geez. I can’t believe they didn’t say anything…tell you that I don’t remember what happened? I don’t even remember how I got here.”

  “No, I…I haven’t talked to anyone…about that.” She glanced at the door again, then back at him. “What…what do you remember?”

  He shrugged, winced at the stab of pain in his arm. “Nothing. I don’t know what I don’t remember. Yesterday I woke up and someone told me where I was, who I am and where I’ve been, but I don’t remember it. They told me I’ve been in prison. How could I not remember something like that?”

  Her mouth opened and closed again, apparently at a loss for words, and he couldn’t blame her. It had to be a surprise to find out he didn’t know her. “Yeah. A state attorney was here and told me I’d been in prison for ten years…said I’d been exonerated and hadn’t actually committed any crime. But before I could be released from prison, I was injured in a fight and sent to the county hospital until I was transferred here.”