The Perfect Couple
Book 4 of The Last Stand series
A mother faces her greatest fear.
Zoe Duncan’s thirteen-year-old daughter goes
missing from her own backyard while she's home sick from school.
The police suspect Samantha’s a runaway—she’s not happy
about her mother’s upcoming marriage—but Zoe knows Sam would
never do that.
Terrified of losing the person she loves most,
Zoe is willing to do anything to bring Sam home, even if it
means giving up her job, her nice home and her relationship
with the man she thought she wanted….
A detective faces his hardest case.
Jonathan Stivers is a private investigator who
donates his time to The Last Stand, a victims’ charity in
Sacramento. He’s good at what he does, the best. Which is
why he’s called on to help Zoe Duncan find her missing daughter.
But never has he had fewer leads to work with—or been more
attracted to a client. He’s sure of only one thing: Sam was
taken by someone close to the family. He doesn’t realize how
close until he realizes that the “perfect” couple next door
is anything but…
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PURCHASE: 
Love is a devil. There is no evil angel
but Love.
--William Shakespeare
Sacramento, California
The bump that came from the trunk of her car surprised
Tiffany so much it nearly sent her careening off the road and
into one of the houses along the right side. What was going
on? The fourteen-year-old boy she and her husband had called
“Rover” was supposed to be dead. She couldn’t
dump his body if he wasn’t!
What should she do? She gripped the steering wheel
so hard her knuckles showed beneath her skin as she tried to
decide. She needed to stop and see what was going on. How had
someone who’d been killed come back to life? And was Rover
merely in a panic because he’d regained consciousness
in a dark, confined space? Or was he trying to knock out a taillight
in hopes of gaining the attention of the car following behind?
She couldn’t believe he was still breathing,
let alone coherent enough to execute such a plan. He was too
young to be that smart, wouldn’t dare defy them even if
he was. But Rover had to know that this was the end. He’d
never see his parents again if he didn’t do something.
Wouldn’t that make him willing to take anyrisk?
Tiffany wasn’t sure. It always surprised
her how cowed and controllable the early teens her husband brought
home really were. Colin had a way with them, knew just the type
of individual to pick.
Another thunk caused her palms to grow
slick with sweat. Damn it! This wasn’t supposed to happen.
It’d certainly never happened before. Colin usually knew
what he was doing.
Could anyone else hear the racket Rover was
making?
She glanced in her rearview mirror. The black
SUV that’d been following her for the past several miles
was still there. The driver, a middle-aged woman wearing sunglasses,
had her window down to take advantage of the warm spring weather.
The wind blew her dark hair back, revealing an oval face with
full lips, the kind of face Colin would probably find attractive,
despite the age difference. But the woman didn’t look
any more interested in Tiffany than she had before.
Or maybe she did. She was following closer....
More movement, sounds of distress drew Tiffany’s
nerves taut. I’ve got to pull over.
But if the driver of the SUV had seen or heard
something unusual, she might stop, too. And how would Tiffany
explain having a boy in her trunk? Especially one in Rover’s
condition?
Think! It was better to keep driving.
She’d turn at the next light and hope the SUV went straight.
There were several ways to reach Highway 50. Once out of the
city, beyond Placerville, she could pull down a dirt road in
the mountains where she’d be hidden by pine trees.
But then what? It was one thing to dump a body,
another to be the reason that person was no longer alive.
The noise coming from her trunk grew louder, more
insistent. If the lady behind her didn’t hear it, a pedestrian
at the next crosswalk could.
Tiffany drew in a deep breath through her nose.
She had to get this right or Colin would be upset. If she screwed
up too badly, they’d both go to prison.
Heart hammering, she reached into her purse and
fumbled around until she located her cell and managed to push
the speed-dial button that would ring her husband’s cell.
“Hello?”
“Colin, he’s alive!” she blurted
into the pause that followed, but then his voice cut in with
the canned response of a recording and she realized she’d
gotten his voicemail.
“I’m afraid I’m not able to
take your call right now...”
Frustrated, she punched the End button. Colin
thought it was funny to bait people into believing they had
him on the phone. She usually laughed when he caught her on
it. But she wasn’t laughing today. She needed him. Now.
“H-e-l-p! Mo-om? Da-ad? Someone help
me!”
That was Rover screaming!
Taking the next right, Tiffany gave her car too
much gas. When the tires squealed, two men leaving Lamps Plus
looked up, causing her to regret having a lead foot. She didn’t
want to draw attention to herself.
But at least the black SUV continued down Madison.
That was a small relief.
Her hand shook as she dialed Colin’s work.
“Come on, hurry. I need to talk to my husband,”
she muttered through the subsequent ringing.
Finally, Misty, the receptionist with the frizzy
hair at Scovil, Potter & Clay picked up. “Law Offices.”
“M-misty? This is Tiffany Bell. Is my husband
there?”
“Let me see.” There was a long pause.
Then she came back on the line. “He’s in a meeting.”
“Will you get him for me?”
“He’s with the boss.”
As a new hire fresh out of law school, Colin had
to be careful to keep the other lawyers at the firm happy, especially
Walter Scovil, the most senior of the senior partners. But nothing
was more important than this.
“I’m sorry, it’s an emergency.”
“Oh! Is everything okay?”
Hoping to staunch the tears burning behind her
eyes, Tiffany blinked repeatedly. “His...um...his mother
fell and...and she’s hurt.”
Colin hated his mother, wouldn’t have walked
across the street to see her even if she was on her death bed,
but most people didn’t know that. It wasn’t something
he shared with anyone besides her. They both knew what other
people would think if they heard him call his mother the names
he used.
“I feel terrible,” the receptionist
said. “I’ll get him right away.”
The stoplight ahead turned red and traffic
in front of Tiffany began to slow. She studied the intersection,
wondering if she could switch into the right-hand turn lane,
or catch a green arrow on the left. Anything to avoid coming
to a complete stop. But too many vehicles blocked the way. She
had no choice but to wait for the light.
Biting her lip, she eased her foot onto the brake...and
let her breath go only when she didn’t hear anything from
Rover. Had he died at last?
“Tiffany, why are you calling?”
The sound of her husband’s voice caused
her to lose the battle she’d been fighting with her emotions.
As she wiped the tears rolling down her cheeks, she caught the
man in the truck next to her staring and averted her eyes. “It’s
Rover,” she whispered into the phone.
“Is everything okay?”
“No! He’s alive.”
“What?”
“He’s alive!”
“He can’t be.”
“He is. He’s in the trunk banging
around and crying for help.”
“Then pull over and take care of it!”
“Right here? In the middle of Fair Oaks?”
“Shit! No, of course not.” There was
a long pause. “What street are you on?”
“I’m heading south on Hazel, trying
to reach Highway 50.”
“Wait until you can get out of town, then
pull over and deal with the problem.”
She’d figured out that much. It was what
came next that made her uneasy. “What do you mean, ‘deal
with the problem?’”
He kept his response low. “Just what I said.
Finish the job.”
Kill Rover herself? Her stomach flipped over at
the thought. The boy had been Colin’s toy; the clean up
should be Colin’s job. “But...I don’t have
a weapon.”
“Use a piece of wood or...or a rock if you
have to. It’s not hard.”
Tiffany felt her jaw drop. How had what’d
started as a little fun at someone else’s expense grown
into this? Sometimes, lying awake at night, she couldn’t
believe how badly their lives were spinning out of control.
And yet she didn’t know how to stop it. Colin didn’t
even want to try. He was too addicted to the adrenaline rush,
to the sexual excitement, to the power, and he’d sucked
her in right along with him by repeating the same old promise,
“Just one more time. I’ll quit after this.”
Now she wasn’t only participating in a peripheral
way; she was tying up his loose ends. “You’re kidding,
right? You know I don’t have the nerve for...for that.”
“You don’t have a choice!”
The light turned green. The guy in the truck next
to her gave her an appreciative smile as they both accelerated,
but she wasn’t worried about him suspecting anything.
Rover hadn’t made a sound for several minutes. “But—”
“Do it, or I swear to God, Tiffany....”
He didn’t finish. He didn’t have to.
She knew what he would be like if she didn’t fix this.
He’d punish her now that he no longer had his
“pet.”
“Okay. I got it. I-he’s not moving
anymore.”
“So you called me for nothing?” He
sighed into the phone. “You’re pathetic.”
“How can you say that after all I’ve
done for you?”
“Don’t start. You wouldn’t be
anything without me. You were nothing but a fat slob when I
met you.” He lowered his voice further, but she knew he
had to be in his office with the door closed or he wouldn’t
have spoken as freely as he had. “There wasn’t a
guy in high school who’d even look at you, with
your greasy hair and filthy clothes. And now all my friends
drool when you walk by. I’ve turned you into
pin-up. I’ve taught you how to take care of yourself.”
Unfortunately, taking care of herself proved an
on-going effort. He demanded she work out two hours a day. He
weighed her regularly and monitored every morsel she put in
her mouth. He wanted her at a steady 120 pounds, with breasts
the size of watermelons, he said. But she wasn’t quite
that large. Fortunately, Colin was more concerned with keeping
up appearances than fulfilling his porn star fantasy, which
tempered what he’d wanted to do to her body. In the end,
he’d settled for an augmentation that put her at a full
D cup, and he had her nose fixed and her cheekbones enhanced.
They still owed over $9,000 to Visa for those surgeries, but
he didn’t seem to care about the expense. He loved that
they were the most admired couple in the neighborhood.
“What other men think doesn’t concern
me,” she said, and it was true. He was the only person
that mattered in the world, the only one who’d ever loved
her. She didn’t want to lose that.
“If I mean so damn much to you, do what
you have to do!”
Without any recent noise coming from the vicinity
of the trunk, Tiffany was feeling more confident. She rolled
down her window to allow some cool air into the car and pulled
her sweat-soaked blouse away from her body. “Right. Of
course. I’ve got it.”
“That’s better.”
Highway 50 came up on her right. She accelerated
onto the on-ramp, knowing it would be tough for anyone to hear
Rover once she was on the freeway. “It just scared me
for a minute, that’s all.”
“I know, babe. But you’re stronger
than you think. You belong to me, don’t you? Every thought
you think, every move you make all comes from me.”
She knew he was too possessive, but she considered
herself lucky. It made her feel attractive, desired, secure
in his love. He took her to the tattoo parlor every once in
a while to have his name tattooed on a different part of her
body. So far, both breasts, her ass and the inside of her thighs
said, “Colin’s.” But she didn’t mind.
He wouldn’t bother with the time and expense involved
if she wasn’t an important part of his life. It was only
people who tried to contest his will that ran into problems
with him.
Shivering, she remembered the incident that had
finally brought their relationship with Rover to an end. It
was the boy’s own fault, she told herself. He knew what
Colin was like, what he demanded. If Rover would’ve obeyed,
like usual, there wouldn’t have been any reason to kill
him.
Instead, she was driving to a remote location
to dump his corpse.
“What should we have for dinner tonight?”
she asked, hoping a change in topic would make Colin respond
favorably.
“I don’t know. I have to get back
in that meeting.”
“Okay.” She was still on her own with
this terrible assignment. But at least she’d been able
to touch base with Colin, to get instruction. “Good luck.”
“Thanks for watching my back, Tiff. I’m
going to show you how much I love you tonight,” he said
and hung up.
She couldn’t help smiling as she dropped
her phone in her purse. With Rover gone, they’d be alone
again at last, the way Tiffany liked it best. She knew she was
stupid to grow jealous of her husband’s toys--or pets
as he called them--but she didn’t like how much he seemed
to enjoy some of the stuff he made them do. Especially the boys.
They satisfied him better than she could, even with the fake
boobs and the tattoos and the dangerous domination games they’d
begun to play. Sometimes she got the impression she was just
for looks, part of his image, something for his lawyer friends
to envy.
But that couldn’t be true. Colin shared
everything with her, including his pets. Rover had been doing
the housework for weeks.
Drying her tears, she turned up the volume on
the radio and began to sing along. This wouldn’t be difficult.
She’d head down the same road where they’d once
spent Thanksgiving, pull deep into the woods behind the cabin
they’d rented and roll the body out onto the ground. Then
she’d head to the grocery store and get the items to make
her husband a romantic dinner. She’d let Colin chain her
up and whip her afterwards, really get into it. Then he’d
forget all about Rover and forgive her for bothering him at
work.
She was almost herself by the time she found what
appeared to be a safe location. She hadn’t heard a sound
from Rover since he’d cried out for his parents. He had
to be dead. She’d seen what her husband had done to him.
But he wasn’t. When she opened the trunk,
he jumped out at her. With his left eye swollen shut, his lip
busted and a bevy of ugly cuts and black bruises darkening his
bare white skin, the boy resembled some kind of monster gone
wild. He knocked her to the ground, but he didn’t attack
her. Despite having bare feet, he ran faster than she ever dreamt
possible, sobbing for help as he went.
He was so loud, she dared not follow. After scrambling
to get back in the car, she tore off, ignoring the groaning
of the BMW’s struts when she raced over one bump or another.
The car didn’t matter. She had to get out of sight before
Rover roused someone.
And then she had to think of a way to break the
news to Colin.
Reviews
"In the first book in a new trilogy loosely
linked to her previous Last Stand books, Novak delivers another
expertly crafted work of suspenseful intrigue heightened by
white-knuckle danger and realistically complicated romance."
--Booklist
"I guarantee The Perfect Couple will keep readers
on the edge of their seat. Each character is completely developed,
from Tiffany and Colin to Zoe and Jonathan. The story line sizzles...
Brenda Novak has penned a winner."
--Romance Reviews Today
A
Five Rose Review! "...A well-written book
that kept me glued to my seat page after page." --Sandi,
A Romance Review
4
and ½ stars! “Realistic and gritty, this
story grabs the reader by the throat on the first page and never
lets go. The characters are all handled well, but the villain
stands out.” ~ RT BOOK Reviews
"I
know one thing when I open a Brenda Novak novel; I will be pulled
in from the first page and will not be able to put it down until
I am finished. THE PERFECT COUPLE was everything I was expecting
and so much more. Novak pens another spine-chilling suspense
wrapped in a commanding romance that had this reader grabbing
for a tissue at the end. The characters are charismatic and
the imagery so vivid you feel like you are part of the story.
I rooted for justice and love to win the day and wanted to see
the evil doers get the justice that was due to them. THE PERFECT
COUPLE is another keeper and I am anxiously waiting for the
next installment in this series. ~ RomanceJunkies.com,
FIVE RIBBON RATING
