Deadly Secrets

Deadly Secrets

jielamos · Ongoing · 50.1k Words

514
Hot
605
Views
3
Added
Add to Shelf
Start Reading
Share:facebooktwitterpinterestwhatsappreddit

Introduction

When Grace Parker witnesses a brutal murder in Chicago, she thinks her biggest problem is staying alive long enough to testify. But when the witness protection program relocates her to the sleepy town of Cedar Falls, she discovers the killer's reach extends further than anyone imagined.
Sheriff Jake Morrison doesn't trust the beautiful city woman with too many secrets and a fake identity. But when bodies start dropping and Grace becomes the target, Jake realizes she's not the threat—she's the key to stopping a conspiracy that reaches the highest levels of his town.
As Grace transforms from terrified witness to fierce fighter, she and Jake must navigate deadly games of cat and mouse while fighting an attraction that could get them both killed. Because in Cedar Falls, trust is a luxury they can't afford, and love might be the deadliest secret of all.

Chapter 1

I should have known my life was about to change forever when I walked into Marcus Webb's office and found him standing over a dead body with blood on his hands.

My name is Grace Parker, and six months ago, I was a successful forensic accountant in Chicago with a corner office, a luxury apartment, and a life that made perfect sense. Now I'm sitting in a diner in Cedar Falls, Montana, population 2,847, trying to remember to answer to the name Emma Davis while my hands shake around a coffee cup.

The coffee tastes like it was brewed sometime last week, but I keep drinking it because it gives me something to do with my trembling fingers. Outside the window, Main Street looks like something from a postcard: a hardware store with rocking chairs on the porch, and pickup trucks parked at angles that would get you towed in Chicago.

Everything here is the opposite of my real life, which I guess is the point.

"You okay, hon?" The waitress, whose name tag reads 'Betty,' refills my cup without being asked. She's maybe sixty, with kind eyes and graying hair pulled back in a practical ponytail. "You look a little peaked."

"Just tired from the drive," I lie, forcing a smile. "Long way from Denver."

That's my story. Emma Davis, a freelance bookkeeper from Denver, is looking for a quiet place to start over after a bad breakup. It's simple, believable, and completely fabricated by the U.S. Marshals Service.

The bell above the diner door chimes, and I automatically tense, my eyes darting toward the exit. A tall man in a sheriff's uniform walks in, and I feel my breath catch. He's maybe thirty-five, with dark hair and the kind of solid build that speaks of physical work rather than gym visits. When his eyes scan the diner and land on me, I see intelligence there, and suspicion.

This must be Sheriff Jake Morrison. Marshal Bradley had mentioned him during my briefing. "Local law enforcement," he'd said. "Straight arrow, been sheriff for eight years. Won't give you any trouble as long as you keep your head down."

Jake approaches my table with a casual stride that doesn't fool me for a second. Everything about him screams alert predator, from his observant eyes to the way his hand rests near his weapon.

"Afternoon," he says, stopping beside my booth. "I'm Sheriff Morrison. You must be the new resident I heard about."

"Emma Davis." I extend my hand, hoping he doesn't notice the slight tremor. "Nice to meet you."

His handshake is firm, calloused, and lasts exactly long enough to be polite. "Welcome to Cedar Falls. Is Betty taking good care of you?"

"The best," I say, glancing at the waitress, who beams at the compliment.

"Good. Mind if I sit for a minute?" Without waiting for my answer, he slides into the opposite side of the booth. "I like to meet new folks personally. Small town habit."

I nod, though every instinct is screaming at me to run. This is exactly what Marshal Bradley warned me about—drawing attention, making people curious.

"So, Denver," Jake says, settling back in his seat. "What brings you to our little corner of Montana?"

"Change of scenery. I do bookkeeping, mostly freelance work online. Figured I could do that anywhere, and the rent prices here are certainly better than the city."

"That they are. You found a place yet?"

"The apartment above Murphy's Hardware. Mr. Murphy seems nice."

"Old Tom's good people. Been in business here since before I was born." Jake's eyes never leave my face. "Bookkeeping, huh? Must be interesting work."

"Not really. Numbers are pretty predictable. They don't lie or surprise you."

The moment the words leave my mouth, I realize my mistake. I sound bitter, traumatized. Emma Davis from Denver wouldn't sound like that. Grace Parker, who watched her boss murder someone and barely escaped with her life, would.

Jake notices. His eyes sharpen slightly, though his casual posture doesn't change. "Sounds like you've had some experience with people who do lie and surprise you."

"Bad breakup," I say quickly. "You know how it is."

"Actually, I do." Something shifts in his expression, becoming more human and less cop. "Divorced myself, few years back. Sometimes a fresh start is exactly what you need."

I feel an unexpected flutter of connection, which is dangerous. I can't afford to feel anything for anyone, especially not the local sheriff who's suspicious of my story.

"Well," I say, reaching for my purse, "I should probably get going. Still have unpacking to do."

"Of course. If you need anything, don't hesitate to call. Cedar Falls takes care of its own."

There's something in the way he says it that makes me think he means it. In Chicago, I was just another apartment number, another face in the crowd. Here, apparently, being a neighbor means something.

I pay my check and head for the door, acutely aware that Jake is watching my every move. Outside, the mountain air is crisp and clean, so different from the city smog I'm used to. For just a moment, I allow myself to imagine this could actually work. Maybe I could be Emma Davis. Maybe I could have a quiet life in a small town where the biggest excitement is the high school football games.

Then my phone buzzes with a text from an unknown number:

We know where you are, Grace. You can't hide forever.

My blood race. I look around frantically, but Main Street is nearly empty except for an elderly man walking his dog and a woman loading groceries into a minivan. No sign of immediate threat, but that doesn't mean anything. Marcus Webb has resources, connections, and apparently, he's found me despite the marshals' promises.

I hurry toward my apartment, keys ready, checking every shadow and doorway. Behind me, I hear the diner door chime again, and I risk a glance back to see Jake Morrison standing on the sidewalk, his hand shading his eyes as he watches me practically run down the street.

He knows something's wrong. The question is whether that makes him a potential ally or just another threat I'll have to navigate.

Either way, my quiet life in Cedar Falls just got a lot more complicated.

Last Chapters

You Might Like 😍

Rise of the Banished She-Wolf

Rise of the Banished She-Wolf

414.3k Views · Completed · Lily
"White wolf! Kill that monster!"
That roar stole my eighteenth birthday and shattered my world. My first shift should have been glory—blood turned blessing into shame. By dawn they'd branded me "cursed": cast out by my pack, abandoned by family, stripped of my nature. My father didn't defend me—he sent me to a forsaken island where wolfless outcasts were forged into weapons, forced to kill each other until only one could leave.
On that island I learned the darkest edges of humanity and how to bury terror in bone. Countless times I wanted to surrender—dive into the waves and never surface—but the accusing faces that haunted my dreams pushed me back toward something colder than survival: revenge. I escaped, and for three years I hid among humans, collecting secrets, learning to move like a shadow, sharpening patience into precision—becoming a blade.
Then, under a full moon, I touched a bleeding stranger—and my wolf returned with a violence that made me whole. Who was he? Why could he wake what I'd thought dead?
One thing I know: now is the time.
I have waited three years for this. I will make everyone who destroyed me pay—and take back everything that was stolen from me.
Bound by Fate, Freed by Choice

Bound by Fate, Freed by Choice

5.3k Views · Completed · Nafisatuu
When Lyla's fated mate is revealed as Alpha Kaiden—her sister's ruthless ex-husband—the only thing he offers her is public humiliation and a brutal rejection. Heartbroken and branded as unworthy, she flees her pack, determined to uncover the truth behind her sister's mysterious disappearance.

Her escape leads her to Alpha Rowan, the commanding leader of the Blackwood Pack, who offers shelter, protection, and an unexpected chance at a new life. But Rowan’s fierce and jealous fiancée sees Lyla as a threat, and the pack’s charming Beta is drawn to her quiet strength.

As a dangerous attraction simmers between Lyla and Rowan, they begin to unravel a dark web of secrets that implicates Kaiden and threatens both their worlds.

With her hidden power awakening, Lyla must navigate treacherous loyalties, face the alpha who shattered her, and decide: Will she follow the destiny fate forced upon her, or claim the love and strength she has chosen for herself?
Lightborn: The Demon’s Bond

Lightborn: The Demon’s Bond

5.2k Views · Completed · ngocvynguyen985
Valerie accidentally forms a bond with Maxwell, a light demon, and begins seeing the dangerous supernatural world hidden around her. As the two constantly bicker yet protect each other, Valerie gradually discovers her own light-based powers and confronts many dark forces, including a serial kidnapper, the dark demon Zane, and other malevolent entities. Maxwell, haunted by the death of his former lover Juliana, repeatedly tries to distance himself from Valerie to keep her safe, causing both of them pain. Yet every time Valerie is in danger, Maxwell returns to save her, and their feelings grow deeper. The climax comes when they face Mason, a fire demon who hunts human–demon couples; Valerie risks her life in battle while Maxwell nearly collapses from exhaustion. In the end, Mason is destroyed, the threats fade away, and Valerie and Maxwell can finally stay together in peace.
Aphrodite and the Cursed Mate Bond

Aphrodite and the Cursed Mate Bond

2.8k Views · Ongoing · June Calva
In a werewolf pack that despised weakness, Aphrodite learned to survive by staying quiet, keeping her head down, and enduring cruelty in silence. The Alpha heirs hated her. The future Beta and Gamma made her life unbearable. When she finally breaks and seeks freedom at the Moon Goddess temple, she does not find release.

She finds truth.

Aphrodite is not human at all. She is a rare white wolf, descended from an ancient Direwolf bloodline long believed extinct. The ritual meant to sever her ties awakens her wolf instead and with it comes the scent of five mates bound to her by fate.

The Alpha twins who once scorned her now cannot stay away. A human hunter walks beside her and proves that strength is not born of fangs or dominance. A cursed Wolf King holds the key to her past and her father’s imprisonment. And watching from the shadows is one who was never meant to interfere at all.

As gods fall, packs fracture, and war reshapes the world, Aphrodite must decide what destiny truly means. Is it submission to fate or the courage to choose her own path.

Love does not come in one form. Neither does power.

In a world ruled by gods and wolves, Aphrodite will become something neither ever expected.

Not a queen.

But the axis upon which the world turns.
The Shattered Moon King

The Shattered Moon King

1.6k Views · Ongoing · Hannah Kalu
In a world shattered by monsters, the only thing more dangerous than a lost memory is a forgotten identity.
Lena is a survivor. For years, she has weathered the harsh, post-apocalyptic landscape by following one rule: trust no one. But when she finds an amnesiac man near death in the wilderness—a man with kind eyes and a strength that is anything but human—she makes a choice that will unravel her solitary existence.
She calls him Cain, but the shattered-moon tattoo on his back brands him as Kaelen, the long-dead Alpha of the powerful Sky-Fall pack. His return triggers a brutal civil war with the usurper who stole his throne and his fated mate. Hunted by Lycan assassins and a fanatical human commander desperate for the secrets locked in Lena's own past, their only hope lies in embracing the very power Kaelen can't remember and Lena has always feared.
As they uncover a conspiracy that threatens not just the pack, but the future of every living thing, Kaelen must fight for a kingdom he doesn't know and Lena must confront a legacy she tried to bury. In a world of broken thrones and fated bonds, they will discover that the greatest choice is not between love and duty, but between who you are told you must be, and who you choose to become.
The Deadly Mafia Princess

The Deadly Mafia Princess

8.5k Views · Ongoing · Tonje Unosen
Ro was taken from her real family when she was 1 year old. Those she believed is her parents have been abusive towards her do years. Despite she being a very feared gang leader of a well known gang, she can’t find it in her to stand up against what she think is her parents. The little girl in her wants their love which she never will get.
Her gang take the matter in their own hands, to try to save their leader from the horror of her home. What none of them know, they wasn’t her real parents, and now Ro will be sent away to live with her real family. That makes her closest members in her gang pack up and move as well. They don’t want to be far away from their leader.
From Substitute To Queen

From Substitute To Queen

1.7m Views · Completed · Hannah Moore
For three years, Sable loved Alpha Darrell with everything she had, spending her salary to support their household while being called an orphan and gold-digger. But just as Darrell was about to mark her as his Luna, his ex-girlfriend returned, texting: "I'm not wearing underwear. My plane lands soon—pick me up and fuck me immediately."

Heartbroken, Sable discovered Darrell having sex with his ex in their bed, while secretly transferring hundreds of thousands to support that woman.

Even worse was overhearing Darrell laugh to his friends: "She's useful—obedient, doesn't cause trouble, handles housework, and I can fuck her whenever I need relief. She's basically a live-in maid with benefits." He made crude thrusting gestures, sending his friends into laughter.

In despair, Sable left, reclaimed her true identity, and married her childhood neighbor—Lycan King Caelan, nine years her senior and her fated mate. Now Darrell desperately tries to win her back. How will her revenge unfold?

From substitute to queen—her revenge has just begun!
The Family Books 1-3 (A Mafia romance)

The Family Books 1-3 (A Mafia romance)

2.1k Views · Ongoing · Emma Mountford
Saints and Sinners- She was the light to my dark.
The saint to my sinner. with her innocent eyes and devilish curves.
A Madonna that was meant to be admired but never touched.
Until someone took that innocence from her.
She left.
The darkness in my heart was finally complete.
I avenged her, I killed for her, but she never came back.
Until I saw her again. An angel dancing around a pole for money.
She didn’t know I owned that club. She didn’t know I was watching.
This time I won’t let her escape.
I will make her back into the girl I knew.
Whether she likes it or not.
2/ Judge and Jury- I can’t stop watching her.

I’m not even sure I want to.

Taylor Lawson, blonde, beautiful, and totally oblivious to how much dangers she’s in.

She’s also the one juror in my upcoming murder trial that hasn’t been bought.

The one who can put me behind bars for a very long time.

I know I should execute her.
After all that’s what I do.

I am the Judge.
I eliminate threats to The Family.
And Taylor is a threat.
But I don’t want to kill her.
Possessing her, making her love me seems like a much better plan for this particular Juror.

3/ Rags and Ritches-
Mates: Regrets and Redemption

Mates: Regrets and Redemption

2k Views · Completed · Oniella Lawrence
I thought I had it all figured out. I rejected my destined mate for the love of my high school sweetheart, Curtis. But everything shattered when Curtis met his mate and chose to lie to me instead of rejecting her.

With my heart in pieces, I sought solace in the last place I expected—my Alpha's arms. One night turned into a dangerous entanglement, and now my Alpha refuses to let me go. As the Alpha’s obsession grows, I'm caught in a web of desire and fear.

Curtis, the boy I once loved, still holds a promise I made, but the Alpha’s powerful presence pulls me deeper into his world. Should I forgive Curtis and keep my word, or should I risk everything for a chance at something wild and unpredictable with the Alpha who won’t take no for an answer?


“There are no limits between us,” he chuckled, the mirth sparkling in his gorgeous eyes. “And all of this stems from the night you gave me both pain and pleasure. I’m simply returning the favor.”

He took two steps forward, and I stepped back. “But…” The memory of what I had done filled me with fear, and I knew I had to get out of there. “I…”

“No, Firecat.” He placed an index finger on my lips. “This will take your mind off that son of a bitch.” His strong hands pulled me by the waist until I felt his hard manhood.
HER ALPHA, HER SAVIOUR

HER ALPHA, HER SAVIOUR

2.4k Views · Ongoing · Iris
I sold myself to a monster to save my mom—and walked into a cage.

Kane Hellboud, charm and wealth personified, wanted only me in exchange for her treatment. No cameras, isolation, or noose-like rules were part of the deal. Behind his smile? Cold, violent possessiveness that destroyed our fake marriage.

Most of all, I didn’t know the supernatural walked among us, hiding in the cracks of ordinary life. Not until Abel Stone stepped into mine—dark-eyed, sharp-tongued, and oozing dangerous promises. He’s my new boss. He shouldn’t make my skin tingle or my pulse race. I shouldn’t feel this primal pull, this illogical recognition that tugs at something deep in my bones.

Around him, lights burst, electronics fry, and something ancient in me awakens.

Kane feels it. His grip tightens, punishments turn brutal, and he hides the truth of what I am.

Trapped between two powerful men, I’m no prey, no pawn—no helpless victim.

Prisons burn. Monsters bleed. As for me? I'm the storm in skin—deadly beyond suspicion.
Goddess Of The Underworld

Goddess Of The Underworld

888.4k Views · Completed · Sheridan Hartin
Left at a pack border with a name and a stubborn heartbeat, Envy grows into the sharpest kind of survivor, an orphaned warrior who knows how to hold a line and keep moving. Love isn’t in the plan…until four alpha wolves with playboy reputations and inconveniently soft hands decide the girl who won’t bow is the only queen they’ll ever take. Their mate. The one they have waited for. Xavier, Haiden, Levi, and Noah are gorgeous, lethal, and anything but perfect and Envy isn’t either. She’s changing. First into hell hound, Layah at her heels and fire in her veins. Then into what the realm has been waiting for, a Goddess of the Underworld, dragging her mates down to hell with her.

When the veil between the Divine, the Living, and the Dead begins to crack, Envy is thrust beneath with a job she can’t drop: keep the worlds from bleeding together, shepherd the lost, and make ordinary into armour, breakfasts, bedtime, battle plans. Peace lasts exactly one lullaby. This is the story of an orphan pup who became a goddess by choosing her family; of four imperfect alphas learning how to be better. Steamy, fierce, and full of heart, Goddess of the Underworld is a reverse harem, found-family paranormal romance where love writes the rules and keeps three realms from falling apart.
A pack of their own

A pack of their own

2m Views · Completed · dragonsbain22
Being the middle Child ignored and neglected, rejected by family and injured, She receives her wolf early and realizes she is a new type of hybrid but doesn't know how to control her power, she leaves her pack with her best friend and grandmother to go to her grandfather's clan to learn what she is and how to handle her power and then with her fated mate, her best friend and her fated mate little brother and grandmother start their own pack.