APRIL FOCUS ON PICTURE PERFECT LEGACY,
BOOK #1 OF THE HALO LEGACY
ROMANTIC MYSTERY SERIES
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EXCERPT FROM PICTURE PERFECT LEGACY copyright Genie Gabriel
The earth rumbled and shifted beneath his feet, like the bowels of a great, hungry beast. The desperate need to survive drove him to run as the immense slide of earth bit at his heels, threatening first to bury him, then propelled him forward. He stumbled. Fell. Groping toward what he hoped was daylight and fresh air.
The cold breath of snow on his face drew him; teased him with hope as the earth nipped greedily at his heels. Would the rumbling never stop? Would the giant monster never be still?
The light ahead grew brighter as the rumbling grew angrier. He leaped the last few feet toward the opening, then collapsed. His body spent. His lungs burning with effort. The snow embraced him as the mountain blew one last angry breath, closing itself to the invasion of men seeking to rape its bounty. Covering him with the debris of its displeasure.
Several months later...
The flash of a hairy beast in the mirror garnered a shiver down his spine. He quickly snipped at the longest of the beard with the scissors, then cocked the razor to finish the job. Swaggerty took the first swipe with the razor. As each strip of pink skin emerged, his confidence returned. The women always stroked his jaw and told him how handsome he was. The razor caught and pulled on a patch of skin. Swaggerty took an irritated smear at the spots of blood and tipped his chin for a closer look. Then he lifted the mirror from its rock perch to catch a stronger patch of light. This couldn't be. His skin--normally so smooth across the chiseled bone of his jaw--was dimpled in a thickened patchwork.
"No," he whispered, now running the razor in rapid strokes across the rest of the side of his face.
"No!" His bellow accented the shattering of the mirror against the rock. The razor and can of shaving cream followed.
"No," he whispered once more. Scars covered the entire side of his face. The side only recently thawing from its numbness.
Of course he should have realized the damage had been done...The world always conspired against him. Always trying to beat him down.
No more.
Now they would pay. All of them…
***
"The lab work came back."
Marly leaned forward in her chair. "And?"
"The blood type and DNA don't match Moose."
"Which means someone else was in Claudia's trailer after I left and before Moose got there."
Her brother nodded around a bite of roll. "Browning is giving Claudia the news today, hoping she'll tell him who the assailant was…"
"A teenaged boy was attacked last night." Dawson glanced around the room and lowered his voice. "The same kind of gashes Claudia had on her chest."
Disquiet skittered down Marly's spine. "Which means whoever attacked Claudia has claimed another victim?"
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