Vision
by Lisa Amowitz
Release Date: 09/09/14
Spencer Hill Press
Summary from Goodreads:
The light is
darker than you think…
High school student Bobby Pendell already has his hands full—he works almost
every night to support his disabled-vet father and gifted little brother. Then
he meets the beautiful new girl in town, who just happens to be his boss’s
daughter. Bobby has rules about that kind of thing. Nothing matters more than
keeping his job.
When Bobby starts to get blinding migraines that come with scary, violent
hallucinations, his livelihood is on the line. Soon, he must face the stunning
possibility that the visions of murder are actually real. With his world going
dark, Bobby is set on the trail of the serial killer terrorizing his small
town. With everyone else convinced he’s the prime suspect, Bobby realizes that
he, or the girl he loves, might be killer's next victim.
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EXCERPT
She limped
toward him, waving frantically. “Hey! Wait! Over here!”
“What the heck
were you doing in there?” The annoyed words tumbled out and Bobby regretted
them instantly. As she hobbled closer, he could see her white teeth and
red-gold hair that gleamed like a coin in the sun.
“I was running.
I wrenched my ankle.” The girl extended a hand. “I’m Gabe.”
Bobby took the
girl’s hand and shook. “Gabe?” he stammered, his face gone hot.
“It’s short for
Gabriella.”
Bobby dared a
longer look at the girl. She was tall, only a few inches shorter than him,
leanly muscled, with freckled-all-over milky skin that looked like it couldn’t
withstand very much sun. Just the same, the fragile skin was stretched over
sinewy muscle, an athlete sculpted from a bar of Ivory soap. This girl, Bobby
decided, was durable. She didn’t look like she’d break too easily. His heart
picked up speed of its own accord and he had to struggle to keep the tremor out
of his voice. “You shouldn’t be talking to strangers.”
The girl laughed
and shielded her light eyes against the sun. “You don’t look all that strange.”
Bobby shrugged.
“You can’t always tell.”
“Well, tell me
your name and then you won’t be just a tall, handsome stranger who picked me up
on the side of the road.”
Bobby felt
himself blush. She had called him handsome. But words came easily to this girl,
words she probably didn’t mean, while for him finding the right words was like
panning for gold. “Bobby. Bobby Pendell.”
“Short for
Robert?”
“Uh, yeah. But
no one calls me that. Except my dad when he gets pissed off.”
“Well, Bobby
Robert Pendell, right now I have no choice but to rely on the kindness of tall,
handsome strangers. My cell gets no reception out here and if I’m not back at
the restaurant for dinner my dad’s going to kill me.”
Bobby peered at
the girl from under his trucker’s cap. Definitely a weekender. She was too
buffed and polished to be anything else. “Which restaurant? There’re three in
town.”
Gabe snickered.
“That many, huh?”
Bobby stuck his
hands in his pockets and looked down at his scuffed work boots. It was a waste
of time worrying what this girl thought of him. She was clearly way out of his
league. And he had more important things to think about. “Look, I, uh—I got to
get somewhere. I’ll give you a ride, if you want. But I got to hurry.”
“Where are you
going?”
“My brother’s
Little League game. Which is probably over by now.”
“Isn’t that the
ball park right up the road?”
Bobby nodded.
“Yep. That’s why we got to hurry if you want me to drop you at your restaurant.
Would help if you just told me which one.”
“Why don’t I
come with you?”
The girl was
beginning to irk him. Maybe, like the cat that toyed with its injured prey
before it pounced for the kill, she sensed her power. Like the girls at school.
His high school was located in the bigger town of Waterbury, and the girls
there all looked down on the so-called “hicks” from the more rural towns like
Graxton and Fernville.
“To the game?
Thought you were in a big hurry. I don’t mind driving you to the restaurant,
though, if you’d just tell me which one.”
“I love
baseball.”
“It’s just a
Little League game.”
“I love kids.”
She leaned down to pet Pete, who’d been circling her, wagging his tail. “I love
dogs, too. I have plenty of time, if you’re giving me a ride.”
“Insistent,
aren’t you?”
“I just got up
here for the summer and I don’t know a soul. Basically, I’m lonely and bored.
Besides, I throw a mean curve ball.”
The girl’s face
broke into a wide smile and Bobby’s knees buckled a little. She was pretty.
Really pretty. And she seemed a little desperate for company. He supposed it
couldn’t hurt to let her join him.
“It’s not even
summer yet. Don’t you have school?”
For a flash of a
second, Gabe looked fidgety. Then she straightened and tossed her hair behind
her shoulders. “My school’s out for the summer.”
“What kind of
school gets done in May?”
Gabe looked him
square in the eye. “The kind of school I go to.”
“What kind of
sch—?”
She brushed past
and, interrupting him, said, “C’mon, then. Get in the truck.”
He watched Gabe
through the smeared glass of the truck windows. As she opened the door, Pete
leapt past her and took his place on the seat next to Bobby.
She laughed and
climbed in. “Looks like someone is used to having you all to himself.”
“Guess so.”
Bobby started the truck, wishing he weren’t so damned tongue-tied all the time.
He cleared his throat and forced out words, hating how gruff his voice sounded.
He wished Coco were here. He would know how to talk to a girl like this. Coco
could talk to anyone. “What restaurant were you going to?”
The girl smiled
and patted Pete on the head. “The Graxton Grill, of course.”
“The Catskill
House is where all the weekenders go.”
“Are you
implying I’m a weekender?”
“You’re not from
here. So that means you’re a weekender.”
The girl rubbed
her ankle, then turned back to Bobby. “I’m here for the whole summer. So that
makes me more than a weekender.”
“Why the Graxton
Grill?”
“What are you,
the local food columnist?”
Bobby’s mouth
quirked up in a half-smile. “I think I have the right to know, since I saved
you from the corn stalks.”
“My dad owns
it.”
The air rushed
out of Bobby’s lungs. “Your dad? Your dad is Max Friend?”
“That’s me. Gabe
Friend. Sadly, also known as Gabby Friend. Welcome to my nightmare.”
“Gabby Friend?”
Bobby stifled a snort. “That’s harsh.”
Gabe fixed him
with a wry smile. “Imagine my life in middle school. Especially since I was too
shy to utter a peep.”
Bobby didn’t
talk much at school, either, but he couldn’t imagine this girl ever being
bashful and shy.
“I work at the
Graxton Grill,” he said finally. “Your dad is my boss.”
“Is that so?”
Bobby stole a
glance at her, but she just stared out the window, suddenly disinterested. Had
he offended her? He really had no idea how to talk to this girl. And, though he
was pretty sure it was a bad idea, he really wanted to. Max Friend had a policy
against employee dating—knives, fire, and romance are a bad combo, he had told
them all the day the restaurant reopened. His daughter would be off-limits for
sure. “Um, how’s your ankle?”
“Better. It was
just a twist.”
It only took a
minute to get to the ball field where Aaron’s Little League game was at the end
of the sixth inning. Aaron was pitching a shutout, and in minutes the game
ended. His team erupted in a roar, ran to the mound and mobbed the triumphant
pitcher, but Aaron had already spotted Bobby watching from the sidelines and
broke away from the tangle of bodies. Picking up speed, he barreled into
Bobby’s arms, a bundle of sweaty hair, grime, and sparkling blue eyes.
“Dude! We won!
We won! We made it to the playoffs!”
“I know. I saw!”
Aaron pulled
away, noticing the stranger in their midst. “Who are you?”
“She’s,” Bobby
stammered, “…a friend.”
Gabe smiled, all
freckles and sunshine, and extended a hand. Bobby’s heart revved up inside his
chest, but he kept his expression placid and flat, like the waters of Scratch
Lake—before the weird turbulence earlier that morning.
“Literally. I’m
Gabe Friend,” she said.
Frowning, Aaron
looked from her hand to her face. “I never saw you before.”
“No, you
haven’t,” Gabe said. “But I’ll bet I can hit any kind of pitch you can throw at
me.”
Pete had picked
up a stray ball and hunkered down, gnawing contentedly at it on the grass.
Barely limping, Gabe strolled over to a bat that had been flung aside in the
chaos. “We could go up on that hill and have a practice.” She gestured toward a
sloping tract of mown grass that flattened at the top.
“Thought you
were in a big hurry,” Bobby said.
“There’s always
time for baseball.” Gabe glanced at her watch. “Besides, I still have time, if
you’re giving me a ride. It’s only two-thirty and I don’t actually have to be
at the restaurant until four for the dinner rush.”
Bobby glanced at
Aaron. “It’s laundry night, but I guess it’s okay.”
Pensive, Aaron’s
upper lip quivered into a sneer. Bobby laughed under his breath. Aaron never
could walk away from a challenge or a fight. Which was why Bobby needed to show
up from time to time at Aaron’s school playground at recess. “Bet you can’t.”
Aaron wrestled the slimy ball from Pete’s jaws. “Give me that, Pete.”
Gabe gathered
her hair into a hasty ponytail, revealing the sloping curve of her pale neck.
Bobby tried to ignore the corresponding shiver that rushed from his thighs to
his throat. “We shall see, won’t we, Little Pendell?” she said, hefting the bat
over her shoulder.
“My name is Aaron,” his brother said emphatically.
Bobby chuckled
as they trudged up to the hill, Aaron and Gabe in the lead. Aaron had no
problem dealing with Gabe. Sometimes Bobby wished he were eleven again. In his
memories, with Mom still around, those were golden times. But, then again,
Aaron was much tougher than him, struggling with things eleven-year-old Bobby
had never dreamed of.
Pete straggled
behind, investigating the tall grass and weeds that marked the boundary between
the neatly mown grass and the woods. The clearing at the top of the hill was
bordered on three sides by state land, woods that stretched for endless miles
to the east, and ended at the reservoir to the west.
“Go easy on her,
A-man,” Bobby said when they’d reached the top of the hill.
“No need.” Gabe
was already crouched in a batter’s stance, tapping the ground with the tip of
the bat.
“You asked for
it,” Aaron said, and let loose a fast, low-riding pitch. Gabe stepped quickly
out of the way as it whizzed past.
“What are you,
scared?” Aaron called out, laughing.
“That would have
been a ball,” Gabe said, back in position, bat slung over her shoulder. “A
little higher next time. I’m seventeen, not eleven.”
“Nice and easy,
Aaron,” Bobby cautioned. All he needed was for the boss’ daughter to get hurt.
Gabe laughed and
blew a stray strand of hair out of her eyes. “Oh, c’mon. I’m not made of glass
and fluffy stuff. I play softball.”
Focusing, Aaron
drew his pitching arm back and hurled the ball hard. It sailed cleanly toward
Gabe at waist level and Bobby cringed, imagining it slamming into her stomach.
But Gabe took a fierce swing. The bat connected with a loud crack and soared above Aaron’s head,
clear into the woods.
“Hey! That was
our only ball!”
“Pete’ll find
it,” Bobby said. “He’s a hunting dog. Get it, boy! Go get the ball!”
The dog tore
through the weeds into the woods, the three of them bounding after him. Gabe,
apparently recovered from her strained ankle, was right on Aaron's heels as
they crunched between the towering oaks through the underbrush after Pete.
Pete had already
stopped, sniffing at the ball, which had come to rest at the base of a large
tree, when a strange tightness in his skull
tugged Bobby in the opposite direction. His gaze fell on a faded strip of
material snagged in the bark of a dead tree trunk. Drawn inexplicably toward
it, he crunched through the ferns and dried leaves, the sounds of laughter and
Pete’s barking muted, drowned out by the thump of his heart in his ears.
Standing at the
base of the tree, his boots rooted to the forest floor, the back of Bobby’s
head had begun to throb.
Not this again.
He reached for
the strip of cloth as if sticking his hand into fire, and…saw the vague form of
someone running wildly, breathing hard…
Crashing through
the woods. Heart speeding, each beat like the swing of an axe. Can’t do it.
Can’t run anymore. Have to stop. To stop.
Bobby yanked
back his hand from the bit of cloth as though it had burned him. The vision
still fluttered in front of his eyes like the final images from a broken movie
projector. It was as if he were that person, hearing fragments of their frantic
thoughts, yet he could see them as though he were watching from a distance.
It was like a
memory. A vividly terrifying memory.
But it wasn’t
his memory.
GIVEAWAY
About the Author
BREAKING GLASS
which will be released in July, 2013 from Spencer Hill Press, is her first
published work. VISION, the first of the Finder series will be released in
2014, along with an unnamed sequel in the following year. LIFE AND BETH will
also be released in the near future, along with graphic novel style art.
Author Links:
Nice new release. :)
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