Silent Fool, book three of the Brandon Mattson Series, is just days from release. Until release day, you can pre-order it on Amazon at a discounted price.
Click here to receive updates on new releases, offers for free books, and more. I promise not to bother you with a ton of emails! Join now and you’ll receive a free copy of a Brandon Mattson short story featuring Brandon and Tori working together to thwart a vengeful kidnapper.
The brief story below is the prologue to Eventide, the first book in the Brandon Mattson series. It’s not included in the published version of the book. This event occurs the same day Brandon arrives in Forks as the new chief of police. You may recall Lauren Sandoval’s body was discovered by two sisters. This is their story.
Eventide: Prologue
Candice was supposed to be keeping her little sister safe.
She had spent most of the morning watching Alice piece together another sprawling sandcastle, just like the ones she’d built yesterday and the day before that. Alice had insisted on visiting the beach every day that week. They’d lived their whole lives on the Quileute Reservation, their house a few blocks from the Pacific Ocean. Candice didn’t see what the big deal was.
Already, the incoming tide crept closer with each wave. In an hour Alice’s creation would drown under a foot of saltwater.
Candice’s phone buzzed. A text from her best friend, Courtney. She clicked on the message, revealing Courtney in a group selfie with Levi, Colton, and a girl Candice didn’t know.
Candice messaged back: Screw you.
Courtney knew Candice liked Levi. Not only were they partying without her, Courtney had let some other girl go after him. She slipped her phone into her pocket. Her eyes flickered to the lump of sand where Alice had been building her castle.
She wasn’t there.
Continue reading“Alice?”
Her gaze swept over the 20 feet of beach between the surf and where she stood now.
“Alice!”
Candice hurried to the surf’s edge, crows and seagulls hopping out of her way. She crossed the thin stretch of foam that marked the tide’s furthest reach.
“Alice!” she shouted.
Their mom would kill her if Alice got hurt.
But what if she was more than hurt? It would be Candice’s fault. She’d been on her phone instead of watching her sister. Her mom would never forgive her.
She would never forgive herself.
She lunged into the ocean. The water pooled around her knees as she drove forward, then parallel to shore.
God, please help me find her.
A wave swelled several yards out and Candice dug her heels into the shifting sand. Her feet grew numb in the icy water as she fought to stay upright.
“Alice!”
Candice caught a glint of red drifting out to sea.
Alice had been wearing a red and yellow bathing suit.
She lunged ahead as another wall of water rose offshore. She was too far out now, and the swell was larger than she’d expected. Her gaze locked on her sister as the ocean swallowed her again.
She was so close…
The wave arrived with overwhelming force, filling the space around Candice’s legs, up to her torso, knocking her back. Her arms flailed as she landed on her backside.
Something solid swept against her foot. With her heels, Candice pushed herself toward shore as her nose and mouth filled with sand and water. The solid thing bumped her again. In a blur of water and motion, she struggled to see what had touched her, but the sea slammed her one more time, and she closed her eyes, arms outstretched in a failed attempt to resist the ocean’s crushing fury.
Candice lay on her back, squinting as a sharp ray of sunlight stabbed through the clouds. The water retreated, swarming around her as it receded.
She fought to move her legs, but they were stuck, heavy.
Something was on her.
Candice lifted her head.
A girl. Red and yellow swimsuit. Black hair, face down. Candice’s feet and calves were stuck under the girl’s torso.
She shrieked, pulling free of the lifeless body.
“Who is that?”
The voice came from behind Candice and she screamed again.
It was Alice, bucket in hand, a confused look on her face.
Dry, safe, and one hundred percent alive.
Candice turned back to the body.
The girl wore a red and yellow bathing suit. But it was a two-piece, the bottom half covered by jean shorts. A coat was tangled around one arm.
Deep scratches ran up the girl’s back.
“Is she—”
“I don’t know!” Candice said. “Where the hell were you?”
“Getting rocks, up by the parking lot.”
“You little—”
Candice’s attention returned to the girl.
She might not be dead. Candice had taken a CPR class. Her mom had made her do it when she started babysitting Alice.
Candice leaned over the girl’s body. She put a hand under her leg and another by her shoulder and flipped the girl onto her back.
Alice screamed and Candice turned away and vomited.
Candice got to her feet and pulled her sister closer.
Her phone was probably ruined from being in the water, but the Tribal Police station wasn’t that far from the beach.
She grabbed Alice’s hand and they both sprinted away. Candice didn’t look back, unable to shake the image of the girl’s swollen face, the strange bite mark on her neck, and her wide, bloated eyes.