Scavenger Hunt!

To celebrate the upcoming release of Deadlock(June 25th!), my publisher has arranged a Scavenger Hunt! Follow the links at the end of each stop and collect clues along the way! At the end of the Scavenger Hunt, enter your clues to be entered to win the grand prize: a Nespresso Espresso maker and coffee goodies to keep your all-night hacking (or reading) sessions going strong. You might find a few bonus giveaways in hidden links throughout the Scavenger Hunt, too, including print copies of Deadlock!

To get you started, here is the first chapter of Deadlock! I’m so excited for you to meet Lindsey and Jace.

Chapter 1:

I’m going to kill my sister.

Lindsey Morris gritted her teeth into a smile for the photo her jolly Aunt Martha snapped, the silent threat in her head becoming more of an inevitable truth with each passing moment. God knows, it wasn’t unlike her twin sister Lena to flake out on her, but their parents’ fortieth anniversary party was something the two of them had been planning for months. All for Lena to leave Lindsey holding the bag. Again.

Relieved from picture duty at last, she left her parents and hustled in her towering heels across the banquet hall to check on the champagne, dodging cousins and uncles and aunts. She hadn’t seen some of them in years. If a certain sister hadn’t left her running this entire show, she might have had time to stop and catch up with each of them.

All of it had come together nicely, though. Her parents were beaming in front of a life-size poster of one of their wedding pictures, forty years having done nothing to dim their happiness and love for each other. Lindsey snapped a picture of her own before slipping out the door into an echoing hallway to dial Lena. As expected, her sister’s voicemail greeting chirped in her ear.

“Hello?” A long pause ensued, during which Lindsey’s blood pressure spiked. “Gotcha! Sorry, you don’t get to talk to me right now. If you want to talk to me later, better make it good.”

Lindsey waited for the tone. “I don’t want to talk to you. I want to strangle you. Dammit, Lena, where are you?”

Hours passed before she could get away to the blissful solitude of her apartment, where she hoped a glass of wine and a Simpsons marathon might make her feel a little better. But even Bart and Homer’s animated antics weren’t enough. Her anger had burned away to sad ashes, and she couldn’t get her parents’ disappointed faces out of her mind. It would serve Lena right if none of them ever spoke to her again, as drastic as it sounded, but something about Lena made one eager to trust her and believe her when she made the promises she never kept. And the anger Lindsey felt when that inevitably happened could just as easily be turned on herself for enabling her twin, for never enforcing any consequences when Lena flaked out.

But how many times had she tried? How many times had it worked?

Then her glass was empty, and she poured another, sitting alone on her couch and staring at the way the light from the TV played hypnotically through the crimson depths as she swirled the liquid in her glass. Everything she was doing to make herself feel better was having the opposite effect. The fact she had no one to vent her frustrations to made it worse. Bad-mouthing her sister to their parents wasn’t an option, especially today—they were probably on the plane for their anniversary trip to Cabo San Lucas.

Lucky them.

“I need a vacation, too,” Lindsey told her wineglass. It was the only one there to listen. Then, sighing, she set it down on her coffee table and picked up her phone, shooting ramrod straight when she saw that she had somehow missed a text from Lena twenty minutes ago. She’d probably been in the kitchen scavenging.

Sorry. Ran into some trouble. Give Mom and Dad my love. I need a favor. Go to this address and ask him for help. Please. It will all become clear.

An address followed, which Lindsey’s eyes scanned without seeing. Her brain had shorted out on the word “favor.”

“Are you freaking kidding me?” she asked her phone, gripping it with a force that threatened to shatter it.

Lena in trouble was nothing new. Ever since high school, on through college, and even after, she’d been getting herself or someone else into shit she couldn’t always talk her way out of. Thinking Lindsey would simply forget about tonight and rush in to help her was simply par for the course, but Jesus, it had to stop sometime, didn’t it?

One thing was for sure. No way was she going to that address, wherever it was. To some strange place to ask someone she didn’t know for—what, even? Who was she supposed to be looking for? She wasn’t about to let Lena make her look like an idiot on top of everything.

No one else could get her off her warm cocoon on the couch to face the biting cold. She didn’t know what she might find at her sister’s apartment; she didn’t care, but she was going all the same. Lena probably wouldn’t be there, but maybe it wouldn’t be too difficult to nose around and find out where she was. Then she would go find her, even if she had to hop on a plane to do it.

There were some things she desperately needed to say to Lena’s face, and it was well past time.

She rushed through her apartment, throwing on a coat and shoving her feet into boots, her pulse pounding in her ears. No one else on earth could push her buttons like this. Lindsey hadn’t trusted Lena since college, her twin’s antics during that particular time of their lives having been the final straw.

Yes, she was her sister. Yes, Lindsey still loved her as such. Gossip sessions, shopping trips, friendship…those areas had always come easily. But real trust?That ship had sailed years ago, when Lena had pulled what was probably her cruelest stunt of all—at least that Lindsey knew of. The skeletons that could lurk hidden in Lena’s closet were enough to give her cold chills. The two of them had the same face, and Lena probably had enough enemies that Lindsey should look over her own shoulder when she walked down the street.

In the back of the Uber she called because wine and rage and driving didn’t mix, she white-knuckled her purse straps all the way to her sister’s apartment, going over everything she wanted to say in her mind in case Lena was there. Confrontation ordinarily tied her tongue up in knots, and no doubt it would this time.

She had to have her words straight in her head or they would slip right out. But niggling in the back of her mind was the fact that their parents would never get over an irreparable rift between them, no matter the cause. It was enough for her to rein in on a few of the epithets she wished to hurl at Lena’s perpetually smug face. But not many.

If Lena was off having a grand adventure with plans to show up next week thinking all was well—she added the epithets back in.

Long ago, Lena had given Lindsey a key to her apartment so she could water her plants while she was away. The plants had died anyway—Lena didn’t even take care of them herself after she got home from wherever she’d been. But Lindsey had hung on to the key, and it had come in handy more than once. She stalked directly to her sister’s door, lifted her fist to beat on it, thought better of it—she might not even answer—and fit the key into the lock.

The sight that greeted her as she flipped the nearby light switch caused her heart to stutter and her breath to catch, momentarily choking her.

Her sister’s apartment was trashed.

Scavenger Hunt: Where are Lindsey’s parents going for their anniversary trip?

Next stop, Melynda Price

Deadlock releases June 25th! You can pick it up in paperback from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and wherever books are sold. Add it on Goodreads!

 

 

 

Published by Cherrie Lynn

118,689 thoughts on “Scavenger Hunt!”

  1. Hey there just wanted to give you a quick heads up.
    The text in your content seem to be running off the screen in Chrome.
    I’m not sure if this is a format issue or something to do with browser
    compatibility but I thought I’d post to let you know.
    The layout look great though! Hope you get the
    issue fixed soon. Cheers

  3. usa casino no deposit bonus code, legitimate online casino in canada
    and new poker machines canada, or australia gambling sites

    Here is my web-site – bingo bars; Myron,

  14. I know this if off topic but I’m looking into starting my own blog and
    was curious what all is needed to get set up?

    I’m assuming having a blog like yours would cost a pretty penny?
    I’m not very web smart so I’m not 100% certain. Any recommendations or advice would be greatly appreciated.
    Appreciate it xnxx

  20. Timely math tuition ?n primary years prevents learning gaps b?fore they widen, resolves persistent misconceptions, ?nd gently readies students
    f?r the mo?e advanced mathematics curriculum ?n secondary
    school.

    Secondary math tuition stops t?e accumulation ?f conceptual errors t??t co?ld severely jeopardise progress ?n JC H2 Mathematics, m?king timely
    assistance ?n Secc 3 and Sec 4 a highly strategic
    decision f?r forward-thinking families.

    Math tuition ?t junior college level p?ovides tailored assessment ?nd exam-specific strategies t?at big-group JC
    tutorials rarel? offer in sufficient depth.

    ?or time-pressed Singapore families, internet-based math support
    ?ives primary children ?mmediate access t? expert tutors th?ough video platforms, effectively reinforcing confidence
    ?n core MOE syllabus a?eas while removing commuting stress.

    Eventually, OMT’? thorough services weave joy ?nto math education, assisting pupils
    f?ll deeply crazy ?nd soar in their exams.

    Dive ?nto s?lf-paced mathematics proficiency ?ith OMT’s 12-month
    e-learning courses, ?omplete with practice worksheets ?nd taped essions
    f?r t?orough revision.

    ?onsidered th?t mathematics plays a critical function ?n Singapore’s economic advancement and development, investing ?n specialized math tuition gears ?? trainees ?ith the pr?blem-solving abilities required t? grow in ? competitive landscape.

    Enhancing primary education ?ith math tuition prepares students f?r PSLE
    by cultivating a growth fr?me ?f mind t?ward tough topics ?ike
    symmetry ?nd changes.

    Presenting heuristic techniques ?arly in secondary tuition prepares trainees f?r the non-routine
    ?roblems t?at commonly app?ar ?n O Level analyses.

    Tuition incorporates pure ?nd applied mathematics seamlessly, preparing
    pupils f?r the interdisciplinary nature ?f A Level ?roblems.

    OMT’s unique educational program, crqfted t? sustain th?
    MOE curriculum, ?ncludes customized components that adjust t? individual
    knowing designs f?r mor? reliable mathematics mastery.

    OMT’s e-learning minimizes mathematics anxiety lor, m?king you m?re
    ce?tain and causing great?r examination marks.

    Tuition programs track progression carefully, inspiring Singapore
    pupils ?ith visible improvements ?r?ng about exam
    objectives.

    ?lso visit my website; p5 maths tuition singapore

  22. Good day! I know this is kinda off topic however ,
    I’d figured I’d ask. Would you be interested in exchanging
    links or maybe guest authoring a blog article or vice-versa?
    My website goes over a lot of the same subjects as yours and I feel we could greatly benefit from each other.
    If you might be interested feel free to send me an email. I look
    forward to hearing from you! Fantastic blog by the
    way! xnxx

  36. Incredible! This blog looks just like my old one! It’s
    on a entirely different topic but it has pretty much the
    same layout and design. Superb choice of colors! xnxx

  45. No matter if some one searches for his vital thing, so he/she desires to be available that in detail,
    therefore that thing is maintained over here.

  49. is there a casino in toronto canada, best online casinos cheating at craps [Chas] new zealand and online gambling sites real money
    usa, or fort erie casino ontario united kingdom

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *