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

51,028 thoughts on “Scavenger Hunt!”

  1. you’re in point of fact a excellent webmaster.
    The web site loading pace is amazing. It seems that you’re doing any distinctive
    trick. Moreover, The contents are masterpiece. you have done a magnificent job on this matter!

  8. ???? ???? ????? ????? ?????? ??? ???? ?? ????? ????? ????? ??? ??? ???? ????? ????? ???? ??????? ????. ??? ????? ???? ?????? ?????? ???? ??? ??????? ???? ???? ????? ??? ???? ??? ????????? ??? ???? ?? ?? ???? ????? ?????????? ???? ????? ?????.

  16. What’s Going down i’m new to this, I stumbled upon this I’ve discovered It absolutely helpful and it has aided me out loads.
    I am hoping to give a contribution & aid other users like its
    aided me. Great job.

  18. Have you ever considered about adding a little bit more than just
    your articles? I mean, what you say is fundamental and everything.
    However imagine if you added some great images or video clips to
    give your posts more, “pop”! Your content is excellent but with images and
    clips, this website could undeniably be one of the best in its niche.

    Superb blog!

  19. Pretty nice post. I just stumbled upon your blog and wished
    to say that I’ve truly enjoyed browsing your blog posts.
    In any case I will be subscribing to your rss feed and I hope
    you write again very soon!

  20. ?onderful post howe?er , I was wanting fun things to do jackson tn; Lorrie, know if you could write a litte more
    on this subje?t? I’d be ver? thankful if
    you could ela?orate a little bit more. Thank you!

  21. 1win casino, https://1win-hfi199.top ?????????? ??????? ???????????? ??????????? ??? ??????? ???????????. ? ???? ????? ????? ?????????? ??????? ??????? ???, ?? ????? ? ?????, ????????? ? ???????? ??????. ?????? ????? ?????? ??????????? ?????????? ????????? ? ?????????? ??????????? ????????. ????????? ? 1win casino ? ????????? ???? ???????? ???????!

  39. OMT’s exclusive p?oblem-solving strategies m?ke tak?ng on tough concerns ?eem ?ike
    a video game, aiding students establish ? genuine love for mathematics ?nd ideas t? shine in tests.

    Enroll t?day ?n OMT’s standalone ?-learning programs ?nd see your grades skyrocket
    through limitless access t? t?p quality, syllabus-aligned material.

    ?n a system where mathematics education has progressed t? promote development and international
    competitiveness, registering ?n math tuition ?nsures
    trainees r?main ahead by deepening their understanding and
    application ?f crucial concepts.

    primary school math tuition enhances rational thinking, vital
    f?r analyzing PSLE questions involving sequences ?nd rational reductions.

    ?ith O Levels emphasizing geometry evidence ?nd theories, math tuition (Carla) ?ffers specialized drills t? guarantee students
    can deal ?ith th?se ?ith precision ?nd confidence.

    Preparing f?r the changability of A Level concerns, tuition establishes adaptive analytical strategies f?r real-t?m? exam situations.

    OMT’s custom-m?de syllabus uniquely straightens ?ith MOE structure by
    offering linking components f?r smooth shiffs ?etween primary,
    secondary, ?nd JC math.

    Gr??? forums in t?e platform ?llow y?u review with peers s?a, clarifying uncertainties ?nd
    improving ?our math efficiency.

    Tuition programs ?n Singapore offer mock exams ?nder timed pro?lems, simulating genuine examination scenarios f?r improved performance.

  46. Write more, thats all I have to say. Literally, it seems as though you relied on the video to make
    your point. You definitely know what youre talking about, why waste your intelligence on just posting videos to your weblog
    when you could be giving us something enlightening to read?

Leave a Reply

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