All Sara Baldwin ever wanted was to be a dancer, but that dream died along with her mom and dad when she was nine years old. As the only witness, Sara was too scared to tell anyone what she saw.
At LKB Events, she takes on the challenge of making others’ dreams come true while she works toward the goal set by her grandfather to claim her inheritance. But the path toward happiness is paved with pitfalls, and when she’s fired from the company she helped to build, the bottom drops out of Sara’s world. She falls with it, right into the path of a monster.
US Marine Garrett Dorsey doesn’t believe in fairy tales. On active duty, he saw the worst of humanity, and after returning home to run the family business, he definitely isn’t looking for love. But all that changes the night a fake Cinderella sprints out of the ballroom at the Peninsula Hotel, leaving his bruised ego and one glittering shoe in her wake…
A Secret to Die For is a standalone romantic suspense novel in the Baldwin's Shore series.
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Excerpt – Sara…
Paulo slung an arm around my shoulders. “Sweet cheeks, you think we can’t fix you up with an outfit in two weeks? What do you need? A ballgown? A Venetian mask?”
“Uh, maybe? It’s not a masquerade ball as such, more of a costume party. Anything goes, as long as you’re wearing a mask. I heard a bunch of the men are planning to dress up as superheroes.”
Kayleigh and Lillian were planning to wear Mardi Gras outfits. They’d already bought matching ruffled corset dresses, spike heels, and jewelled masks, plus decided on a colour scheme for their make-up. Their hair, spray tan, and nail appointments were booked, and a driver would take them to the hotel so they could both indulge their love of cocktails. As far as I was aware, they’d given zero thought to the actual event arrangements, even though I’d copied them in on all the emails discussing the logistics and sent them a draft checklist.
“We can do a costume. Darla and I still have half a week before we leave for Virginia, and Romi must have some fancy shoes. What size are your feet?”
“Uh, a seven.”
“Romi’s an eight, but we can pad the toes.”
Romi got on board with the idea, unfortunately. “I have plenty of samples, and sometimes designers send the wrong sizes. I can definitely find shoes.”
“Brie might have a dress?” Brooke suggested. “She had to rent a whole other room for the overflow from her closet.”
“I can’t wear one of Brie’s dresses,” I protested.
“Why not? You’re about the same size.”
“Because…because…”
Because Brie was an actual freaking princess. Somehow, she’d landed up in Baldwin’s Shore and fallen in love with a guy I went to school with. When Brie wasn’t attending to her royal duties in Scandinavia, she lived with Colt and his daughter in the Royal Suite at the Peninsula while they waited for construction work on their dream home to finish. The two of them had bought the old paper mill on the outskirts of town, and judging by the number of trucks that drove in and out, they were building a whole new palace. Brie and Colt’s happy ending was proof that fairy tales really did come true.
“Then that’s settled,” Paulo announced. “We’ll take care of the costume, and you can go watch Kayleigh and Lillian fall flat on their ugly faces. I bet they’ll give you your job back within a month. No way can they manage without you.”
“But would you want to work with them again?” Brooke asked.
“I…I don’t know,” I said honestly.
In truth, I was still shocked that they’d fired me. But I also understood why they’d done it, and it wasn’t just about the fact that they wanted us to offer a wedding planning service and I hated dealing with bridezillas. No, the problems went back further, all the way to our grandpa’s death. To the day his will had been read. To the conditions he’d set for inheritance.
Aaron spoke up. “If you return to your old job, you should put safeguards in place. Ask for stock options or negotiate a golden parachute.”
“I’m not sure they’d agree to that.”
“Then you could start your own business. You have the contacts.”
That was true, but I still didn’t have the capital. The three of us had agreed to reinvest most of the profits to grow the business with a view to selling before Grandpa’s deadline. Now if there was anything left of the company in two years, Kayleigh and Lillian would get every last cent. And I’d tried to safeguard myself, I had. I’d made my cousins sign an agreement to say that as long as LKB met certain financial targets, I’d receive a hefty bonus in the final year before the target date; I’d just never dreamed that they’d terminate my employment before the bonus clause kicked in. What a freaking mess. I should have known they’d screw me over. Treachery was coded into their DNA.
“I need a few days to think things through.”
“That’s a sensible—”
“But you’re going to the ball, right?” Paulo interrupted.
“I’m still not sure that’s a good idea.”
Darla took a sip of her nojito. “A little schadenfreude can be a wonderful thing, hun.”
“Almost as delicious as this margarita,” Addy said. “Hey, it’s time for my class. Just promise you’ll go to the party.”
“Okay, okay, I’ll go. But I have to leave by midnight.”
“Why?”
“Because that’s when everyone takes their masks off.”
I’d designed the invitations myself, thick navy-blue card stock with Masks Off at Midnight embossed on the front in gold. I’d need to get the heck out of there before the big reveal.
“This is gonna be great. Can you take photos of the terrible twins doing manual labour? Like, maybe serving drinks or something? Or valet parking cars?”
I was regretting my decision already.
“I’m not going to draw any attention to myself.”
That’s what I said, but like so many aspects of my life, nothing went according to plan.
Excerpt – Garrett…
“Did a woman dressed as Cinderella come through here? Blue dress, blonde hair.”
Full, kissable pink lips, an ass to die for, and footwork that would give Ginger Rogers a run for her money. I still wasn’t quite sure what I’d said or done, but she’d taken off like an Olympic sprinter.
Congressman Mandell sucked in another dose of carcinogens and blew out smoke. Guess his latest attempt to quit his twenty-a-day habit hadn’t worked out.
“She playing hard to get?”
“Something like that.”
He chuckled and pointed toward the front of the hotel. “The girl went that way. Good luck, son.”
When I rounded the corner of the building, there was no sign of her, but something up ahead caught my eye, glinting beneath the floodlights that made night seem like day at the Peninsula. A shoe. More precisely, one of Cinderella’s shoes. The crystals on the heel had jammed it tight into a drainage grate, and she’d just…left it there? I didn’t know a whole hell of a lot about women’s footwear, but I’d picked up enough snippets of information from my sister over the years to realise that this was an expensive designer brand.
I stuck a finger into the grate and gently wiggled the heel free, keeping an eye out for its owner.
The optics weren’t lost on me—was this some kind of joke? Cinderella had run off at midnight—well, close to it—and left Prince Charming in the dust. Hell, I wasn’t even meant to be Prince Charming tonight. I’d reserved a Prince of Darkness costume, but the girl at the costume store made a mistake, one she’d blamed on autocorrect, and here I was. Dressed in fucking ruffles.
With a shoe in my hand.
Did Cinderella expect me to chase her? Because I didn’t chase women. They chased me, and I was the one who did the running.
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