. Four years ago, Charlene Perigard survived a brutal kidnapping. Now at twenty-two, she's put that trauma behind her for a promising future with handsome firefighter Ben Jorgensen. But when new trauma strikes, a new nightmare begins. Sinister threats, a midnight attack, and a deathbed promise drive Charlene to the little town of Creekside, where she encounters a man from her past whom she has long struggled to forget: Clay Morrow--ex-convict and brother of her kidnapper. He's also the man who once helped save her life. Despite the odds, Charlene and Clay forge a tentative friendship, unaware of a brooding, mounting danger that seeks to destroy them both. Charlene's wounded heart must choose between her fiancé and the man whose past is more scarred than her own. But in choosing, she may just lose everything. Christian Romantic Suspense is the sequel to but can be read as a stand-alone novel.