Seaside Heartbeats_A Sweet Romance Page 19

  Their motive? Gold—and a lot of it. One of the police officers of Kittle Falls, Officer Frank L. Williams has been using his job as a cover-up, using his authority to keep track of residents who learned too much. And he's not the first of his family to use law enforcement as his guise. Several generations have done the same thing to hide their riches. That is to say, Billy Kittle's riches.

  All of this started when Billy Kittle took his a secret team of gold prospectors to some local caves. They cleared them out, refusing to give any to Thomas Williams, who had shared the location with him according to an old letter found in the museum.

  Williams followed through on threats from the letters, and it's believed he killed Billy Kittle. The authorities found human remains in those caves and have identified them as our town's founder.

  Kittle's gold was stolen and hidden by various Williams family members throughout the years. The remaining gold, worth many billions of dollars, will be split among Billy Kittle's living relatives. A couple still remain in town, including the recent widow, Charlene Kittle Montgomery.

  At the bottom of the article, a small note gave credit to Brayden and Lana.

  Brayden turned to the kid. "How much for the whole stack?"

  He pulled out a phone and appeared to be calculating the total. "Seventy-three twenty-five."

  Brayden took out his wallet and handed the kid a hundred. "Keep the change."

  His eyes lit up. "Thank you." He added the money to the box and ran off.

  Lana ran her finger along Brayden's jawline. "You're a hero."

  "We're heroes." He took her hand and kissed each finger. Then he took the stack of papers. "Let's give these to everyone we know."

  Meet the Hunter brothers of Kittle Falls…

  Seaside Surprises: Jake, the heartbroken son who never left Kittle Falls

  Seaside Heartbeats: Brayden, the successful cardiologist

  Seaside Dances: Zachary, the struggling writer

  Seaside Kisses: Rafael, the disillusioned fashion designer

  Seaside Christmas: Cruz, the wild tattoo artist

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  Excerpt from Seaside Dances - Now Available!

  Zachary promptly washed the blood off his hands and then splashed cold water all over his face. He stared at his reflection, almost startled at what he saw. It hadn't been so long ago that his features showed his once carefree spirit. Now he had a permanent frown, several days' worth of stubble, and dark bands under his eyes. Even his brown eyes seemed darker.

  Zachary shook out his hands, trying to work out some of the pain. It had been a stupid idea to workout with his brother.

  Brayden was a cardiologist, and as a result, was in perfect shape since heart health was always on his mind. Zachary, on the other hand, hadn't so much as looked at a gym in the last year. Probably longer. He sat at a desk writing all day, ignoring his muscles.

  Now his body ached from head to toe. But, at the same time, his muscles felt good just from a little use. Maybe he would take up Brayden's offer to workout together a few times a week. He'd planned on backing out after this trial session. But it could be just what Zachary needed.

  He grabbed a stack of paper towels for cleaning his mess, and went out into the hallway. As soon as he did, he ran right into someone.

  "I'm sorry," Zachary said. "I wasn't looking."

  "No, it was my fault." A pretty girl with brownish-red hair turned around and smiled at him.

  He quickly hid his bruised hands behind his back. "Not at all."

  Her bright eyes shone as her mouth continued to curve upward, and she held his gaze. "I wasn't paying attention. I'm heading to class."

  "Ballet?" Zachary asked, noting her leotard. The style reminded him of the one Sophia, his late sister, had worn when she took dance lessons.

  She nodded, pulling her long hair into a bun behind her head, securing it with a bright yellow band. "I'm teaching ballet to a bunch of silly girls."

  A little girl in a tutu ran in between them, giggling.

  "And that's one of them. Hey, Emma—slow down!"

  "I will, Miss Jasmine!" the girl called. She spun around and crashed into another little girl in a tutu. Both girls fell to the floor and burst into tears as they landed.

  Jasmine shook her head, sighing. "I'd better get going. Sorry again for crashing into you." She ran after the kids.

  "It was my fault," Zachary called, but he doubted she'd heard him.

  He watched Jasmine as she helped up the crying girls and got them laughing in a matter of moments. She dusted one off and spoke animatedly, keeping them in giggles.

  Zachary admired her optimism. He'd once been like that. There was a time he would have wanted to have a girlfriend like her. But with his current state of mind, he would probably suck all her happiness away. Not that he even had time or the energy for another relationship. Especially after the way things had ended with Monica.

  ***

  Jasmine Blackwell put the broom away after sweeping the dance floor. Even though she didn't allow food in her classroom, crumbs always found their way onto her floor. She glanced over the room to make sure it was pristine for the next class. Everything seemed better than it had when she had come in. Not even a stray hair remained on the floor.

  She walked over to the window to get her dance bag and her purse, but stopped when she saw who sat outside.

  On a bench rested the same guy who had bumped into her earlier in the hall. He was reading a tablet, but his face scrunched up like he didn't enjoy it. It was time to leave so she could punch her time card, but she wanted to keep watching him. There was something dark and mysterious about him.

  Jasmine had hardly been able to look away from him after they had bumped into each other. He was gorgeous, despite being all sweaty. Maybe the sweat made him even more attractive, but either way, he was far better looking than anyone she'd seen in a long time. Even just sitting on the bench, unhappy, he was handsome.

  Part of her wanted to go out there and strike up a conversation, but she had to get going. She was supposed to meet her roommate for dinner before hitting the nightly concert on the beach.

  If she chose to chat up the hot guy, though, Kate would surely understand.

  "Still here?" came a voice from behind.

  Jasmine turned around, cheeks heating up. "I, uh, yeah. Just grabbing my stuff."

  Get it here.

  Author's Note

  Thanks so much for reading Seaside Heartbeats. This is my newest series, and I'm really excited about it. I love writing in a series because it's fun to get to know the characters more. In the case of the Seaside Hunters, we get to see the other brothers in the other books even though each story focuses on a different Hunter.

  If you enjoyed this book, please consider leaving a review wherever you purchased it. Not only will your review help me to better understand what you like—so I can give you more of it!—but it will also help other readers find my work. Reviews can be short—just share your honest thoughts. That's it.

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  I've spent many hours writing, re-writing, and editing this work. I even put together a team who helped with the editing process. As it is impossible to find every single error, if you find any, please contact me through my website and let me know. Then I can fix them for future editions.

  Thank you for your support!

  Other books by Stacy Claflin

  The Transformed Series

  Deception (#1)

  Betrayal (#2)

  Forgotten (#3)

  Silent Bite (#3.5)

  Ascension (#4)

  Duplicity (#5)

  Sacrifice (#6)

  Destroyed (#7)

  Transcend (#8)

  Entangled (#9)

  Hidden Intentions (novel)

  A Long Time Coming (Short Story)

  Fallen (Novella)
<
br />   Taken (Novella)

  Gone Series

  Gone

  Held

  Over

  The Complete Trilogy

  Dean's List (Standalone)

  Short Story Collection

  Tiny Bites - Coming Soon

  Mercy Series

  Chasing Mercy

  Searching for Mercy

  #3 Coming Soon

  Visit StacyClaflin.com for details.

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