The Secrets We Keep Buried
A Small Town Romantic Suspense

About this book:

Twelve years ago, Maya Vance fled Blackwood Creek the night her best friend's sister vanished into the timber-dark woods. Now a state detective, she's back with a badge, a cold-case file, and a debt she can't repay—only to find the town's secrets buried deeper than the Oregon loam. The only witness who might talk is a grieving father armed with a crowbar and a death threat for his remaining son. The only ally is Eli Thorne: the boy she ghosted, now a broad-shouldered deputy with a scar through his eyebrow and a grudge that hasn't faded. He knows every trail, every lie, and exactly how to break her heart all over again.

When the physical evidence turns up waterlogged and the mill's fireproof vault survives the blaze that didn't, Maya and Eli strike a dangerous bargain: after hours, off the books, they'll pry open the past themselves. But someone is watching from the treeline. Someone who set a fire once and isn't afraid to strike again. In a town where loyalty is currency and silence is survival, the truth won't stay buried—and neither will the spark between a woman who ran and the man who stayed.

*Small-town atmospheric suspense meets second-chance romance in a twisting, pine-scented thriller where every shadow hides a lie, and the only way out is through.*