Cover Reveal: Behind the Stars by Leigh Talbert Moore
Prentiss Puckett is certain of three things
- Graduation is two weeks away.
- Summer only gets hotter in south Mississippi.
- She’s getting a job with air-conditioning.
She did not expect to be kidnapped walking to work.
And she never expected to become a hero.
A cramp stabbing my ribs brought me back to the Here and Now. I was late, and last day or not, Dr. Green would fuss.
“My assistants must be punctual,” he’d say. “It’s difficult being the only vet in a farming community.”
I exhaled slowly as a bead of sweat tickled a path down the middle of my back, and I tried to keep the dirt out of my Keds.
Back when the 911 service came through, most of these roads got numbers or real names besides “Shortcut to the Creek” or “Road Where the Broke-down House Used to Be.” But there were still a few like this one, “Old School Road,” that you only knew what to do with if you grew up in our little town of less than a thousand people. It didn’t matter, though. Strangers never stopped in Dabb Creek.
That should’ve been my first warning.
If I hadn’t been so focused on being late, I might’ve paid more attention to the strange man standing on the shoulder looking lost. Bad manners or not, I didn’t have time to give directions or to explain how far it was back to town.
It wasn’t until I was up on him that I realized he was watching me, studying the pace of my feet. Then I saw the body on the ground.
I skipped like a rabbit to the other side of the road, a scream forming in my mouth, but another man sprung up behind me. A rough cloth clamped over my mouth, and in two breaths, everything went dark.
© 2014, Leigh T. Moore
The guards moved among us, placing dentist-office Dixie cups of what looked like water in front of everyone. A separate guard came to where I sat on the floor, clutching my knees. She lightly took my arm.
“Please return to the table.” Her voice was smooth. “You’ve had a shock. Have some water.”
I wasn’t about to drink anything they gave us. It was Day One all over again, only this time, it was Guyana. We were all being served the Kool-Aid. Next stop, mass graves.
Stupidly, my friends and fellow prisoners had no such qualms. Didn’t anybody watch the History channel? I stared as they all took shaky sips without hesitation.
“Just take a small sip.” The female guard was still with me. “It’ll calm you.”
My throat constricted. My whole body was on revolt. Shaking my head, I didn’t meet her eyes. I only stared at the white cup of water. Braxton was at my side, and he drained his. What the hell made him do that? Did he want to die?
Seconds ticked past and nothing happened. Nobody passed out. Nobody did anything strange—except forget what we’d just witnessed here. Braxton picked up his fork to finish his lunch. They all did. Like one of us had not just been taken out “swiftly and finally.”
Only he had, and I was reeling from the shock.
© 2014, Leigh T. Moore
“WOW, where do I begin…. Leigh has done it again. This time she has written something that I can’t even imagine what is going to happen. I am completely enthralled with this book.”
–Goodreads Review
“Light and suspenseful, keeping the reader unsure of what is real.”
–Somertime Book Blog
“I was intrigued by the reference to LOST so I started this the day I received it… The action starts almost immediately to grab you and invest you in the story. I understand the LOST reference–we are as lost as the main character, Prentiss…”
–Goodreads Review
“An amazing series, and I definitely recommend reading them all. You will not be able to put these books down.”
–Carver’s Book Cravings
Leigh Talbert Moore is the author of the popular young adult romantic comedy The Truth About Faking, its companion, The Truth About Letting Go, which is a Top 5 Finalist in the 2013 “Best Indie Book Awards,” sponsored by The Kindle Book Review; the romantic-suspense novel Rouge, which was a Quarter Finalist in the 2013 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards; and the Dragonfly series, a new contemporary YA to new adult romantic saga.
A southern expat and beach bum (and ex-journalist and editor), Leigh lives with her husband and two young children in a landlocked location. To compensate, she conjures new worlds, characters, and situations while playing chauffeur, chaperon, group activity leader, and referee.
