First of all, thank you for having me, Kate! It’s the first time I talk about my villains, so I’ll tell you a bit about all the ones in my series Crescent Creek.
In All Those Miles I Walked, we have a classic case of a politician gone bad (I mean, very bad). Frances Hailey had eyes on high chairs and no qualms about taking out any inconvenience. The inconvenience was Eva, a dear friend of DJ and Scott, the leading couple, which is what set the ball rolling. Was he redeemable? No. He had been carrying on his plan for years now, and he’d have kept right on doing it if he hadn’t been caught. As far as villains go, he was not one of the most intriguing, too. He doesn’t even appear in the story, but it’s because of him that DJ and Scott get their second chance. Then there’s Frances’s minion, the one putting DJ in real danger… a criminal that, thankfully, ended up in jail where he belongs.
Now, the villain of Painted Love is the most interesting.
The villain is the Heroine.
Yep. You see, Florence is a thief, and gets close to Rhett only because he’s friend with Aidan, her target.
The clash within her heart (finish something she’d started out of justice versus stop doing it out of love) and the war between her heart and brain (being with Rhett because she was falling for him versus being with him because he was an accessory to her plan) plagued her throughout the entire book. Guilt poked her from everywhere – for what she was doing to Rhett, for the promise to his step-brother that bound her to keep going, to the memory of her grandfather.
She was a very complex, and lonely, person, and it doesn’t really surprise me she fell for someone like Rhett, with his huge heart and solid moral compass.
Is she redeemable? Yes. Very much so, and the end of the book is proof of it.
She fixed the wrong she’d done after Rhett left her, and that is how much loving him changed her.
In His Midnight Sun, the villain is a straight-out psychopath.
Basically, Lilith Chapman set off to avenge the man she loved when he committed suicide over Summer, the Heroine.
Lilith had for Stephen the kind of love that’s sick and wrong, and when his love for Summer took him away from her (or that’s how Lilith sees his suicide) she decided to take away everything from Summer, too.
An eye for an eye. Stephen for all that’s dear to Summer–which turned out to be Aidan and Chloe.
And boy, doesn’t she come close to making it a couple of times…
Was she redeemable? Well, I don’t have a cut answer to it. I think we can all agree Lilith was a bad person, had a bad heart. She also had mental health issues, like, big time. Maybe if someone had cared for her, loved her, she wouldn’t have come to plot a murder. But she grew up in an abusive family and had married an abusive man. I’m not justifying her actions, just speculating if she could ever have been “saved”, or, at the very least, helped.
So here they are, I hope you’ll get a chance to read the stories!
SHORT VERSION
Crescent Creek Collection, by Viviana MacKade
From the cold Canadian border, the US1 runs along the east coast with patience. Southbound, always south, until it reaches the Sunshine State.
Not the fastest way, sure, but if you have time to drive it all the way down, you might find yourself lost in one of the coastal towns that dot the US1 like little jewels.
Maybe that town’s name is Crescent Creek.
These are the stories of its people.
All Those Miles I Walked ~ The family man and the gypsy
Painted Love ~ The upstanding citizen and the thief.
His Midnight Sun ~ The wild one and the good doctor.
Come and join them for a collection of stories that will keep you warm even in the coldest day.
LONG VERSION
From the cold Canadian border, the US1 runs along the east coast with patience. Southbound, always south, until it reaches the Sunshine State.
Not the fastest way, sure, but if you have time to drive it all the way down, you might find yourself lost in one of the coastal towns that dot the US1 like little jewels.
Maybe that town’s name is Crescent Creek.
These are the stories of its people.
All Those Miles I Walked ~ Crescent Creek 1
At eighteen, DJ made a choice–her heart or her dreams. Neither was wrong, yet either would break her heart. She chose the world. Over a decade later, she returns to Crescent Creek and to the one regret she’s ever had–Scott.
Scott’s always been steady as a rocky reef. He’d loved once and when she’d left, his strong heart had crumbled like a sandcastle. Now DJ is back, and Scott wants nothing to do with her. If only Eva, his and DJ’s old friend, didn’t need their help. Because of her, he’s stuck with DJ and he’d be damned, she still gets under his skin.
DJ is a free spirit who needs the road under her feet. Scott is a family man who wants to groom his roots. With danger on their doorstep and a baby to keep safe, how much are they willing to compromise for love?
Painted Love ~ Crescent Creek 2
Thou shalt not steal.
Oh, but Florence had, and would do so one last time. Ten pieces her grandfather painted for her because he loved her. Ten pieces her mother lost, along with anything else, for loving the wrong man. She couldn’t get back everything he’d wasted away, but she’d be damned if she’d give up those paintings.
Easy and genuine, Rhett loves his life–his family, his market, his town. Until he meets a British woman with grey eyes and a cute little smile. The woman he’s been waiting for. The thing is, to love her is easy, but can he trust her?
When Rhett pushes to uncover her agenda, Flo knows she will lose something–the man she loves or what she’d been fighting for years. Which road will she choose?
His Midnight Sun ~ Crescent Creek 3
Tormented, fierce, and broken, sculptor Aidan Murphy has judged himself guilty. He yearns for love but pushes everyone away. He longs for acceptance but has lost the key to open his heart. Until he meets Summer Williams. Beautiful and smart, Dr. Williams promises haven for a man who believes he deserves none. All he has to do is let her in and risk his heart and soul.
Summer’s managed to keep her inner light alive, even through tragedy. She’s created a new life for herself and her daughter in Crescent Creek with loving, caring and fun friends–well, except brooding, breathtaking Aidan. She’s used to keeping away from his type, though. All she has to do is ignore the pull of a man who’s turning up to be much more than snarls and storms. Will her compassion and medical instincts let her?
Love can heal a broken soul and shake up a timid heart. Or it can unleash devastation and revenge.
Will Aidan and Summer survive the hurricane?
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THE AUTHOR
Beach bum and country music addicted, Viviana lives in a small Floridian town with her husband and her son, her die-hard fans and personal cheer squad. She spends her days between typing on her beloved keyboard, playing in the pool with her boy, and eating whatever her husband puts on her plate (the guy is that good, and she really loves eating). Besides beaching, she enjoys long walks, horse-riding, hiking, and pretty much whatever she can do outside with her family.
Find me:
The best way to know me is through my website (and the books I host): http://www.viviana-mackade.blog/
The best way to see what I’m up to is through my Instagram account.
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Excerpt:
From All Those Miles I Walked
“Do you miss it?” DJ asked. No need to be more specific. Eva knew what she was talking about, just like she always had.
“Sometimes.” She fidgeted with a clean wipe. “I had an offer from someone up in New York.”
“Shut up!”
“True story. I don’t think I’ll take it, though.” Eva shook her head with a sweet little smile. “I saw enough of the world and how bad it can be, I don’t think I need the Big Apple’s nonsense. Never thought it could happen, but I’m happy here.”
“Investigative Reporter for the Crescent Creek News. Sounds good.”
“It’s what I did before, only on a smaller, way smaller, scale.” Eva took a gurgling Henry in her arms. “At the end of the day, it’s what I love.”
“Looking for crap?”
“Sure.”
“Found any?”
“Maybe.” A shadow crossed Eva’s eyes and disappeared. “I’m waiting on a couple of emails. You know Frances Bailey?”
“I remember my dad saying something about the guy, isn’t he a commissioner for some district? Just got elected?”
“Yep. His family has a dairy farm south of Tampa, he moved here when he got married. Something weird is happening up there.”
“Tampa is not local.”
“But Bailey is.” Henry started to fuss, and Eva rocked him. “Hand me the pacifier, please?” she asked DJ. “Talking about local,” she whispered when the boy quieted, well on his way to falling asleep. “Want to tell me about you and Scott?”
“It happened this morning… How…”
“Let’s see.” With her hands full of baby boy, Eva raised her eyes as she retraced the acquisition of the news. “I needed potatoes for Henry and went to Beckett’s Market where, of course, I said hi to Rhett. He’d gone for breakfast at the May’s bakery and spoke with Adam May, the baker. He’s Delilah’s brother, and–”
“Delilah heard the whole thing, told her brother, who told Rhett before he could even talk with Scott.”
“Well, she stood right in front of you guys, hard not to hear.”
“Man, that was fast, anyway.”
“Um, have you ever lived here? I was surprised I didn’t hear about it as it was happening.”
“True,” DJ conceded. “It’s so nice you guys are still friends.”
“Rhett, Scott, and I? Of course, we are. But for as much as I like Rhett, we’re not talking about young Beckett.”
DJ took a long breath. “I thought… hoped, actually, that after all this time Scott would be, I don’t know. Easier.”
“Yeah, because he’s the forgive and forget kind of dude.”
“He could at least listen to my side of the story before going–What?” she asked when Eva made a face.
“I’ve known you for how long, twenty years?”
“And?”
“You were the only one who understood my career choice, like I understand yours.”
“And?”
“And you disappeared on him, DJ. Like poof,” she said, trying to click her fingers with a now sleeping boy in her arms. “You had your reasons, I know, but you haven’t said any of them to him.” Her tone softened. “He loved you.”
DJ closed her eyes for a moment to keep the idea of the pain she’d caused him from getting too deep into her. “I loved him, too.”
FROM PAINTED LOVE
Still with no clothes on, they sat in the middle of the bed and started eating. “So, you know my big secret, my superpower,” he said, seasoning the salad and the tomatoes with a pinch more of salt. “What’s yours?”
Everything went very quiet and cold inside Florence. Well, I’m about to steal from your friend, and I’m using you to accomplish the crime.
God, what was she doing? She patted the paper towel on dry lips. She’d never let this happen, it had never happened. Kisses, allusions, promises, but she’d never slept with someone to get to the target. Neither she had this time. She sat, naked and satisfied, on that bed because she’d wanted him.
So confusing, and wrong. It would have been ugly enough if she’d slept with him, a decent, caring man, only for the job. Ugly turned into horrific knowing if she had to use him for the job, the job was not the reason why she was naked in bed with him. She would have wanted him, anyway, craved for him anyway but with all the rest of her life in the background? A full-blown disaster.
To make everything worse, his hand touched to reassure as genuine concern darkened his face. “Hey, everything okay?”
Of course, he’d read her so well. Swallowing a ball of panic and hurt the size of a basketball, she cleared her voice. “I have one secret,” she whispered.
“Florence, I was kidding. We’re starting to know each other and–”
“I tampered with the garbage disposal,” she blurted out.
He tipped the head sideways, his eyebrows shot up in surprise. “You did what?”
Great, Flo. Add more to the pile of shit. But now, after the way she’d reacted to a simple, careless question, he might sense something hid behind the surface and she had to come up with a reasonable secret.
“I, ah, I wanted an excuse to call you, and,” she swatted the air with her hand, sighed. “The only thing I could tamper with was the garbage disposal.”
Rhett scratched his cheek. Run a hand over his mouth. Then laughed, hard and long, doubled over on the table.
FROM HIS MIDNIGHT SUN
Prolog
Fire.
Fire would eat all.
The simple, brown casket entered the cremation chamber accompanied by the soft crying of the mourners.
A sister. So-called friends. No mother or father in the crowd–a small blessing, as no parent should live to see a son’s death. Even more so when he’d committed suicide. Grabbed a gun, let the black hole of desperation drench his mind and pulled the trigger. The maid said he’d cursed one name right before he ended all: Summer.
Pain and anger rattled through Lilith Chapman. Along with Stephen’s brain, her heart had shattered that day.
Lilith had known she could save him, had always known. With time, she’d have made him forget he’d ever loved anybody but her.
He didn’t give her time.
His sister had pressed him to visit doctors. Depression, she’d called it.
Bullshit.
Love killed Stephen.
Sweet Stephen. A gentle, caring soul who only wanted affection and care. No harsh word ever left his mouth; his hands knew no fists.
With him, Lilith never had to face fear. She knew all about it thanks to her father first, and her deceased husband later. Not with Stephen. Never with him. For the first time in her life, she’d been the strong one, the one leading. Day after day she’d listened to him, to the winnings and the losses of a man who possessed everything. Money, power, a place in society. Not someone to share it with, though. Until, silly man, he’d believed he’d found The One: Doctor Summer Williams. A woman who had left him with a few words and no remorse.
Lilith had heard his heart shatter with a singing soul. With patience, had watched Stephen spiraling down and downer in a place always darker and more desperate. She only had to wait. Once he hit the bottom, he’d realize Summer was not worth it. Stephen would finally open his eyes and see her, Lilith.
At the bottom though, he’d found a gun.
And now she had nothing.
Sure, he’d left money to her, a lot of it, enough she didn’t have to worry about working or anything else anymore. Too bad she didn’t care for it.
She wanted Stephen, but Summer Williams had taken him away forever.
And for that, Lilith would bring tears and blood.
Summer’s tears and blood.
She, Lilith, was going to own his final words of hate, carry on his vengeance and make sure Summer Williams witnessed the crumbling of her world. Everyone she held dear would perish in front of her eyes. And then Lilith could go to him where they would be together. Forever.
“I promise you,” she whispered to the burning casket. “I promise you, love will kill again.”