CJ Johnson – författare

Thanksgiving is a time to be grateful for the gifts you''ve received. For two Kansas City women, however, the holiday is anything but joyous. A vicious attack has left them bruised and battered-body and soul.Seasoned Detective Frankie Thomas thinks she has seen it all until the single mother of two begins investigating the case and suspects the crimes are linked to a lawsuit the victims filed against their employer.

Knee-deep in a tangled investigation involving organized crime, Frankie teams up with a local FBI agent and a detective from Kansas City''s Intelligence Unit.As the three get closer to solving the case, Frankie finds herself and her children at risk from an organized crime family who will stop at nothing to keep the law off their heels. The deeper she gets into the investigation the more apparent it becomes that there is more to the case than meets the eye. To make matters worse, more cases keep coming in and it seems a serial rapist is targeting the women who make their living walking her city''s streets. When someone Frankie loves is critically injured because of her investigation she wonders just how far she should go to solve the case.

Sarah Smedley recently returned to the City of Fountains after several years of living on the west coast.  During an evening spent reuniting with her friends, she is kidnapped by a man intent on exacting revenge for a misdeed unrelated to her.  After calling 9-1-1 numerous times to no avail, Sarah finally escapes and calls her father.  

Detective Francesca "Frankie" Thomas is assigned the case and in true Frankie-fashion she attacks it with bulldog-like ferocity.  Frankie quickly learns this was not just a kidnapping and rape but also a hate crime.  

While Frankie is trying to get justice for Sarah, a serial rapist continues to prey upon women who work her city''s streets. Frankie finally gets a break in the case and as she tries to get justice for the women, she finds herself at odds with the very office that can make it happen. Will justice be served, or will a clash of personalities allow two rapists to go free?  

Heather Whitaker has experienced more in her young life than women twice her age.   After being beaten and raped by her boyfriend Heather sought refuge at a domestic violence shelter.  Here, where she should be safe, Heather is befriended by a woman who lures her to a party across state lines that ends in tragedy. Heather is kidnapped, thrust into the trunk of her car and driven back to the City of Fountains.  An unlikely ally comes to Heather''s rescue and she finds her way to the hospital. 

Detective Francesca "Frankie" Thomas is on the case.  What begins as a simple investigation leads Frankie down a dark road.  While trying to find Heather''s attackers, she is led into a world fraught with drugs, exploitation and murder. It becomes a race against time - will Frankie be able to put it all together before another woman ends up dead?

Teenage girls are being lured into the night to the City of Fountains, never to be seen again. No one is looking for these girls thought to be runaways until Patrick, an old friend of Detective Francesca "Frankie" Thomas, shows up and asks for her help. His partner''s daughter Sasha has disappeared. Local law enforcement is treating her like she is just another runaway, but Patrick knows that she was lured from home, and he fears the worst.

Twenty-eight years earlier, a young woman and her mother disappeared from Frankie''s hometown. In their quest to find Sasha, Frankie and Patrick start down a path that leads directly to their past, and the closer they get to the truth, the higher the stakes get.