The Girl Next Door — Lorhainne Eckhart

Romance and suspense collide in this haunting romantic thriller. When special forces operator Luke O'Connell meets a woman he never expected to see again, he uncovers the dangerous secret she is hiding and realizes the lengths someone will go to stop him from uncovering the truth.Luke never in a million years expected to see Misty Bates again after a weekend of no strings and no names. But when his family introduces him to the nice girl next door, who turns out to be his mysterious fling, he soon figures out that the small-town girl is running from something, and uncovering it could destroy his chance at love.Luke O'Connell has been unlucky in love because of who he is. He has a job he can't talk about, with trouble always following him, and a peaceful night's sleep is something he can only dream of having.The O'Connells step in and introduce him to Misty, a nice small-town girl, in the hopes that the two will hit it off, but what they don't know is that Luke and Misty have already met. Years ago, they spent a weekend together after a mission on the other side of the world. Luke is adamant he's not looking for a relationship, and he can't help seeing red flags behind Misty's nice-girl front. In her, he sees the kinds of ghosts people hide when they're running from something.Luke doesn't like secrets, and there isn't a secret out there that he can't uncover. He soon discovers that Misty Bates used to be Chloe Welch, and she testified against a local hero after witnessing an unspeakable crime in which a house was burned down and a family perished. But when the small-town jury voted to acquit, the protection she had been promised by local authorities disappeared, and the suddenly hostile residents forced her to leave town.Luke swears there can never be anything between him and Misty, but his digging has already put her in danger. Two cops show up on her doorstep with an arrest warrant, because the evidence in the case is suddenly pointing in her direction. Someone out there is trying to settle a score, and once again, the O'Connells find themselves deeply embroiled in a scandal, one that could ultimately endanger everyone in the family.