Read the First Chapter of Dare You to Lie by Amber Lynn Natusch!

Dare You to feature

When her FBI agent father is framed for murder, Kylene is forced to move back to the small town that turned its back on her, and the boy who betrayed her. All Ky cares about is clearing her father’s name, but her reappearance comes with its own consequences. Someone won’t let her forget the photo scandal that drove her away two years ago. With threats against her mounting, the FBI sends a rookie agent to tail her.

More determined than ever to expose the town’s hidden skeletons, Ky unwittingly thrusts herself into a much bigger plot. Everyone thought she’d forgive and forget. They’re about to learn they messed with the wrong girl.

Dare You to Lie will be available on September 4th.

Chapter One

[dropcap type=”circle”] G [/dropcap]uilty…

That single word unraveled my entire life.

From the time of my father’s arrest until his verdict was delivered, nothing else mattered to me. Not school. Not my friends. Nothing. I was consumed by the trial the lies and scandal surrounding it. There was no doubt in my mind that he was innocent, but the evidence said otherwise.

opens in a new windowlook on his face as he stared at me while

And there was plenty of that.

The prosecution had paraded witness after witness up to take the stand and testify against my father. Colleagues. Friends. No one was off-limits.

Even me.

I’d cried that morning, knowing that I had no choice but to stand before the court and swear on a Bible that I had seen my father, FBI detective Bruce Danners, on the night in question. The night when his alleged criminal activities came to a head. I was the one who placed him with the victim.

I was the nail in his judicial coffin.

I knew I’d never forget the look on his face as he stared at me while I sat on the witness stand. There was pride in his eyes when I told the truth. There was also relief. I’d said I’d lie under oath if it meant keeping him out of prison. I mean, what juror wouldn’t believe a sob story from a poor seventeen-year-old girl who had been coerced and leveraged into testifying against her own father? If I’d poured on the tears and played my cards right, surely at least one of them would have found my story plausible. And if they did, the jury would have been split and unable to convict him. That whole “beyond a shadow of a doubt” thing would have gotten in the way.

My father would have been home free.

But I couldn’t do it. The integrity that I’d inherited from my father was the reason why. And that integrity was also the reason I knew my father couldn’t possibly have done what he was accused of.

The sound of a gavel echoed through the room, branding my father a cop killer. That slap of reality yanked me from my mind’s downward spiral. I looked up through bleary eyes to see my father being led away by the bailiff. My heart pounded wildly in my chest. “Daddy!” I screamed before realizing the word had left my mouth. He looked back over his shoulder to me and forced a sad smile.

“It’ll be okay, Kylene. The truth can’t stay buried forever.”

Tears fell freely down my cheeks.

The commotion surrounding me died off not long after my father disappeared. The reporters scattered to interview the winning team. The witnesses dispersed to go on with their daily lives. The jury was taken back to their private area to undoubtedly be thanked for fulfilling their civic duty. I, however, sat and pondered my father’s final words as they ran over and over again through my mind. By the time the courtroom was empty, two things were abundantly clear: My father would never stop proclaiming his innocence.

And I would never stop trying to prove it.

 

Copyright © 2018 by Amber Lynn Natusch

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