Keep Me Safe

Banks (Taking It All) launches the Slow Burn contemporary romantic suspense series with a bone-shivering, edge-of-your-seat jaunt through present-day Colorado, Oklahoma, and Texas. Caleb Devereaux's unlimited resources are useless in finding the vanished Ramie St. Claire until, a year after her disappearance, he receives her urgent appeal for help. Caleb is forever grateful that Ramie's psychic abilities saved his kidnapped sister, Tori; genuinely sorrowful after seeing Ramie, in a trance-like state, suffer the same perverse punishment that the kidnapper put Tori through; and seriously pissed that the perpetrator got away and continues to stalk Ramie. Caleb scoops Ramie up, brings her to his state-of-the-art security home, and vows to keep her safe. Her fragile beauty has touched Caleb's heart, adding another dimension to his protective mode. Ramie's past makes it hard for her to trust, but she cannot deny her growing attraction to Caleb. Meanwhile, the stalker enjoys taunting, stumping, terrorizing and getting bolder with all who interfere with his obsession with Ramie. She and Caleb concoct a bold plan, but it gets sabotaged, placing the couple in their worst nightmare scenario. This dark, edgy tale will scare and titillate readers, though it may also leave them itching with curiosity about Ramie's mind-linking psychic abilities. (Oct.)