THE NIGHT ISLAND Exclusive Excerpt
“What do you know about the list?” she asked, not bothering to answer his question.
“If it’s the one I’m looking for it’s a list of names of people who took a certain psych test several years ago.”
“The informant offered to sell it to you, too?” she said. “And, apparently, to whoever got here first.”
“The list wasn’t the only thing the first buyer took.” She glanced back at the door, remembering the energy on the metal handle. “Whoever it was grabbed our informant as well.”
Luke Rand’s eyes got a little intense. “What makes you so sure the informant didn’t decide to disappear after making the first sale?”
The disturbingly soft way he asked the question rattled her nerves. She needed to stay focused.
“Just a guess,” she said in her coolest tones. She could tell he knew she was lying, but he did not press her. She hurried on. “You came to the same conclusion, didn’t you?”
“Yes.”
“So, if the informant and the list are gone, why are you still here?” she asked.
“I thought it would be interesting to see who else showed up.” “Right.” She paused. “That was actually a pretty good idea.” “I get those once in a while.”
She ignored that. “Well?” “Well, what?”
“Has there been anybody else besides you and me?” “No.”
“You’re not the oversharing type, are you?”
“No.”
A moment ago she had been nervous—make that anxious. Okay, scared. Now she was getting irritated.
“I wonder how many buyers the informant lined up?” she said. “The thing about a list is that it’s easy to duplicate,” he said. “Why not sell it to as many people as possible? The only thing in our favor is that the market for that particular product has to be fairly limited.”
“Good point.”
“I’ve got five grand in this pack,” he said. “How much did you bring?”
Talia flexed her fingers around the strap of the pack, trying to decide what to say. She finally decided that he probably didn’t intend to rob her for the cash. Like her, he was here for the list.
“A thousand,” she admitted.
“You got a deal. I was told to be here at precisely four thirty. You?” “Six.”
“She was gone when I arrived.”
“She?” Talia raised her brows. “What makes you so sure the seller is a woman?”
“I went into the house and took a look around while I waited. Found a short‑term rental agreement dated a couple of days ago. It was signed Phoebe Hatch. Might or might not be the person trying to sell the list, but I’d say the odds are she’s our informant.”
“You just walked into the house?” “The door was unlocked.”
He did not sound concerned with the finer points of the law, and she decided that, under the circumstances, she wasn’t, either.
“What did you find besides the rental agreement?” she asked, not even trying to conceal her suspicions.
“I didn’t find the list.”
“Why should I believe you?”
“Hell, I don’t know. Maybe because I’m standing here in the backyard of a stranger’s house at six o’clock in the morning arguing with a woman who is carrying a thousand dollars in a pack. You do realize that to the average cop this would look a lot like a drug deal? If someone sees us and calls nine‑one‑one we would probably both be arrested.”
“You stuck around because you wanted to identify the competition,” she said.
“It seemed like the logical thing to do. Look, neither of us can afford to waste time discussing motives. Do you want to trade information? If not, I’m going to bail before one of the neighbors decides to call the police.”
She glanced into the darkened kitchen. She and the rest of the Lost Night Files crew were desperate for answers. This was as close as any of them had come to locating the list.
“All right, I’ll trade,” she said. “You were here before me. You went inside. What did you find?”
“Not much. There are a few personal things. Some clothes. Some basics in the bath. But no tech. Whoever grabbed her took her phone and any other devices she might have had.”
“They didn’t want other buyers to look for her,” Talia whispered. “Maybe they plan to murder her and dump the body.”
“If they wanted to kill her, they could have done it here and made it look like a burglary‑in‑progress murder. It would have been the simplest way to silence her. Instead they took the risk of kidnapping her. Maybe she’s important to them for reasons besides the list.”
“You seem to know a lot about how bad guys think.” “I’m using a technique called logic,” he said.
“I wasn’t criticizing you,” she said quickly. “Figuring out how bad guys think is a very useful skill set.”
“Thank you. I’m glad you approve. Moving right along, you have my name but I don’t have yours. Care to introduce yourself?”
Her intuition sent a chill of warning. She was once again aware of an intriguingly resonant vibe in his voice. He’s trying to make me think I can trust him. And it was working.
Excerpted from THE NIGHT ISLAND by Jayne Ann Krentz Copyright © 2024 by Jayne Ann Krentz. Excerpted by permission of Berkley. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
THE NIGHT ISLAND by Jayne Ann Krentz
The disappearance of a mysterious informant leads two people desperate for answers to an island of deadly deception in this new novel in the Lost Night Files trilogy by New York Times bestselling author Jayne Ann Krentz.
Talia March, Pallas Llewellyn, and Amelia Rivers, bonded by a night none of them can remember, are dedicated to uncovering the mystery of what really happened to them months ago—an experience that amplified innate psychic abilities in each of them. The women suspect they were test subjects years earlier, and that there are more people like them—all they have to do is find the list of others who took that same test. When Talia follows up on a lead from Phoebe, a fan of the trio’s podcast, she discovers that the informant has vanished.
Talia isn’t the only one looking for Phoebe, however. Luke Rand, a hunted and haunted man who is chasing the same list that Talia is after, also shows up at the meeting place. It’s clear he has his own agenda, and they are instantly suspicious of each other. But when a killer begins to stalk them, they realize they have to join forces to find Phoebe and the list.
The rocky investigation leads Talia and Luke to a rustic, remote retreat on Night Island in the Pacific Northwest, where the Unplugged Experience promises to rejuvenate guests. Upon their arrival, Talia and Luke discover they are quite literally cut off from the outside world when none of their high-tech devices work on the island. It soon becomes clear that Phoebe is not the first person to disappear into the strange gardens that surround the Unplugged Experience retreat. And then the first mysterious death occurs. . . .
Romance Suspense [Berkley, On Sale: January 9, 2024, Hardcover / e-Book, ISBN: 9780593639856 / eISBN: 9780593639870]
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About Jayne Ann Krentz
Jayne Ann Krentz is the author of fifty New York Times bestsellers and has over forty million books in print. Jayne writes fast-paced suspense with a sexy edge under three pen names. If you like contemporary settings, try one of her new releases written under her Krentz name. Readers looking for a similar thrill in a historical setting go for the books she writes as Amanda Quick. And those adventurous types who prefer their suspense with a futuristic/paranormal twist read the novels she writes as Jayne Castle.
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