CYCLE C  |  Book 1 

Places of Exile

PREVIEW | Places of Exile

A Lake Placid sports bar is not Araceli Donovan's idea of a fun place to be, not on a warmish February evening.  She'd rather be at the helm of one of her boats, cruising with clients in the South Pacific.  Or at one of the Macau poker tables.  She reminds herself that the poker tables are the reason she is now stuck here.

Her challenge for the evening is to connect with Malory Ballantyne, who is sitting by himself in a far corner.  If worst comes to worst, she could walk over there and ask him to buy her a drink.  The rest would inevitably follow, as rain and lightning follow thunderheads.

Malory isn't enjoying himself either.  He's a sailor, not a skier, and he regards his stay in Lake Placid as a way to chart his way across hazardous and stormy sea.  This isn't easy, because he's pursuing three goals simultaneously.  The first is a personal vendetta.  The second is to help a one-time teacher make a new life for herself in Europe. The third is to keep Kari, a woman he cares about more then he knows, grounded in the college town of Lucerna.  To attain goal three, he'll have to go there.

Kari is presently residing in the small Canadian town of Lucerna, tidying up some loose ends, getting ready to make her move.

Three life trajectories -- all destined to intersect.  When it happens, Araceli is the first to realize it was no accident, and she knows who had sought to bring it about: a man she sardonically calls her "Benefactor."  But she doesn't know what he's after.  Before she can find out, Kari disappears from the face of the earth, and Araceli finds herself caught up in a desperate effort to find her.