Blog Tour Extract: Anything for Her – Jack Jordan

Its my turn today for the blog tour of Anything for Her by Jack Jordan. Anything for Her was Jack’s debut thriller and originally published in June 2015 however it has now been re-published with an updated cover. His new thriller, My Girl, is due to be released on 4 July 2016 and I already have my pre-order in!

Jack Jordan, bestselling author of Anything for Her and My Girl.

To celebrate the release of my second thriller, My Girl,  on July 4th, I am sharing the first chapter of my bestselling debut novel exclusively to Karen’s blog, My Reading Corner.

Sometimes the past comes back to haunt you. 


Louise Leighton’s life has fallen apart, all because of one fateful night. Her husband is an adulterer, her sister is his mistress, and soon, Louise will lose everything she owns. But she never imagined she would lose her daughter. 


Eighteen-year-old Brooke Leighton is missing. It’s up to Louise and the Metropolitan Police to find her. Has Brooke run away? Or has she been taken against her will? And can Louise aid the investigation without mentioning the night where all of her troubles began? 


If she mentions that night, she will incriminate her daughter for heinous crimes. But if she doesn’t, she may never find Brooke; and if she has been abducted, the person who took her may come for Louise, too. 


Sometimes the past comes back to kill you.



1

Louise had never wanted her husband to die. Not until he ripped their family apart.

Testicular cancer? Rabies? A fatal fall from a windy clifftop? Lightning strike to his adulterous crotch? She hadn’t decided. All she knew was, once a husband told his wife that he had been having an affair with her younger sister, it was more than acceptable, if not entirely necessary, for his wife to imagine his gruesome death over and over for her own pleasure.

They had argued all night: ever since Michael had confessed to the ten-month affair. Just as she was drifting off to sleep, he divulged.

‘I’ve been sleeping with Denise.’

She instantly forgot to how to breathe.

‘I love you, Louise. I don’t want our marriage to end because of this.’

Her throat constricted. Her heart was beating wildly in her chest.

‘I… I don’t understand.’

‘I’ve been meaning to tell you—’

‘No,’ she turned to face him. ‘Say it again. Look into my eyes and say it again.’

She stared at her husband’s bewitching face, and waited for him to explain that it was a sick prank. He would laugh hysterically as her mouth relaxed into a relieved smirk and she would slap his arm playfully. You really got me for a moment there, Mike!

‘I’ve been having an affair with your sister.’

Michael’s complexion paled as he watched his words sink in.

He was lying – he had to be. Michael wouldn’t do that. Maybe she had fallen asleep – maybe she was having a nightmare. Was it possible for her to feel her heart break while she slept?

Her eyes began to sting with tears. She couldn’t escape the thought of her husband writhing naked on top of her sister, both of them glistening with sweat and panting like excited dogs; she imagined Denise clutching her husband’s buttocks as he slammed into her.

Louise got out of bed, rushed to the en-suite, and vomited.

***

After an exhausting night of tears, yelling, apologies, and expletives, they occupied the room in stifling silence, with every word they had spoken echoing in their ears. Louise sat on the end of the bed – the side of their marital bed that she had occupied for twenty years.

She looked out of the window, as the sun rose and began to warm the December frost that sparkled on the London rooftops, and wondered if she would ever be able to look at her husband again without wishing him dead.

Michael stood at the foot of the bed with the facial expression of a scolded child. His bottom lip quivered as he tried to keep the tears at bay.

‘Why, Michael?’ she asked weakly. ‘Why my sister, of all people?’

‘I couldn’t handle the secrets anymore. I couldn’t handle the distance you put between us. Denise came on to me and I let her.’

‘It seems we all have secrets,’ she replied, her eyes fixed on the window. ‘But don’t worry, my secrets don’t involve fucking your brother.’

They succumbed to the silence again. Louise looked down at the hastily packed suitcase by her feet. She had to escape her new, agonising reality before it killed her.

‘So not only have you destroyed your business, lost all of our money, and destroyed our family, but you’ve decimated our marriage and severed my bond with my sister forever.’

She looked at him with tears in her eyes, a woman too weak to take another knock.

‘I will never forgive myself.’

‘I will never forgive you either.’

Tears ran down her cheeks and reflected the rising sun in their streams.

She stood and reached down for the suitcase handle; fresh tears dropped to the carpet.

‘Please stay. Please stay until we work this out.’

‘I can’t bear to be near you right now,’ she walked to the door. ‘I can’t even look at you.’

She opened the bedroom door while Michael sobbed behind her. In front of her stood their two children.

Ten-year-old Dominic looked startled to see his mother’s worn complexion and bloodshot eyes. His small hands were shaking.

Eighteen-year-old Brooke, a youthful double of her mother, stood next to him; her checks were streaked with dried tears.

Both children looked utterly drained, as though neither of them had slept a wink. They must have listened to every word.

‘I need to go away for a while,’ she said, wiping tears from her face.

‘Can we come with you?’ Dominic asked.

‘No, darling. Mummy needs some time to herself for a few days.’ She knelt down in front of her son; his eyes shimmered with hurt. ‘That doesn’t mean I don’t need you or love you with every part of me. It just means that I need to go away and have a good, long think. Okay?’

‘What have you got to think about?’

‘Not very nice things. But whenever I need cheering up, I’ll think of you.’

‘You promise you’ll come back?’

Tears began to fill his eyes.

‘I promise you, my angel. I’ll be back.’

Louise spread her arms and her son fell into her chest and unfurled his sobs. She held him to her, her heart breaking all over again, and looked up at Brooke.

Our secret did this.

She didn’t need to say it out loud. Brooke knew.

Louise gave her son one last squeeze and a kiss before she got to her feet to stand before her eldest child. She entered into a tight embrace with her and kissed her quickly on the cheek.

‘Be strong,’ she whispered into her daughter’s ear. ‘Be strong for your brother.’

From the top of the South Kensington townhouse, Louise carried the heavy suitcase down each flight of stairs, trying to ignore the approaching steps of her husband, and the children following behind him like his shadow.

‘Don’t go. Please don’t leave me.’

Louise couldn’t trust herself to reply without crying; she hurried for the last flight of stairs. The suitcase strained her arm and back but she didn’t care: the sooner she escaped, the better.

When she reached the front door, she stopped in her tracks. Michael stood on the bottom step of the staircase; the children remained at the top. Louise couldn’t take her eyes away from the framed photo hanging proudly by the door for all to see: the photo of her and Michael on their wedding day. Standing next to her was Denise in her maid of honour dress; Michael’s brother, the best man, stood to the right. The four of them were laughing. Their wide grins radiated glee and wedding-day beauty. She had never noticed that Michael and Denise’s eyes were locked, frozen by the click of the camera.

Rage swelled in her chest. Her entire body shook with hate, and her skin flushed hot. She dropped the suitcase with a bang, snatched the photo frame from the wall, and launched it at her husband with a scream. He ducked as it crashed against the wall and exploded into shards of glass and splinters of wood.

Dominic screamed from the top of the stairs and ran out of sight.

Louise looked at the scene, at the mess that her life had become, torn between hurting her husband further and running to his aid. She took her keys from the sideboard, picked up her suitcase, and rushed out of the house, slamming the door behind her. The sound reverberated through the house and sent shudders through those she left behind.

Grab your copy of Anything for Her, here

Jack Jordan’s second thriller, My Girl will be available as of 4th July, 2016. You can pre-order your copy here

If you would like to follow the blog tour for My Girl, these are the dates:

Paige Dawson: the mother of a murdered child and wife to a dead man. 


She has nothing left to live for… until she finds her husband’s handgun hidden in their house. 


Why did Ryan need a gun? What did he know about their daughter’s death? 


Desperate for the truth, Paige begins to unearth her husband’s secrets. 


But she has no idea who she is up against, or that her life isn’t hers to gamble – she belongs to me. 

From the bestselling author of Anything for Her, Jack Jordan’s My Girl is the new chilling thriller that you won’t want to miss.





About the author:

Jack Jordan lives in East Anglia, England. He is an introvert disguised as an extrovert, an intelligent person who can say very unintelligent things, and a self-confessed bibliomaniac with more books than sense. ‘Anything for Her’ is Jack Jordan’s debut novel.

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