The Departed
PRAISE FOR
THE MISSING
“Suspense that can rip your heart open and leave you raw…The characters are absolutely fantastic, from the leads to the side characters. The setting is wonderful. If you enjoy suspense/thriller/romance novels, heavy on the suspense, then I highly recommend Shiloh Walker’s
The Missing
.”
—Errant Dreams Reviews
“Walker pulls it off brilliantly…[She] certainly has a future in paranormal and/or romantic suspense.”
—The Romance Reader
“Great romantic suspense that grips the audience.”
—Midwest Book Review
CHAINS
“This book is a double page-turner. The story is thrilling, and the sex just makes it better—two great reasons not to put it down until the end!”
—Romantic Times
“Breathtakingly wonderful…Smoothly erotic…Utterly amazing…Will definitely keep your pulse racing!”
—Errant Dreams Reviews
“Exciting erotic romantic suspense.”
—Midwest Book Review
FRAGILE
“[A] flawlessly sexy suspense novel…Exhilarating.”
—Romantic Times
“An excellently crafted mystery and romance!”
—Errant Dreams Reviews
“Suspense, romance, and an ending that I can’t say anything about—because that would be a spoiler…I recommend reading this one.”
—The Best Reviews
“Intense, sexy…Ms. Walker has created another unforgettable…fast-paced, edgy tale.”
—Fallen Angel Reviews
HUNTER’S FALL
“Shiloh’s books are sinfully good, wickedly sexy, and wildly imaginative!”
—
Larissa Ione,
New York Times
bestselling author
HUNTER’S NEED
“A perfect ten!…[A] riveting tale that I couldn’t put down and wanted to read again as soon as I finished.”
—Romance Reviews Today
HUNTER’S SALVATION
“One of the best tales in a series that always achieves high marks…An excellent thriller.”
—Midwest Book Review
HUNTERS: HEART AND SOUL
“Some of the best erotic romantic fantasies on the market. Walker’s world is vibrantly alive with this pair.”
—The Best Reviews
HUNTING THE HUNTER
“Action, sex, savvy writing, and characters with larger-than-life personalities that you will not soon forget are where Ms. Walker’s talents lie, and she delivered all that and more…This is a flawless five-rose paranormal novel, and one that every lover of things that go bump in the night will be howling about after they read it…Do not walk! Run to get your copy today!”
—A Romance Review
“An exhilarating romantic fantasy filled with suspense and…star-crossed love…Action-packed.”
—Midwest Book Review
“Fast-paced and very readable…Titillating.”
—The Romance Reader
“Action-packed, with intriguing characters and a very erotic punch,
Hunting the Hunter
had me from page one. Thoroughly enjoyable with a great hero and a story line you can sink your teeth into, this book is a winner. A very good read!”
—Fresh Fiction
“Another promising voice is joining the paranormal genre by bringing her own take on the ever-evolving vampire myth. Walker has set up the bones of an interesting world and populated it with some intriguing characters. Hopefully, there will be a sequel that ties together more threads and divulges more details.”
—Romantic Times
Titles by Shiloh Walker
HUNTING THE HUNTER
HUNTERS: HEART AND SOUL
HUNTER’S SALVATION
HUNTER’S NEED
HUNTER’S FALL
THROUGH THE VEIL
VEIL OF SHADOWS
THE MISSING
THE DEPARTED
FRAGILE
BROKEN
Anthologies
HOT SPELL
(with Emma Holly, Lora Leigh, and Meljean Brook)
PRIVATE PLACES
(with Robin Schone, Claudia Dain, and Allyson James)
THE
DEPARTED
SHILOH WALKER
BERKLEY SENSATION, NEW YORK
THE BERKLEY PUBLISHING GROUP
Published by the Penguin Group
Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA
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South Africa
Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
This book is an original publication of The Berkley Publishing Group.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.
Copyright © 2012 by Shiloh Walker, Inc.
Cover photo by Claudio Marinesco.
Cover design by Edwin Tse.
Interior text design by Tiffany Estreicher.
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.
BERKLEY SENSATION® is a registered trademark of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
The “B” design is a trademark of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
PRINTING HISTORY
Berkley Sensation trade paperback edition / January 2012
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Walker, Shiloh.
The departed / Shiloh Walker.—Berkley Sensation trade paperback ed.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-0-425-24521-7
1. Psychic ability—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3623.A35958D47 2012
813.6—dc23
2011036848
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For my family…always. You’re my everything. I thank God for you.
For Patti D.…you were the first one to ask when Taylor would get a story. The first. And I told you he wouldn’t
get
one. I think I even called him a bad name. He’s another one of those characters I never planned on giving a story to—I didn’t think there was a story there. But I kept getting asked, first by Patti, then others:
But I want to know why he’s the way he is
.
Why
is one of those questions that can be deadly for a writer—it starts all those strange little wheels spinning. I got asked
why
too many times about Taylor and those wheels started spinning. Turns out he had a story after all.