Cross Her Heart (bree Taggert, #1)

The novel opens in January 1993 in Grey's Hollow, New York, with a prologue from eight-year-old Bree Taggert's perspective. Her father is beating her mother in their bedroom. Bree calls 911, retrieves her four-year-old sister Erin and infant brother Adam, and flees outside to hide all three children beneath the back porch through a loose board, a hiding place she has used before. Two gunshots ring out. Bree closes her eyes, knowing nothing will ever be the same.

In the present day, Bree is a 35-year-old Philadelphia homicide detective. After arresting a murder suspect with her partner, Detective Dana Romano, Bree discovers a missed voicemail from Erin. Her sister's voice is scared and rushed: She says she is in trouble and needs Bree's help. Bree calls back repeatedly but cannot reach Erin or Adam. Sensing something deeply wrong, she drives north through the night.

Meanwhile, former sheriff's department K-9 handler Matt Flynn arrives at his friend Justin Moore's house in Grey's Hollow to take him to a Narcotics Anonymous meeting. Justin does not answer. Matt enters and finds Erin dead on the bedroom floor, shot once, in a lake of blood. Justin is missing. Chief Deputy Todd Harvey, the acting sheriff, focuses on Justin as the primary suspect: Justin has prior drug offenses, and his father's Sig Sauer 9mm handgun is missing. A brief chapter from the unidentified killer's perspective reveals his cold rationalization. He washes blood from his hands, burns his clothes, and tells himself Erin brought her death on herself.

When Bree arrives, Todd delivers the news at the sheriff's station. She recognizes Matt from Erin and Justin's wedding and goes to his house to talk. Matt proposes they work together, balancing each other's biases: Bree would investigate assuming Justin's guilt while Matt would advocate for his innocence. Bree drives to her brother Adam's home, where Erin's children have been staying: Luke, Erin's 15-year-old son, and Kayla, her eight-year-old daughter. The medical examiner reveals Erin died from a single 9mm bullet that lacerated her coronary artery. Alone with the body, Bree promises to care for the kids and find the killer, drawing an X on her chest, the sisters' childhood "cross my heart" gesture.

Bree takes the children home to Erin's farmhouse. After midnight, she finds a masked intruder rifling through a kitchen drawer. She chases him but loses him at a barbed-wire fence. Back at the house, Luke holds a shotgun Erin bought two months earlier despite always hating guns. Bree realizes her sister had been afraid of someone. She calls Matt, who arrives with his retired K-9, Brody. They share leads: Justin's father revealed Justin carried a burner phone and was calling someone named Nico, likely a drug dealer, and Justin's camping gear is missing. They agree to partner up.

Dana drives from Philadelphia with Bree's belongings and her own suitcase, using her remaining paid time off to help. The investigation fans out along four tracks: Nico the drug dealer; Jack Halo, the salon owner who had been sexually harassing Erin; Craig Vance, the children's absent biological father; and Trey White, a registered sex offender who stalked Erin. Among Erin's salon locker belongings, Bree discovers a hidden burner phone bearing both Erin's and Justin's fingerprints. Todd shares critical evidence: Justin's prints appear in Erin's blood at the scene, and Erin's phone records reveal calls from an unknown prepaid number clustered around three cash withdrawals totaling $10,000. Someone was blackmailing her.

Key findings narrow the suspects. At an abandoned factory, Bree and Matt find Erin's pickup truck with blood from both Erin and Justin inside, along with a note reading "I'm sorry." In Trey White's apartment, they discover months of surveillance photos of Erin, including one placing him near Justin's house recently. At a midnight meeting, Nico confirms Justin tried to buy oxycodone the previous Friday but lacked the money; when Nico offered heroin, Justin declined. Nico has an airtight alibi for the murder night.

Craig surfaces to demand custody of Luke and Kayla, claiming to be a reformed minister at a church in Albany. Investigation reveals he plagiarized his religious testimony, lives in a modest apartment rather than the house he described, and gambles at a local casino. His day off is Tuesday, the same day each of Erin's cash withdrawals occurred, pointing to him as the blackmailer.

The case breaks open at the salon. Bree visits Erin's coworker and best friend, Stephanie Wallace, and discovers Steph's phone records show a call to Erin at 6 p.m. on the murder night, though Steph was showering at the time. They realize Steph's husband, Zack Wallace, used her phone. Steph reveals Zack has been hitting her and obsessively tracking her movements. She packed a bag that morning, planning to leave him. Zack, who has been watching the salon, sends threatening texts. Moments later, he arrives armed with two guns and extra ammunition.

Matt spots Zack from the parking lot, calls 911, and enters the building. Zack kills one woman, wounds others, and sets a fire. Bree evacuates people, then hunts Zack through the darkened salon as sprinklers pour. He takes hostages on the second floor. Steph, who is pregnant, returns inside and steps between Zack and the hostages, begging him to stop. When his first gun clicks empty, he reaches for the second. Matt charges to shield Steph. Bree clears her shot and fires four rounds into Zack's chest, killing him.

Deputies find Justin in Zack's workshop, chained to a beam, shot in the shoulder but alive. Justin explains that Zack used the Sig Sauer Justin had left on the dresser to shoot Erin. Justin heard the shot from the shower and found Erin dying on the floor. He chased Zack in Erin's truck but was ambushed and imprisoned. Todd's investigation uncovers Zack's full pattern: He stalked Erin for weeks, slashed her tires, and made threatening calls from Steph's phone. He kept Justin alive as part of a plan to frame Craig by dumping Justin's body in Albany and planting the gun in Craig's apartment. Steph's decision to leave him that morning triggered his rampage at the salon.

At Erin's funeral, Adam brings a sunlit painting of Erin with the children and their horse, titled "Safe," the first non-dark work he has ever created. At home, Bree finds a mini SD memory card hidden behind the kitchen clock containing recordings of Craig blackmailing Erin with $3,000 demands under threat of a custody suit. Albany police arrest Craig for grand larceny and extortion. Todd and Marge, the department's longtime office manager, propose that Bree be appointed as the new sheriff of Randolph County. Marge shows Bree a photograph of Sheriff Bob O'Reilly, the man who rescued Bree and her siblings from under the porch the night their parents died. Bree agrees to take the job.

Dana commits to moving to Grey's Hollow to help with the household. Matt brings Ladybug, a gentle rescue dog he calls Bree's "gateway dog" to ease her lifelong fear of dogs. The children adore the mutt, and Bree reluctantly agrees to keep her. She acknowledges her feelings for Matt but insists the children must come first. Bree reflects that her new life is not remotely under her control, but she will take on whatever comes for Luke and Kayla's sake.