Imperfect Chemistry (21 page)

Freya Morgan thought it was a great idea to hire the bad boy on campus to beat up her douchebag ex-boyfriend after he cheated on her and treated her like crap. Fast forward a few months, and now the bad boy she hired is in trouble. And it's sort of her fault. After all, if she hadn't hired him in the first place, she wouldn't have started the trend of all the ladies on campus paying him to do their dirty work. But now, those boys he's being paid to beat up are ending up dead, and he's the prime suspect and he expects Freya to help him find the real killer.

Freya’s situation is not uncommon. Over 60% of rapes go unreported and 97% of rapists never spend a day in jail (
https://www.rainn.org/statistics
).

If you or someone you know is a victim of sexual assault, I hope you will report, or encourage the victim to report. Even if you don’t succeed, you may save a future victim.

Although Lucy may understand and articulate the “biological urges” of homo
sapien males, as a species, we have evolved to the point where we can control our urges. No always means no, whether you are male or female, and whether you are with a friend, boyfriend, husband, someone you’ve slept with before, or someone you are fooling around with now. The choice to share your body is always yours.

For more information, you can contact RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network) at
www.rainn.org
or their hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE.

First off, thank YOU beautiful reader for making it to the end of this book without tossing it aside in disdain and/or horror. I appreciate that you took a chance on an unknown writer, and I hope you enjoyed the story. For more information on what’s coming next, you can find me at my blog: marewolf.blogspot.com, or on twitter: @
marewulf

Thank you to my husband for dealing with me having my nose in my laptop or book for hours on end. Your unflagging encouragement and belief in my abilities astounds me. I love you.

My mother and early reader, Elizabeth Baines. Thank you for always believing I could do this, even when I was writing crappy stories with flat characters, and probably still am.

A giant squeeze and thank you to Mary
Baader Kaley. I know you don’t believe this, but without your knowledge and support, it would have been another five years before I wrote anything even remotely publishable. And if it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t know most of the people listed below.

My earliest beta readers who provided wonderful input: Jennifer Ortiz, Kirsty from
Goodreads, Jenny Juchtzer, Maria Michel, Adrienne Leyland and the aforementioned Mary Baader Kaley.

My lovely goat readers: Angela Cook,
Precy Larkins, Ashlee Supinger, Suzanne Payne, and Riognach Robinson. You guys amaze me! Plus, the rest of #TheGoatPosse I don’t know what I would do without each and every one of you and your input and support.

And last, but definitely not least, this book would not be half as good as it is without
Jenn Marie Thorne. Your ideas, encouragement, and gentle (or not so gentle, ha!) prodding made this book a bazillion times better than I could have done alone. Look for her debut novel, THE WRONG SIDE OF RIGHT, Spring 2015.