Necessary Detour

After a stalker's attack, International rock star, Goldy, suddenly quits show business and leaves L.A. for her secluded lake house in Northern Washington with her daughter, where she hopes to avoid both the media and a psychotic fan. The FBI advise that her latest stalker, Shakespeare, named for his poetic letters that quote the bard, will lose interest when Goldy is out of the spotlight. But when her daughter leaves to attend college and she's alone on the property, obscurity leaves her restless, and the arrival of a mysterious--and disturbingly handsome--new neighbor across the small bay has Goldy (who's name is Nikki) reaching for the binoculars. Pete Bayer is undeniably attractive, but Nikki, quickly realizes there's something strange going on in the log house across the bay, beyond her suspicion he might be the press. Despite this, Nikki can't deny her fascination with Pete until she sees a hidden wife and son inside the cabin. Her suspicions turn to fear when she believes Pete is planning to kill his wife. She offers an escape route to a shelter or help from the FBI but the wife insists she and the child are safe even though her husband has a gun and his wife appears afraid of him. The local police tell Nikki to stop spying. Nikki must decide between putting herself in danger or playing it safe because she's three months pregnant from a one night stand with a famous actor. Her seventeen-year-old daughter, Quinn, is away at college, trying to live a normal life after years in her mother's spotlight and a subsequent addiction problem. Nikki wants desperately to offer a normal life to the new baby and be the mother Quinn never had. When the press find Nikki, it's Pete who offers an escape route, but leaving with the Bayer family comes with a price. Stay with them a week but not tell anyone where she is. Nikki agrees and soon learns Pete is a Federal Marshal protecting a witness and her son who are waiting to testify in the murder of her husband then fade into the witness relocation program. Pete is not married. A dead of night escape has the three Bayers and Nikki ending up on Pete's sailboat on the west coast. The foursome spend a week in close quarters until the Bayers are called to Seattle to testify. By then, Nikki and Pete have realized their deep feelings for each other, Pete fully aware she's pregnant. In Seattle, the courthouse is swamped with press and Nikki provides a distraction by jumping out of the van. Mistaken for the witness, a hitman shoots Nikki as Pete ushers his charges into the courthouse. Nikki is rushed to the hospital but her stalker looms, now having found her through the press coverage of the mistaken identity shooting. When the stalker's final plan is put into place and a drugged Nikki is taken from the hospital, it's Pete who comes to Nikki's rescue. At risk to his own life, he helps capture the abductor who is Nikki's personal assistant. Nikki discovers that the assistant had a daughter, a runaway obsessed with Goldy, and when she killed herself at a Goldy concert, the mother promised revenge. All this time, Pete is prevented in seeing Nikki by Quinn who thinks it was his fault her mother got shot, but Pete is frantic to know the woman he loves hasn't lost the baby and forgives him for not protecting her at the courthouse. At a press conference, Nikki asks the world to let her disappear into obscurity and when Pete shows up to ask a question, they reunite, vowing to make a life together, away from show business. *Adapted - #1 Amazon Bestselling Romantic Suspense, USA Today Bestselling Author, Kim Hornsby (screenwriter)