Page 5

Chapter Four

The only other person not there, besides Logan’s fiancée, Dakota Swift , who knew what was going on and they trusted not to leak the information anywhere, was Kristen’s cousin Will Anders .

The only reason he wasn’t there was because the museum where he worked had received a new exhibit that morning, and he had to catalog over two hundred artifacts and compare the list to the manifest. It was an all-day job, but he was checking in every hour or so.

After going through her latest emails, Kristen signed into Facebook to check her notifications and private messages.

She started with the latter and had responded to several of them before she got to the one from a reader named Rhonda who was a big fan and very active in the Kristen Anders ’ Amazing Angels reader group.

Hi Kristen ! Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but I came across a book by a new “author,” and I hate to say it, but it looks like she plagiarized your Hearts Ablaze .

You might want to take a look at it. The names have been changed but almost everything else is word for word!

She has three other books out, all rapidly released.

I checked the sample chapters of the other two.

One sounds really familiar, and I’m trying to remember which author might have written it.

The other isn’t one of yours either. Sorry !

“ Shit ,” she murmured, clicking on the link that’d been provided.

Of course, it would be one of her indie books, instead of the others she had with her traditional publisher.

Red Rose Books had a large legal department that handled stuff like this, but if Hearts Ablaze had, indeed, been plagiarized, Kristen would need to retain her own lawyer.

Once she was on the book’s purchase page, she read the blurb.

It wasn’t exactly the same as the one Kristen had written for Hearts Ablaze , but it was close enough.

Her stomach was already tied up in knots thinking about Marie and what Chuck and their sons must be going through, and this wasn’t helping.

Bringing up the sample, and praying Rhonda had been wrong, Kristen started to read.

“ Son of a freakin’ witch!” She’d gotten creative in her cursing since JD had been born and Mara had started repeating everything she heard.

Ian was still in trouble with Harper because her daughter was very fond of the word “twatwaffle.” Thankfully , it sounded more like “what-waffle” coming from the little girl’s mouth.

“ What’s the matter?” Shelby asked from across the room.

Gaping at the screen, Kristen couldn’t answer right away, too shocked by what she was reading.

Rhonda had been right. All this so-called author had done was replace the main characters’ names, Keith and Shannon , with Kevin and Sharon .

She hadn’t even been original about it! The fictional town had also been changed from Pine Creek to Aspen Creek .

“ What’s wrong, Kristen ?”

Shelby was now standing directly behind her.

Kristen gestured to the screen. “ She ... she stole my book! I’ve been plagiarized!

I can’t believe this! Let me bring up Hearts Ablaze .

” Opening another browser window, she went back to the same site and located the first book she’d ever published—the one that’d propelled her into the indie author world before she’d been discovered by Red Rose .

She clicked on the sample and lined up the two windows side by side.

“ Look . Word for freaking word except the names, and even those are similar.”

It didn’t take long for Shelby to blurt out, “ Oh my God ! I don’t believe it! Who is this person?”

“ January Moore —although I doubt that’s her real name.

” Fury was overtaking her shock as she clicked on the thief’s name to go to the author page for more information.

“ I’ve never heard of her, and look, she only has three books, and they were all published in the past ten days.

Yeah , some legit authors do rapid releases all the time, but it’s also common with book thieves.

Rhonda from my reader group was the one who noticed it.

She looked at these other two and said they weren’t mine, but she thinks she read one of them before and is trying to figure out what book it might’ve been.

“ You know, every time someone posted about being plagiarized in the author groups I’m in, I was so happy it wasn’t me.

Now , I know how they felt—like my heart has been ripped from my chest. And it’s not even one of my books with Red Rose , so I have to hire a lawyer if the site won’t take them down. ”

“ Um , free lawyer standing right behind you, sweetie,” Harper said.

Kristen glanced over her shoulder to see Harper and Angie had joined them and were studying the split screen on the computer monitor. “ Lawyer , yes. Free , no. I won’t let you work for nothing, Harper —it’s not like I can’t afford it—but I’ll be hiring you if I need to.”

It wouldn’t be the first time the woman had been Kristen’s legal counsel.

She’d been a tremendous help when Kristen’s first husband had tried to claim he was entitled to half the royalties from her “little books,” as he’d called them, despite their divorce.

The case had been dropped after Tom had been arrested for embezzling money from his brokerage firm.

Kristen still had a hard time wrapping her brain around the fact a man she’d loved and married was now in federal prison serving a four-year sentence.

“ Let me ... shoot, let me download her book, so I have the proof before I email the site to try to get it taken down. I don’t know what to do after that.

Do I sue her for the money she earned from sales of the book?

Is it worth the time and effort to do that?

I mean it’s only been up a few days—they wait sixty days before paying out royalties, so she’ll never see the money if they take the book down.

I - I ... damn it. How could someone do this?

I mean, I put my blood, sweat, and tears into—” Her voice caught in her throat, and tears rolled down her cheeks.

Of all days, she did not need this happening today.

Shelby squeezed her shoulders. “ Don’t worry.

Between us, we’ll take this bee-otch down.

I’m going to go download the other two books and get online with Rhonda to try and figure out who the other books were stolen from.

If she stole yours, most likely she stole the others too.

Those authors need to be told, whoever they are. ”

Kirsten wasn’t looking forward to letting the other authors know they’d been plagiarized too, if that was the case, but in the indie community, authors, readers, and everyone else watched out for each other, for the most part. “ Damn it!”

“ Bam it! Bam it, An -ten.”

Kristen hadn’t realized Mara had wandered over to them. “ An -ten” was baby speak for Aunt Kristen . She rolled her eyes and glanced at Harper . “ Sorry .”

The other woman shrugged and waved her hand. “ It’s not as bad as what Uncle Ian says. Don’t worry about it— I’m loose-lipped too when I’m in a bad mood. I’ve just been able to get away with it so far.”

“ Bam it! Bam it! Bam it!”

Great , just what they needed today.