Marinated Lies

He returned with lies. They came with consequences.

When Melody's long-lost father walks back into her life after twenty years of silence, she knows something doesn't add up. Ryan's carefully crafted story about reconciliation has too many holes, and his suspicious questions about the restaurant's operations suggest motives that have nothing to do with family.

Jackie and Lauren thought they'd faced the worst Prairie Rose had to offer. They were wrong. Because Ryan didn't return alone. He brought a million-dollar debt to a Chicago-based criminal organization, and those debts are collected in blood.

As a parade of suspicious investigators descends on Charlie Joe's BBQ Shack, each with their own agenda and questionable credentials, Charlie Joe's nieces must determine who's legitimate, who's compromised, and who's working directly for the criminals hunting Ryan. When the danger escalates from surveillance to direct threats, they realize they're not just dealing with one deadbeat father's mistakes. They're caught in the middle of an organized crime operation that views them as collateral damage.

With Sheriff Ray Martinez coordinating federal assistance and Melody's brilliant analytical mind working overtime, the family races to uncover the truth before Ryan's past destroys their present. But in a game where every investigator could be an enemy and trust is a luxury they can't afford, survival means making impossible choices about family, loyalty, and the price of protection.

In Prairie Rose, some family reunions are better left uncooked, and some debts demand more than money can pay.