Say Goodbye to Melody

by Velvet Vaughn

  Say Goodbye to Melody

  By Velvet Vaughn

  Copyright

  Copyright © 2018 VELVET VAUGHN LLC

  ISBN: 978-0-9992011-1-4

  This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  Visit Velvet's website at: www.velvetvaughn.com and her Facebook Fanpage HERE.

  Dedication

  This book is dedicated to all my readers. Thank you for the kind messages, feedback and support!

  Acknowledgements

  I would like to sincerely thank the members of my Velvet Vaughn Street Team who help spread the word: Cindi R., Debbie M., Gary A., Karen D., Karen J., Lisa B., Tammy T., Lisa B., Sharon W., Paulyn A and Shelley C. I’m so thankful for all of you and truly appreciate your support. I would also like to thank my social media guru, Kristy O.

  I want to thank Jesi Cunningham for entering and winning the character naming contest on my Facebook Fanpage. I love the name Raine Vickers!

  And as always, a huge thank you to my mom. I couldn’t do this without you!

  Table of Contents

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Notes

  About the Author

  Prologue

  “Loaded with antioxidants, botanicals found in nature and SPF 30 to protect your face from the sun’s harmful rays, Harmony hydrates the skin while keeping it nourished, for a younger-looking, healthier complexion. Combined with the mild cleanser that removes impurities and makeup without eliminating vital oils, your face will positively glow all day. I call it miracle in a bottle.”

  Melody Franklin held her breath until Jade Bradley—also known as Oscar-winning actress Juliet LaRue—flashed her million-dollar smile and looked directly into the camera. “Thank you all for watching and remember, supplies are limited, so be sure to order your supply of Harmony today.”

  “Cut. That’s a wrap,” Kendall Demarchis called out and the studio erupted in cheers. Olivia Larrson rushed over and hugged Melody tightly. Meanwhile, Melody concentrated on not passing out. All these people were here for her. They were filming an infomercial to launch her new beauty line, Harmony, to the mainstream public.

  The changes her life had undergone in the last few weeks were astounding, not to mention completely overwhelming. She had to pinch herself every morning to make sure she wasn’t dreaming. Having her own line of beauty products was her life-long dream and it was coming true.

  Melody had her older brother Maxwell to thank for her success. Max had been taking care of her all her life. Their parents were in their mid-forties when they had first Max and then Melody. As soon as she was born, he took his job of big brother seriously and doted on her. She in turn, adored him and wanted to do everything he did. He never complained about his annoying younger sister following him around like a puppy. Their father passed away when she was thirteen from a heart attack, and their mother five years later from cancer. Max had seamlessly stepped into the role of parent and saw to all her needs.

  He’d introduced her to Luke and Layla Colton, though it’d been Layla Brooks at the time. Luke needed someone to tutor Layla’s half-siblings, Sean and Tiffany, who were in hiding and unable to attend school. Max had apparently been bragging to his long-time friend Luke about his younger sister going back to college for a teaching degree. He did that often—bragged about her to friends and strangers alike. Luke asked Max if she would be interested in a temporary job. She’d jumped at the chance. Her life had been a non-stop whirlwind ever since.

  If not for Luke asking her to watch over the twins, she never would’ve met Jade or Kendall or Olivia or Taylor Costa, or any of the women who were now her close friends. And her investors! When the women approached her with the idea of investing in Harmony, she’d been touched by their generosity, but she tried to refuse their money. They insisted, and she was woefully outnumbered. They wanted in on the ground floor because they thought Harmony would be a huge hit. Their enthusiasm bolstered her confidence.

  A few short weeks ago, she’d been finishing up her degree in Education after switching her career path to become a professor. She’d tried to put her chemistry and physics degrees to good use by accepting a job out of college at Chem-Co, one of the most reputable pharmaceutical companies in the country. The fact that they were headquartered in her hometown was a huge bonus. She wanted to stay near her brother Max, who headed a thriving law practice in town.

  After two years at Chem-Co, she began to grow tired of the monotonous work. She was a glorified beaker cleaner. She knew she had to earn her stripes, put in her time, but her situation hadn’t improved in months. The work she was doing was menial and frankly, insulting. She’d started college at sixteen. It’d been hard being the youngest in all her classes, but she’d persevered and flourished. At age twenty-one she graduated at the top of her class with dual master’s degrees, had been honored with several prestigious awards, and had interned at two major companies during the course of her studies. Still, her bosses at Chem-Co refused to allow her to spread her wings. Several people within the company were doing important work. She just wasn’t one of them.

  When she was twelve, she’d developed a moisturizing facial cream, playing around with her chemistry kit and supplies she’d purchased on the internet. She’d tweaked it a bit over the years, but she’d used it religiously and unlike the other girls in school, she’d never had so much as a pimple. Her skin was smooth and wrinkle-free. Being a science nerd more interested in Bunsen burners than boys, she didn’t have many friends, so she’d never asked anyone else to try it. Still, she gathered her courage and approached her boss, Burton Kline, with a proposal to develop a line of facial products. Along with her moisturizing face cream, she envisioned a cleanser, as well as shampoo and conditioner, shower gel and even bath salts. Eventually, they could graduate to toners and serums, peels and scrubs, masks, eye cream, body butter…the list was endless. If it could be used on the body, she wanted to produce it. She even had a basic design for a men’s line featuring shaving cream and gel. Her pie in the sky was a designer line for dogs, too.

  Though she hated doing so, she added preservatives required by the Food and Drug Administration, but she made sure to use all-natural ones like rosemary oil and Vitamin E, both of which were natural antioxidants. She also included antimicrobials such as coconut oil and grapefruit extract. She adhered to the FDA guidelines religiously: spotlessly clean equipment that she regularly sanitized, distilled water, and packaging that effectively protected the formula. She had worked with a designer to de
velop a stylized pump jar with an airless dispenser bottle to minimize contamination by the user. Instead of sticking their germ-laden fingers in a jar, they pumped the product out. The design of the bottles was trendy and luxurious, keys to the demographic that she would be seeking. She’d done research and used the findings to produce the jars made of recycled glass. She was even thinking of establishing a program where the user could return their empty bottles for a discount, ensuring they could be recycled again. It would also offer an enticing incentive for repeat customers.

  A graphic designer had come up with a beautiful logo and it was silk-screened onto the bottles for a professional look. The bottles were packaged in a clear bag to show off the design. The extra steps were costly, but she was marketing to a high-profile crowd who would expect the luxurious details. She contracted with various distributors to purchase wholesale quantities of ingredients and supplies. She took hyper-vigilance to the next level by storing her products in a dark cabinet in a cool, dry, windowless room to avoid direct sunlight and UV rays. She also made sure to minimize heat, oxygen and moisture, all of which could breed bacteria.

  Before she approached her boss at Chem-Co, she went through a checklist of stability testing to assess everything from temperature variations to mechanical shock testing to determine if shipping would damage the product. She monitored for even the slightest changes from color to odor to viscosity and pH value. She’d actually started the tests in college, when she realized a line of cosmetic products was what she wanted to do with her degree. Many people thought you could just whip some ingredients together and slap a label on it to sell. But there was a ton of testing and regulations she had to follow. She adhered religiously to the Fair Packaging and Labeling Act which authorizes the FDA to require ingredient labeling. She also joined the Voluntary Cosmetic Registration Program which protects consumers and provides valuable information and support to manufacturers. The FDA doesn’t require premarket approval to sell the product. Still, she followed the guidelines of the Consumer Commitment Code, the Personal Care Products Council and the Cosmetic Ingredient Review. It was her responsibility to assure that her product and the ingredients were safe and labeled properly in full compliance with the law.

  Though she listed what was in her products, she didn’t have to tell anyone how much of each ingredient was added, and that was the secret formula that she would not share with anyone. She added a few drops of an extract only found growing in Hawaii and one from the Amazon rainforest. If someone saw the ingredients and tried to recreate her formula, they would add too much or too little, which would destabilize the cream, a lesson she’d learned the hard way. Her ingredients were precisely measured and tested.

  Before she approached Burton Kline with her proposal, she told Max her plan. Being the successful lawyer, he insisted on drawing up a legal document giving Chem-Co first right of refusal, especially since Chem-Co employee contracts included a clause that stated anything developed by employees during their tenure belonged to the company. However, Melody had developed the cream years ago, and had the documentation to prove it. Chem-Co had no claim on her product.

  She’d been so nervous before her meeting, she’d almost passed out. On the upside, it had been the impetus for her to draw up plans for a deodorant to add to her expanding line of body products. She needn’t have expended the energy to worry. Burton Kline had listened to approximately three minutes of her pitch and shot her down point blank. She tried to reason with him, but he refused to listen, checking his watch as if he had better places to be than sitting in his office with her. She’d asked his secretary, Margo, a certified notary public, to come into the office to witness him signing the document Max had drawn up, and then notarizing it. She gathered the papers with statistics and data she’d spent months painstakingly researching, tapped them together on his desk, inserted them in her leather handbag, and pulled out a resignation letter. He barely glanced at it before turning his concentration to something else. She’d been dismissed.

  Margo gave her a look of commiseration as she left Kline’s office. She’d planned on giving two weeks’ notice, but she had no pressing projects…or any, really. A monkey could do the menial tasks she’d been assigned. She wouldn’t be missed.

  It was then that she questioned her choice of a career. She loved science. Lived and breathed it. If her product wasn’t good enough to even garner a response from one of the largest chemical companies in the country, she was wasting her time and maybe she wasn’t cut out to be a scientist. Still, she couldn’t give it up altogether. With her knowledge and love of the subject, she could inspire the next generation. That’s when she went for her degree in teaching with a goal of becoming a professor.

  Though she’d given up on her dream of a science career, she kept up dabbling and had developed a cleanser to use before the facial cream. She now had two products she could market.

  Then came the fateful day she had stumbled into the great room of Luke Colton’s home where Layla and several women were gathered. She’d tried to beat a hasty retreat, having felt like an intruder, but they’d invited her to join them. Intimidated didn’t even begin to describe how she felt sitting with an Academy Award winning actress, a pop music icon, two award-winning television journalists and a best-selling author. She was just a failed scientist, current student slash tutor. Still, the women treated her as an equal. She’d noticed them staring at her and she was just about to give in to the urge to flee when one remarked on her skin and how it was smooth and flawless. They asked her what she used and when she admitted it was a cream she developed, they begged her to share. She did. Now the women were her die-hard champions and dear friends.

  What had started out as a hobby had turned into a career. It was the dream she was afraid to dream. She rented a store front in downtown Bloomington and set up shop. Soon, it was obvious she wouldn’t be able to handle business by herself. She convinced two of her coworkers from Chem-Co to come work for her: Raine Vickers, a fellow scientist, and Deanna Prescott, assistant to the president of the company, Elliot Kingman. Raine would help her expand the line of products, while Deanna was an organizational wonder and a people-person. She would take charge of orders and the office. If the company grew, they would hire people to staff the storefront and to work in the new facility she was in the process of designing.

  Her father had left her and her brother a plot of land that was located north of town in an unpopulated area but within proximity to a major interstate. It would be perfect for a manufacturing facility. It had been her brother’s idea to use the land for the production plant and he’d even signed over his share to her. She’d had the land surveyed and then worked with Reed Steele, the fiancé of COBRA Securities agent Hillary Billings and a highly sought-after architect, to design the building. Reed was a former major league baseball player and currently hosted a renovation show on television. After his baseball career was ended by a knee injury, he’d used his degree in architecture to host the popular show, Home Run Homes, which was now produced by TKO Productions, Kendall, Olivia and Taylor Costa’s company.

  Taylor rushed over and hugged her tightly, bringing Melody’s thoughts back to the present.

  “I’m so proud of you, Melody. The show was fantastic. You are going to be a huge success.”

  Melody reached down and pinched her leg. This had to be a dream.

  Chapter One

  Grant Colton leaned against the wall and watched as Quinn Billings put the young Belgian Malinois through his paces. Camo was a beauty, mahogany with a black mask and ears. He responded to Quinn’s commands and didn’t so much as blink as he passed two other dogs evaluating his performance with critical eyes. He was laser-focused on his task.

  Quinn, brother of fellow COBRA Securities agent Hillary, was an expert dog trainer, a skill he picked up in the military. He now operated his own business within the compound, training dogs for police and fire departments and other companies that requested them. He could tailor the training
to specifics from bomb and explosives detection, to drug sniffing to accelerant detection, used for arson investigations, to tracking humans for search and rescue or body recovery, used for things like earthquakes or natural disasters.

  Quinn was also a trained field agent and he could go out on a case if necessary, especially if a specialized dog was required. With Luke and Logan’s approval, he’d hired three former MWDs, or military working dog handlers, to assist with his operation. Sabrina Bradford, Morgana Irving and Justin Atwell had also passed Dante Costa’s intense training regimen and could assist with cases as needed.

  Quinn worked strictly with German Shepherds and Belgian Malinois. They were beautiful dogs and Grant coveted one. A Malinois had been his SEAL teammate for the last couple of years. Blackhawk. Damn, he missed that dog. Smart as a whip and fearless. He was seriously considering getting one from Quinn, but right now, he was living in one of the apartments within the compound. It was comparable to staying in a luxury hotel, but it wasn’t the place to keep a dog. When his brother Luke and his partner Logan Bradley founded COBRA Securities and purchased the land to build the compound, Luke had deeded him and his brother and sister a plot of land on the lake and Logan had deeded a plot to his brother, Dan. Now they all had their houses built and professionally landscaped but there was an open space between Luke and Ben’s place, just waiting for Grant to build. The plot Luke deeded to Kaitlyn had been sold to Sawyer Oldham since Kait married Dan and they built their house on his acreage.

  Grant decided it was time to start construction on his forever home. Whenever he came home during deployment, he crashed at Luke’s house but that was now out since his oldest brother was a newlywed with two ten-year old children running around. Luke and Layla had adopted Sean and Tiffany, Layla’s half-siblings after the twins’ father murdered their mother. A United States Senator, Eugene Mullins almost got away with the crime. But thanks to a joint operation between COBRA Securities and the FBI, he was caught and arrested before taking the coward’s way out and killing himself in prison.