Allison Janda - Marian Moyer 02 - Seduction, Deceit & a Slice of Apple Pie

by Allison Janda

  “Quiet, Thor!” Shannon said sternly. The dog whined and then was quiet, sitting back on his haunches, licking his lips nervously, looking from Janet to his master and back to Janet.

  “Well trained dog,” I muttered. “I’ll give you that.”

  “Now will you put the gun down?” Shannon asked as Janet swung back towards him.

  She laughed, a high nervous titter. “Why should I?”

  “Because he’s a cop,” Richard responded. “Put your gun down, Janet.”

  Janet and I were dumbfounded. “A cop?” we asked simultaneously. Janet dropped the gun to her side, removing her finger from the trigger.

  Shannon still held one hand up in a defensive position. With the other, he tugged at his pocket for a few seconds before pulling out a leather wallet. He flipped it open to reveal his credentials. “FBI Agent Shannon Montgomery Shultz,” he grunted. Janet inched closer before warily glancing at his ID and badge.

  “But you look just like the rest of the henchmen around here,” I said incredulously.

  “Why do you think he was perfect to go in undercover?” Richard asked. “He looked just like the stupid triplets.”

  “I convinced my boss to bring in Richard a few days ago,” Shannon continued. “We’ve been watching Frank a long time, in association with the Chicago Police Department. Had to wait until we had enough evidence to bring him down. Unfortunately, he’s known for not being one to kill people himself. He gets his men to do it.”

  “Told you so,” Gregson sang smugly. Richard knocked him over the back of the head.

  “A lot of people want to see Frank dead,” Shannon assured us. “And don’t get me wrong, because I think he’s scum, but I want to see him squirm his way through a federal trial. Maybe spend a few months in lockdown. Problem was, we needed to get him on some bigger charges before anything long-term would stick to his sentencing. Attempted murder, maybe.”

  “Well we have all of that on camera,” Janet told him. “He told Gregson to take care of us. Must have seen on the surveillance videos that we were still alive. Charged in, mad as hell.” She paused. “We were afraid for our lives,” she added with a smile.

  “Where is Frank, anyway?” Shannon asked, looking around us. “He’s surprisingly fast for his size. How is he not out here by now?”

  “Knocked unconscious still, I think,” I said with a shrug. “I kind of accidentally introduced his head to a wall.”

  “Atta girl,” Richard told me with a light slap to the shoulder. It caused a sharp pain to spring through my neck and head and I winced. “Sorry,” Richard muttered.

  Just then, we heard the sound of cars crunching through the gravel behind us. Our entire group stood in the center of three large warehouses. The sky was a late afternoon blue, dulled by wisps of clouds that slowly sailed across the sky. “About time they got here,” Shannon muttered under his breath.

  Four nondescript navy blue cars whipped around the corner and squealed to a stop. Out stepped just over a half dozen stone-faced men in plain clothes. “I called you assholes 20 minutes ago,” Shannon called, his voice not even the slightest bit irritated. A smile danced on his lips. He had a gorgeous smile. And his arms filled out that black shirt quite nicely. I found my head tilting sideways, catching a glimpse of his adorable bubble butt as he walked towards his friends.

  “Two, Marian. You’re already dealing with two men,” Janet reminded me, shaking me out of my daydream.

  “Had to stop for doughnuts,” one of the men called to Shannon, causing everyone to burst into laughter. The one who made the doughnut comment stopped short when he saw Riley. “Hey! This the girl?”

  “That’s the one,” Richard shouted.

  The man came over and knelt in front of Riley, who was clutching at Rachel’s shirt. “You’ve had a lot of people out looking for you, young lady.”

  “Me?” Riley asked, pointing to herself. She checked behind her, on the off chance that someone was standing there that she didn’t know about.

  “Yes, you,” the man answered.

  Riley placed a hand on her hip and smiled. “People like you?” she asked with a bit of sass. With that crooked smile and cornstalk colored hair, the man couldn’t help but smile back. He was under her spell. We all were.

  I heard the sound of another car approaching. No sooner did it zip around the corner and park than the man told Riley, “Well yes, me. And them, too.” He motioned at the car. All four doors of the car were thrown open. My father, my mother, Addison, Rory, Mika, James, John and even Janet’s husband spilled out and raced towards us. There was also a woman I didn’t recognize, whom I could only assume was Carly Ipson. She was short with long red hair and spunky freckles splattered across her pale, thin face and arms.

  I’m not sure who got to who first. I don’t remember who I kissed or hugged, or whose shirt I began to cry into. I just knew that I was finally safe. We were all back together. The nightmare was over.

  Unfortunately, I hadn’t killed Frank. I’d only managed to give him a pretty major concussion. He was facing some pretty serious charges, now that the law had finally caught up to him.

  The rest of the police cavalry showed up not long after my family and friends arrived. Frank, Gregson, the menacing bodyguards and a few other people I’d never seen before, were dragged off in cuffs.

  I got a ride to the city in the back of an ambulance and spent a few days in the hospital, where my family took turns regaling me with the tale of what happened after Janet and I had fallen off the radar.

  Addison had made the call to Richard, who was already deep in the trenches. When Addison mentioned that Janet and I were searching for my niece, Riley, Richard immediately knew that she was the kid Frank was keeping locked up in the warehouse. He’d made Addison swear that she would keep Janet and I out of it. The situation was dangerous. If we were caught, we likely wouldn’t make it out alive.

  Richard hung up with Addison and made a call to Shannon. Shannon, of course, recognized us from having just been in the bookstore and almost immediately called his people. Ernie somehow heard part of the conversation and alerted Gregson that we were not the new people he’d been informed would be coming in — no one seemed to know who said “new people” even were — but, rather, we were outsiders. Realizing his mistake, Ernie had begged Gregson for help cleaning up the mess. Gregson, who seemed to have made all the wrong contacts in the mob, told one of his henchmen the whole story, who then told someone else, who ultimately told Frank.

  Frank sent out his boys to bring Janet and I in. He figured that if he could just keep the two of us quiet, he could make the whole thing go away. He was going to kill Gregson, force Rachel to withdraw the money in the account Gregson had made her open, then basically take all four of his hostages — Riley, Rachel, Janet and myself — and shove us off a cliff. He’d fly to the Cayman Islands and live the rest of his life in retirement before anyone suspected his involvement. Unfortunately for Frank, he didn’t know that there were people on the inside of his operation.

  Richard had been the one to shoot Ernie and then had gone back into the shadows, waiting to make his next move when we’d need him most. Ernie had been on his way in to kill us.

  Shannon apologized profusely for not filling Janet in when he found her behind the warehouse. There was no place to take her without blowing his cover, as we were in the middle of nowhere. He couldn’t risk her knowing that they were about to bring Frank down. Therefore, he had to return her to the warehouse and bide his time. He’d hoped that by splitting us up, it would be easier to sneak us out when the time came. When the guard tried to take advantage of Janet, however, Shannon changed his mind and decided that there was strength in numbers, returning her to be with me.

  My friends and family all stayed at a nearby hotel until my hospital release. When the day finally arrived for me to go home, my parents, brother, sister-in-law and niece arrived to bid me a fond farewell. Thankfully, my brother got the whole story from Rachel and Richar
d. While he was upset that Rachel hadn’t confided in him, he understood that she had only wanted to keep her family safe and was able to forgive her.

  I also got to see Janet and her husband one last time. They had a flight back to Florida scheduled that very afternoon. “Thanks for everything,” I whispered to Janet as we hugged goodbye. “You’re the best.”

  “That’s what friends are for,” she assured me with a grin.

  “I think this went above and beyond the call of friendship,” I laughed.

  “In that case, you owe me one, sister.”

  “So long as next time, it’s in Florida,” I joked. “I’m so tired of winter.”

  “You’ve always got a room at our place,” her husband, Rob, answered, squeezing my shoulder. I smiled at him, knowing the offer was genuine.

  Addison and Rory drove me home to Milwaukee, with James and Mika following close behind. When we arrived at my apartment, Rory reached for my bag in the backseat, but I stopped him. “I’ve got it,” I promised.

  “Marian, I can-” he started, but I shushed him.

  “I have a head injury,” I assured him. “I’m not dead.”

  “No,” he said with a grin, “I guess you’re not.”

  “Call me later, then?” Addison asked.

  “Count on it,” I promised her.

  James and Mika both parked outside my building but I simply shook my head at them. “Please.” I wanted to be alone. In my own apartment. With my fish, Fred, and a giant glass of wine. Maybe a pile of peanut butter cups. I had a king size still hidden in the freezer somewhere, I was sure.

  I walked in the front door and immediately dropped my overnight bag to the floor. Closing the door and locking it behind me, I leaned up against the wall, exhausted.

  After a few moments, I began flipping on light switches. When I came to the lamp that was on the desk by Fred, I gently tapped the glass and waggled a finger to say “hello.” Fred looked displeased. I couldn’t blame him. He hadn’t eaten in days. With this in mind, I dropped an extra large pinch of dried flakes into his bowl. He swam at them, greedily taking huge mouthfuls.

  A few minutes later, I was in the kitchen, pouring a glass of fruity white wine when my phone began to ring. I checked the caller ID and smiled, answering with a happy “hey there.”

  “I got the feeling that you wanted to be alone tonight,” said a familiar, sexy male voice, “but I just can’t help myself from trying one last time before I go home.” A pause. “I missed you.”

  “Did you?” I asked, flirtatiously.

  “I did,” he answered solemnly. “I was so worried about you, Marian.”

  “Well, in that case,” I said, taking a sip of wine, “you’d best go ahead and come up. Just to make sure that I really am okay.”

  Allison Janda is a writer with New York Times bestseller dreams. She currently resides in Nebraska with her two dogs, one of which acts more like a cat.

  Visit her today (or tomorrow, if you’re in a hurry right now) at:

  AllisonJanda.com

  @AllisonJanda

  Facebook.com/AllisonJJanda

  An excerpt from Book #3 in the Marian Moyer series:

  Scandal, Temptation & a Taste of Flan

  Later, I was sitting alone in the studio. Carmen had washed up, changed and headed back to her hotel. For some reason, her limousine had disappeared, so Addison, jaw tight and angry, agreed to take the colorfully spoken Bolivian back herself.

  I was flipping through the digital screen on my camera for the hundredth time, admiring just how perfectly the shoot had turned out, when I heard footsteps behind me. “Tarp is cleaned up and drying. Dressing room is wiped down. Do you need anything else before I head out for the afternoon?” Rory asked kindly, coming up behind me. Looking at the photos over my shoulder, he whistled low and long. “Don’t tell Addison I said this, but Carmen is even more beautiful in person than she is on the big screen.”

  “In appearance maybe,” I answered. “But her personality sucks.” Shutting off the camera, I flipped open a side compartment and pulled out the memory stick. “All yours,” I told him. “Use appropriately.”

  “I’ll get these uploaded first thing tomorrow,” he promised, ignoring me and tucking the small drive into his shirt pocket.

  I heard my phone vibrating in my purse. Standing from the stool and stretching, I hurried over and pulled it from the side pocket. “Hey,” I said to Addison after checking the caller ID. “Everything okay? I was expecting you back to the studio already. Rory and I are getting ready to head out.” There was a loud sniffle and then a gut-wrenching sob from the other side of the phone. “Addie?” I asked, alarmed. Rory’s head snapped up and he looked at me curiously, the concern in my voice evident. “What happened? What’s wrong? Where are you?”

  “The hotel,” she gasped out between sobs and sniffs. “Carmen’s dead and- oh, Marian, I think I need a lawyer.”

  • • •

  To purchase Book #3 and stay up-to-date about all future releases, visit AllisonJanda.com/books right now!