A Dangerous Widow
By
Christina Ross
A Dangerous Widow is a new book with ties to the Annihilate Me series, which has sold more than 1.5 million books worldwide.
This is a stand-alone novel. But readers might enjoy it more if they first read the original Annihilate Me series, then the Unleash Me series, and finally the Annihilate Me 2 series and Ignite Me as it shares some of the same characters.
BELOW ARE THE U.S. LINKS TO ALL OF MY BOOKS.
ANNIHILATE ME, VOL. 1
ANNIHILATE ME, VOL. 2
ANNIHILATE ME, VOL. 3
ANNIHILATE ME, VOL. 4
ANNIHILATE ME, HOLIDAY EDITION
ANNIHILATE ME: OMNIBUS
ANNIHILATE ME 2, VOL. 1
ANNIHILATE ME 2, VOL. 2
ANNIHILATE ME 2, VOL. 3
ANNIHILATE ME 2, HOLIDAY
ANNIHILATE ME 2: OMNIBUS
Also by Christina Ross:
UNLEASH ME, VOL. 1
UNLEASH ME, VOL. 2
UNLEASH ME, VOL. 3
UNLEASH ME: BOXED SET
Stand-alone novels
CHANCE
IGNITE ME
A DANGEROUS WIDOW
For my friends and my family.
For Erich.
For my best friend, Erika Rhys.
And especially for my readers, who mean the world to me.
Your support of my career is unfounded.
Copyright and Legal Notice: This publication is protected under the US Copyright Act of 1976 and all other applicable international, federal, state and local laws, and all rights are reserved, including resale rights.
Any trademarks, service marks, product names or named features are assumed to be the property of their respective owners, and are used only for reference. There is no implied endorsement if we use one of these terms. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or information storage and retrieval) without permission in writing from the author.
First ebook edition © 2016.
Disclaimer:
This is a work of fiction. Any similarity to persons living or dead (unless explicitly noted) is merely coincidental. Copyright © 2016 Christina Ross. All rights reserved worldwide.
CONTENTS
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
Epilogue
Excerpt: Annihilate Me, Vol. 1
Books by Christina Ross
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To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted.
Ecclesiastes 3:1-2
A Dangerous Widow
By
Christina Ross
PROLOGUE
New York City
October
Just hours before his brutal and unexpected death, Michael Stone woke to greet the day just as he had every day since he’d married Kate seven years ago—with optimism, with a hunger to tackle the day head on and to see what would come of it, and with the same burning sense of love he had for his wife.
In the master suite of their Park Avenue townhouse, he looked over at the clock on the bedside table and then turned onto his side, came up close behind Kate, kissed her on the base of the neck, and held her next to him as she woke up.
“It can’t be morning yet,” she said.
“Like clockwork, the globe has turned.”
“Didn’t we just go to bed?”
“Technically, we went to bed around eleven. But in reality, we went to sleep around twelve-thirty. You know, after I had my way with you.”
“That was nothing short of a marathon.”
“It was meant to be one. And let’s just call this day what it is—a celebration. StoneTech remains mine. Thank God I didn’t sell it.”
When she turned to face him, Michael thought how beautiful she was, even fresh from the throes of sleep. He watched her sweep her long brown hair away from her face before she leaned in to kiss him.
“Sorry about the morning breath,” she said when they parted. Her brown, almond-shaped eyes sparkled at him. “But consider it my gift to you—if you weren’t awake before, you certainly are now.”
“I’d exchange morning breath with you any day, love. And Kate, I want to thank you again for listening to me over the past week, and for helping me come to the decision I made.”
“You made the right call, Michael. I know how difficult it was for you to do what you did, but in the end, StoneTech is your baby. You’re the one who built it into what it is today. You’re the one who created a company that apparently everyone wants, and for good reason. You’ve turned it into a billion-dollar powerhouse. Let’s just be grateful that you never took the company public, because if you had, anyone with serious capital reserves—such as Apple, for instance—could have come in with an aggressive takeover strategy, and you’d be dealing with a whole host of other problems right now. I know that yesterday was hard on you because you let down two of your closest friends, but in comparison to a hostile takeover, that was minor. At least all you had to do was to give them an honest explanation for why you weren’t going to sell StoneTech, and then walk away from the deal that they proposed to you.”
“The deal that I’d pretty much promised them would happen,” he said.
“You had the right to change your mind. But I get it. I understand how you feel about letting people down, especially when it comes to Mark and Tom. They thought that everything was set to go. Legal was present, the papers had been drawn up, and everyone was excited for the buyout to happen. But in the end? It was your choice not to sign those papers. Yours hardly is the first deal to fall through in this city, that’s for sure. And it won’t be the last. We both know it—and so do they.”
She kissed him again on the lips. “How about some coffee?”
“I’d love some coffee.”
“Then let me make us both a cup. Because with the slate of meetings I have in front of me today—and after what you did to me last night—let’s just say that this girl needs one. Or three. Probably three.”
She slid out of bed, and he admired her naked body as she crossed the room with the same unaffected confidence that had attracted him to her the moment they first met in grad school at NYU.
Back then, each had been pursuing their graduate degrees in business, and when they met, the mutual attraction was as swift as it was powerful. Two years later, the summer after they graduated, they married in a small ceremony that included only family and close friends, because, at that point in their lives, they were so broke, they couldn’t afford a large wedding.
Each had hailed from modest backgrounds, and with hefty student loan debts hovering over them, there literally was no money for the sort of big, expensive wedding Michael wished he could have given Kate.
And look at us now, he thought as he watched her slip into a silky white robe. Christ, we’re
lucky.
At thirty, Kate Stone was a senior vice president of finance for Bank of America in Manhattan. At thirty-one, Michael headed a multi-billion-dollar company that had made its fortune on the encryption software he’d written and perfected. It was now considered the industry standard in data protection.
StoneTech had been revising and selling versions of its software for the past seven years. Its clients included the government, the banking, insurance, medical, retail, and hospitality industries, as well as the airline industry, the global marketplace in its many forms, and also a whole host of other corporations and businesses that needed to ensure their clients that their personal data was locked down.
That’s where StoneTech shined—and that’s where Michael Stone had made his unlikely fortune in only a matter of a few short years. It was his deep affection for what he’d built that had stopped him from signing over his company—despite the three billion dollars he would have reaped in the process.
Neither he nor Kate denied that the lure of that kind of money was enticing. But the more he thought about the deal and giving up StoneTech—and the more he talked to Kate, who was against it because she thought that he’d eventually come to regret it—the more he realized that she was right. He would come to regret it. Until he and Kate decided to have children, which each wanted sooner rather than later, StoneTech was his child for now. With new software in the works, there was a whole host of other opportunities to explore that excited him.
He wondered what he would have done with his life if he’d sold it. Since the contract had carried with it a non-compete clause, he couldn’t have designed a better version of his encryption software. So, where would he have gone next? Where would he have fit in? How could he ever duplicate that kind of success? Knowing that he couldn’t unnerved him, and so, with Kate’s support, he decided to keep the company, despite the anger and disappointment of too many people to count.
“Meet me in the kitchen?” Kate said from the bedroom door.
“Right behind you.”
She winked at him. “Just not behind me like you were last night, OK?”
“I can’t promise you that,” he said. “Not when you’re looking like that.”
* * *
After Kate had showered and dressed, and was ready to leave for work, Michael stood in the townhouse’s grand entryway in nothing but his boxer shorts with their towering Great Dane, Bruiser, sitting by his side.
Each watched her come down the curving staircase.
She was wearing a fitted black business suit, her long hair had been whipped up behind her head in a tight chignon, and the only jewelry she wore were her wedding and engagement rings and the diamond solitaire earrings he’d purchased for her last Christmas. He thought she looked beautiful.
When she saw him, she just stopped mid-staircase and looked down at him.
“How can you stand there looking like that?” she said. “You know I can’t handle seeing you like that. You’ve been spending so much time in the gym lately, I’ve become a wanton woman. Look at how ridiculous your pecs have become—and those abs. And then there’s your curly head of black hair, which you know I want to rake my fingers through. You’re nothing short of a tease, Michael Stone. And it’s not fair.”
“Maybe I’m trying to convince you to stay home with me…”
She grinned when he said that, and then started down the stairs again, her black briefcase swinging at her side.
“I wish I could, but today is so jam-packed with meetings, I already know that it’s going to be the day from hell. I can sense it. In fact, it’s probably going to be worse than I imagine because I know whom I’m dealing with at those meetings.”
“Well, that’s just another good reason to stay home.”
“Believe me when I say that I wish I could.” She furrowed her brow at him. “Lydia comes today, doesn’t she?”
“She does.”
“And thank God for that! When she cleans, would you mind asking her to leave my office the way it is? I know that it’s a hot mess, but in that mess, I also know exactly where everything is. And since I’m in the middle of writing up an important report, there are post-it notes everywhere with items that I need to include in that report. I’ll straighten things up before she comes next week. Tell her that’s a promise, even though she’ll already know that I’ll probably fail to pull through. Still, I’ll try.”
“You’ve got it.”
“You know, I’m glad that you’re staying home today,” she said as she crossed over to him and placed the palm of her hand against his cheek. “I know the workaholic in you wants to get back at it, but you need this day for yourself, if only to decompress from yesterday. Read a book. Watch a movie. Take Bruiser out for a walk—he could use one, and so could you, if only to clear your mind. And, please, forget about the upcoming takeover of MicroCom—that’s weeks away at this point, and you don’t need to be thinking about it. Even though I know you will. Still, after what you went through yesterday, you should try to do your best to relax, OK?”
“I’ll do my best. I love you, Kate.”
“I love you more than you’ll ever know—and I mean that from the bottom of my soul. I don’t know what I’d ever do without you.”
“I can say the same.”
When he said that, Bruiser, who long had been jealous of their relationship, made a low growling sound deep in his throat and stomped his foot on the parquet floor.
“And I love you, too, my giant Bruiser,” Kate said as she scratched his head and rubbed the steel-gray fur beneath his jaw. “Where would we be without you?”
The dog barked.
“Exactly,” she said. “So, keep your father company today, OK?”
The dog stomped his foot again.
“That’s a good boy. You’ve always been the best boy. And since you’ve put your foot down, I’m going to take that as a ‘yes.’”
“Dinner out tonight?” Michael asked.
“Absolutely. I’m up for anything, because the last thing I’ll want to do when I come home is cook.” She reached down, pulled back the waistband of his boxers, and released it so it slapped against his skin. “But just make sure that you’re properly dressed, stud. Otherwise, you might be the main course. Now, give me a kiss. I should leave.”
When they kissed, it was just like it always was before either of them headed off for work—quick and light so that Kate wouldn’t ruin her lipstick and his lips wouldn’t become stained with it. It was a kiss meant to begin their day, as well as a promise that they’d see each other at the end of the day.
But this time that didn’t happen. Though neither knew it, this kiss would mark the end of their lives together.
Michael stood alongside Bruiser and watched Kate sweep through the front door and into a blinding burst of sunlight. When the door clicked shut behind her, he looked down at Bruiser and said, “You see—I miss her already. But then, I always do regardless of how busy the day is.” He patted the top of Bruiser’s head. “Let’s get you something to eat.”
Less than two hours later, Michael Stone was dead.
* * *
The news came just before nine-thirty.
Kate was preparing to attend her first meeting of the day when her secretary, Carrie, came to her door looking shaken. The fingertips of her right hand were pressed against her lips. Her green eyes—usually so striking, and sometimes filled with mischief and good humor because they had become good friends over the years—were bright with a look of horror, grief, and loss. She was trembling.
“Kate,” she said.
Kate got up from her desk and came around it. “Carrie, what’s wrong? Why do you look so upset? What’s happened? Is it Charlie? Is he all right?”
Charlie was Carrie’s husband, who was undergoing chemo to battle leukemia. She moved to speak, but despite the effort she made, no words would come.
“We’ll take it from here, ma’am.”
In a haze, Kate watched Carrie step
aside as two police officers—one male, one female, each with their hats held in their hands—stepped into the doorway.
Take over what from here? Kate thought as she faced them. And why are their hats in their hands? As fear grabbed hold of her heart, she thought, What is this? What’s happened…?
“Kate Stone?” the female officer said.
When she spoke, she became aware that her body was suddenly thrumming with anxiety. Was this somehow about her parents? Had something happened to either one of them? They were in their late-seventies, after all, and neither was in the best of health. Was that what this was about? Had one of them died? But if that were the case, then why were the police involved? It made no sense. Just beyond the officers, she saw that some of her colleagues had stopped in the hallway outside of her office—and like Carrie, they also looked as if they were in a state of shock.
“Yes, I’m Kate Stone,” she said in a voice that was stronger than she felt. “Why are you here? What’s happened?”
The woman looked over at Carrie, who had gone pale.
“Might we have a moment alone with Ms. Stone?”
“She’s a friend of mine,” Kate said. “I’d like her to stay. Carrie?”
“Of course I’ll stay with you, Kate.”
“Then for your own privacy, I believe that we should at least come inside and shut the door behind us,” the woman said. “Please trust me on this.”
“Trust you on what?” Kate said, realizing that her voice had become unnaturally high.
When the woman shut the door behind them, Carrie came over to her side and took her by the arm.
“Ms. Stone,” the policewoman said.
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