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Dangerous Attraction 2 : Love and Suspense 22
Kelly looked out across the lawn at the beautiful white tents drenched in tiny sparkling lights and filled with guests, wait staff, and a band. Out past the lawn, the water sparkled and reflected the tiny lights back onto the party. The boat dock had been set up with tiny café tables for the guests that wanted to stroll down to the water. There were large round tables with white linens and linen- covered chairs set up under the tents for the sit-down dinner that would be served in an hour. Kelly sucked in her breath as she looked out at the fairy-tale scene. She couldn’t believe that Mrs. Poole had been able to pull this all together in a week.As Jack and Kelly made their way down to the tables, guests stopped them. Most congratulated Jack with a slap on the back or a private toast. More than one commented that Kelly must be a hell of a woman to have caught Jack, and Kelly laughed and hinted at blackmail and espionage.Andrew nearly choked on his appetizer as he walked up to greet Ke
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Kelly felt like she was walking on air the week after the party. She hadn’t spotted the car that had been following her all week and thought maybe Aunt Mabry was beginning to give up on having her watched.Kelly smiled to herself as she got ready to go to the clinic for the day. She replayed the week with Jack in her head and laughed as she remembered how he grabbed her in the shower. He had pressed her up against the wall and slipped his hands down between her legs to tease her. She thought he would drop her when he lifted her up, but he didn’t. She’d wrapped her legs around him and he’d entered her, making love to her as the water streamed down around them.Wednesday night, they skipped their usual movie and went straight up to bed after dinner, where Jack had stripped her of her clothing slowly, sensuously, kissing her as he went. Kelly had gasped with pleasure when she felt his mouth warm and wet between her legs and she never stopped gasping for breath as he sucked and licked unt
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Chad knocked on Jack’s office door and poked his head in. “Hey Jack, your secretary isn’t out there. You have a minute? I want to touch base about the tail on Kelly.”“Sure, come on in,” Jack said and waved Chad into his office.“So, what do you have?” asked Jack as Chad came into the room and sat in one of the large leather arm chairs facing Jack’s desk.“We’ve seen the tail on Kelly multiple times and occasionally on both of you when you’re out for the evening. My guys have run the plates but they’re expired and they rotate the plates frequently so we’re sure the registrations have no connection to the driver of the car. That makes me think this is a professional, not some crazed ex-boyfriend or stalker type that doesn’t know what they’re doing. We don’t have an ID on the guy yet.”“I don’t like the sound of that. Starting tomorrow, let’s put someone with Kelly whenever she leaves the house. I want them to stay right with her. I’ll talk to her about it tonight and let her know she’l
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Chad drove straight to Jack’s house after leaving Andrew and Jack at the office. He pulled his Range Rover to the edge of the driveway and stepped out. Mrs. Poole answered when he rang the bell.“Hey, Mrs. Poole,” Chad said as he dropped a peck on her cheek. She had been a fixture at Jack’s for so long that both he and Jack had begun to treat her like an aunt more than an employee. “I’m here to see my Mom.”“Hi, dear. I’m not sure where she is. Would you like me to find her for you?” Mrs. Poole responded.“No, I’ll find her, thanks.”He wandered through the rooms looking for his mom and found her sitting in Jack’s living room reading the paper and drinking tea by the window. She spotted him and silently put down her teacup. She set the paper aside before looking up at him.Her expression was like that of an insolent little child who knew she was about to be scolded but she laid her hands in her lap and greeted her son, “Hello, Chad. What brings you here in the middle of the day?”Chad
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Jack felt his blood run cold and the air being sucked from the room. He gripped Mabry by the shoulders. “You didn’t have Kelly followed, Aunt Mabry?”Mabry shook her head, pain and fear as the situation dawned on her evident on her face. “No, Jack. Oh my God. Jack, no, I didn’t.”Jack grabbed his cell phone and dialed Kelly’s number but it went straight to voicemail. Panic swept through him but he pushed that down and tried to stay focused. She was probably busy at the clinic or out shopping and couldn’t pick up the phone. He tossed the phone to his aunt.“Keep hitting redial.” Jack picked up his desk phone and dialed Chad. “Chad, I need you right away. Kelly’s in danger.” He hung up and looked tohis aunt who was repeatedly hitting the redial of Kelly’s number. She shook her head at him – Kelly wasn’t answering.While he waited for Chad, Jack called the legal aid clinic, all the while chanting in his head. She’s fine, she’s fine, she’s fine. They told him that Kelly had left an hour
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Chad had set up shop in Jack’s living room and he, Jack, and Andrew were working every angle possible to locate Kelly and get her back but there were virtually no leads. Kelly’s family had been brought to the house and Mrs. Poole was doing all she could to comfort them but there was not much comfort for them – and there wouldn’t be – until Kelly was found. Her mother was as white as a sheet, sitting there surrounded by her husband and Kelly’s siblings but she was as strong as Kelly and was holding herself together as they waited for news.Jack didn’t think he had ever felt so afraid in his life. Or so angry. He had just found Kelly. They had just started their life together. He hadn’t even told her that he loved her or that he wanted their marriage to be real. He needed time with her. He needed her in his life. If he got his hands on the people who’d taken her from him, he really believed he would rip them apart with his bare hands. It was a level of anger and hate he never imagined h
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By eight o’clock that night, no ransom call had come in. Sam had set up a computer to play 911 calls for Chad as they came into the system. Chad and the others had sat for hours listening, searching for any hint of the kidnappers’ whereabouts, but so far there was nothing.Searching for something to do, Jack turned to check with Andrew on the status of the money.“I’ve got ten lined up. I can get you about three million more from one of my accounts in the morning,” Andrew answered.Jack held his friend’s eye for a moment and both men knew there was no need to thank Andrew for the money. No way a ‘thank you’ could, or would ever be enough.“Boss,” Sam said to Chad. Chad paused the playback of the 911 calls and turned to Sam. Jack felt as if everyone in the room was moving in slow motion. He wanted to shake them, to scream and yell until they produced something to lead to Kelly but he knew there was nothing more they could do. There wasn’t a damn lead in sight.Sam spoke to Chad in a hu
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Jack and Chad huddled in the stairwell of the third floor and watched the door to the apartment while they waited for the FBI to arrive. Without warning, they heard a door open in the hallway. Chad and Jack pressed their backs up against the wall. Chad leaned forward and peeked through the narrow glass window in the stairwell door and saw two men coming toward them. He held two fingers up to Jack who nodded and knelt down to cross under the window to the other side of the door. With Chad on one side of the door and Jack on the other, they could take the men down as soon as they entered the stairwell.The door opened and Jack and Chad acted quickly. Each of them struck one of the two men. It was a quick, silent takedown and they had the men subdued in under a minute. Chad pulled zip ties out of his back pocket and they bound the men’s hands behind their backs.“Let’s get them downstairs before they wake up. I don’t have anything to cover their mouths and the last thing we need is for t
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He went with them to the hospital. They were all checked over for cuts and bruises as well as hypothermia. The doctor kept Maddie overnight for observation. Even though she hadn’t been in the water, she was a slight little thing and chilled through pretty fast. Since she was sleeping peacefully, the nurse sent Ashley home for a hot shower and rest. Jack got them a cab and went with her.And stayed with her.“Why don’t you grab a couple of hours of sleep?” he asked once she came out of the bathroom, wearing her thickest sweater and pants.She wrapped her arms around herself. She didn’t think she would ever get warm again. “I should go in and wait for Maddie.”“The nurse said she won’t be released until after the doctors make their rounds at eight in the morning.” He’d been up in the loft, looking out into the night.She looked past him, out through the windows. The emergency vehicles had left, darkness blanketing the reservoir again. He didn’t ask if he could stay, but she would have s
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Her feet were frozen, her bedroom slippers little protection against the snow. Ashley wrapped her arms around her daughter as best she could, trying to keep Maddie warm. Her own body shook, and not only because of the cold. Dark panic gripped her as she shuffled forward on the ice.For the past year, she had barely been able to look at the reservoir. And now here she was, the place where Dylan had died, where she’d lost her life, then gained it back, thanks to the paramedics. Where she had nearly lost Maddie.So much grief and guilt was tied up in this expanse of rough ice. She couldn’t think here. All the fear of the past was getting mixed up with the panic of the present.She forced her brain to focus. “Why are you doing this, Graham?”The man shoved her toward a dark hole hacked into the ice. Another kind of grave. She recognized her axe next to it, the handle painted pink. He must have taken it from her garage. Next to the axe, a large cement brick waited with a ropetied to it. H
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Bobby Adamo didn’t give up the information easily, keeping to his story that he didn’t know anything he’d handed over was stolen, that he hadn’t been present at the burglaries.Jack had to turn the conversation serious. Principal Adamo had threatened charges, called his lawyer, called Bing.Bing threatened back with a charge of obstruction of justice.And then Bobby miraculously remembered the exact address in a split second. Jack called it in.The old Broslin Bank on Main Street had stood empty for years. It was the most stately building in town, all brick and fancy masonry, recalling another era. The bank had shut down during the financial crises and now sat with its windows boarded. Still, it was an imposing presence, between one of the town’s two dozen galleries on one side and the post office on the other.According to Bobby, they’d gone in through the back, just in case there was some leftover money in the safe, but had found nothing but garbage. They had taken the fan as a souv
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Everybody was at the police station. Since the FBI still had most of their things set up there, they were bringing Blackwell to Broslin, and nobody wanted to miss that. Even Leila came in, and Harper too, his arm in a sling. At first Jack had thought they’d come to see the monster. But as they clapped him on the back, one by one, Leila actually getting close enough for a hug, he realized they were here to support him.“There. It’s over now,” Bing said gruffly. “They have him.”Jack stood by the front desk, one eye always on the front door as he tried to figure out how the hell this happened. Apparently, he had friends.He’d come to Broslin for Blackwell, and Blackwell alone. He didn’t socialize; he didn’t hang out; he didn’t do the buddy thing. In his spare time, he either drove around town, trying to figure out where Blackwell might live, or sat at home going through the case files.The FBI bursting through the door with their suspect in cuffs refocused him.Right age, right body typ
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The sound and sight of a dozen little girls tearing through the house, screaming at the top of their lungs, left Jack immobilized for a second as he stepped inside behind Ashley’s father. If there was a place on earth he didn’t belong, this was it. He would stay anyway. He put his gift on the pile that took up most of the window seat.William Price moved away to help one of Maddie’s friends lift a box of dolls off a shelf.Ashley stood in the middle of the melee, directing it like a general. She’d taken her coat off. Her light wool dress hugged her curves, falling to her knees. The sight distracted him for a minute as hot lust shot through him. That never seemed to change, whether they were on good terms or bad.A woman in her thirties swept by him with a tray of sweets. “Hi, I’m Heather, Jenny’s mom. Cupcakes?”She probably assumed he was the father of one of the little terrors. He didn’t correct her. “Jack. Maybe later. Thanks.”Ashley moved on to the kitchen, and he went after her.
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He stood in the middle of his life’s work, an installation that filled the entire top floor of one of the nicest buildings in Broslin. His soundproofed workshop was down in the basement. The downstairs he left as it had been when he’d bought the abandoned building. If anyone somehow peeked in through a boarded-up window, let them see nothing.But the top floor, here he spent money. The space could have been part of a wing in the Louvre. Not that he ever wanted his art to be moved there. This was his hometown. His museum should be here, maybe with the town named after him eventually. Let the French come here if they wanted to see his work. He was proud to be an American.The canvases that hung on the walls had been painted in living blood. They’d been his first true creations, the very thing that eventually led him onto the right path.He’d been in North Carolina to pick up a car he’d bought online. He met a young woman at the hotel bar. She came back to his room with him.And then she
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“You’re so sweet,” Mrs. Kentner said, holding the small paintings at arm’s reach. “We really do appreciate your support.” She put the paintings on the living room table and lifted her purse from the floor, taking out a small box wrapped in sparkling paper. She handed it to Ashley. “For Maddie. Pete said she’s having her birthday party this weekend.”“Thank you. You really shouldn’t have.”“Well, the way things are going…” Mrs. Kentner gave a smile and a wink.Okay, so Pete told her mother about the date. Ashley felt a moment of embarrassment, then pushed it away.“I’m so glad he came back home,” the older woman said. “He deserves something good. The way he took care of me with the cancer…” Moisture glistened in the woman’s eyes.Ashley patted her hand. Pete did deserve something good, but was she it? A sudden wave of doubt rushed her. What was she doing with Pete? But then she thought, they were just going to look at the dam. They’d been friends for a long time. It didn’t have to be m
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Jack tried not to think of Ashley or their kiss as he walked back to the locker room at the east end of the high school the next day. The team was gathering for a morning huddle about an upcoming game. He wanted to get this over with before he headed off to Jersey. He called out the players he needed, gathering them in the hallway.“Is this about the bones?” Bobby Adamo asked, gripping a cup of coffee. “You guys took off. Nobody said we were supposed to wait around.”None of the four looked anything but cocky, feeling safe in numbers and on their home turf.Jack watched their eyes, looking for the weakest link. Probably Tyler Foster, the councilman’s son. He was the youngest, the one Jack had caught on Ashley’s land before. He’d scared the boy when he’d tackled him.“Actually, I’m here about a laptop you’re selling online.” Jack looked Bobby in the eye. “I wouldn’t mind seeing it.”The surprise on the teenager’s face was quickly masked. The others pulled closer to him.“I don’t know w
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“That I can promise.” She tilted her head. “So if Blackwell is in Jersey, why aryou here instead of being there?”“I’ll drive over tomorrow.”“Why not let the FBI handle it? You could let it go. You’re alive. You won.”He didn’t want to talk about it. And then he did anyway. He’d never cared before if anyone thought him an obsessed lunatic. He shouldn’t now. But he did.“I had a sister. Six years older than me. She raised me, pretty much. Breast cancer took our mother in her twenties.”A dull pain throbbed to life in the middle of his chest. Then came the flood of guilt. “Our father was working the graveyard shift. I was a teenage brat, wanted pizza. We lived too far outside of town. The only pizza shop didn’t deliver that far out. I begged her into it. I stayed home and played video games. She drove out for the pizza. She always tried to make up for the fact that I had to grow up without a mother. I was a spoiled little shit, pretty much.”“Jack—”“Anyway, she never came bace k. The
