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Sharing a chapter each day, I would like to showcase my first romance novella
Undercover Lovers (The Tuxedo Affair). This book was released back in 2014
and is one of 4 other novellas which span various topics.
I hope you will read on and enjoy.
All of my books can be found at: www.lulu.com/hazeleyestiffany happy reading
Chapter 7
Jamie awoke to the wet tongue of Howler and the smell of dog breath.
Glancing over at Steven, Jamie was frightened to see that his face was
covered in blood; the apparent results of slamming his head into the
windshield. She tried to move, but it was a struggle. She pushed
Howler away and finally forced her way out of the old Ford.
Fishing her cell phone out of her pocket, she called for an ambulance.
She then made a call to James, finding out once again that he was
not at the barracks, so she requested a cop come to the scene and take on the case.
Thankfully when the truck came to a stop, it had landed upright.
Jamie went around to Stevens’s side and fought to pry the door open.
Once opened, she checked Steven out and tried to get him to come to.
Howler stayed back and howled a sound of utter heartbreak over his
owner’s demise. Luckily though, Steven was not down for the count
yet and Jamie was grateful when he opened his eyes and looked at her.
“Hello, Gorgeous,” he sputtered.
“No words, not now. You need to save all of your strength to be able
to get out of this thing. An ambulance is on its way.”
“It’s, too soon, but I love you.” Steven tried reaching out to Jamie, but
struggled to move his arm.
Jamie started to cry and blurted out, “I love you; too, ya nut, now shut
up and relax.” She gave a little laugh and stayed with Steven until the ambulance arrived.
Once Steven was on his way to the hospital, Jamie got a ride back to the farmhouse
from the officer who had finally arrived. After grabbing up a few
things, she left Howler, locked securely in the house, and headed to the hospital.
Steven would make a full recovery, but needed to rest easy for a while.
When Jamie finally got in contact with James he was furious. After being
screamed at for a few minutes, Jamie cut the call off and went to see if Steven needed anything.
“He’s pissed, right?” Steven asked, already knowing the answer.
“Yep, I hung up on him. I’m tired of us trying to do our jobs and
taking the flack. Let him go out there and put his life on the line.”
“Seeing I am new to the barracks, didn’t James ever go out on the
front line, or has he always just worked as a boss at the station?”
“To my knowledge, he has never been out there like we are.
With that being said, you can see why he is constantly getting on us about everything.”
“Something feels off about this case though. I still can’t figure
out why they would want that file. Like I told your sister, the file
would be of non-importance today.”
Jamie started to cry at the thought of her sister’s passing.
“Don’t cry, Jamie, please. I know you lost your sister, but she
would want you to nab these perps for her and see that they get
what’s coming to them once and for all.”
“I know that, but it’s so hard. She was my only living relative
and we hadn’t spoke in years. Things just weren’t the same after
our mother passed. I think Abby always figured I was trying to play
hero and she just couldn’t match up, no matter how hard she tried.
I can assure you, my intention was never to make her feel that way.”
“You’re lucky, I was an only child. When my mother was killed, my
father pretty much gave up and I had to learn to raise myself.”
“I’m sorry to hear that. My mother had to stay strong for us two girls.”
“The paper though, that stupid paper, your sister died for what exactly?”
Steven pondered this for a moment.
“It was signed by the Chief of Police, and you can’t even talk to him
about it because Mr. Wonderstein died five years ago.” Jamie looked at
Steven, wishing she could read his mind.
“What if the paper was needed to prove something? Like someone
was trying to claim something and they couldn’t do it without that sheet of paper.”
“What could the couple possibly want, Steven? Daddy didn’t have much.
He kept money back in a trust for us girls and he provided, but he never had
anything of any value except for this farm.”
“Perhaps, it doesn’t have to do with him in that way. Perhaps, someone
is trying to get some glory somehow. They have already killed your sister, they
now can prove that your father was to be in a higher position, and you are the
last living relative. If they kill you, they can turn in the paper about your father
and try to draw off of that somehow.”
“There is no way that would work.”
“Well, someone thinks it will. Someone is trying to get what your father had
and seeing you didn’t even know about the chief position, I am thinking there is
a whole lot more that you didn’t know about your father.”
“I guess we will find out whether we want to know, or not.”
The next week was a quiet one. Jamie went into the barracks from time to
time to check on different things, but other than that, she was at Steven’s
beckon call. James finally called to check to make sure Steven was healing
up well and to let them know that the truck was fixable. There had been no
calls into the barracks about the couple and James was hopeful that they
had skipped the state, just so he wouldn’t have to bother with the case
anymore. Jamie though wasn’t convinced.
“If this is personal, then they will be back for whatever it is they want.”
“I have to agree. I think that James is just running scared at this point
because whatever else they may want could be in the barracks itself.”
Steven stood up easy and walked to the kitchen to take a gander at the
driveway. “They won’t dare show up here again. I know you didn’t want
anyone killed, but I sure as hell am not playing around anymore.”
“I can hear ya on that. At least old Howler is doing well.”
“I still don’t know how your sister was able to let him out without us picking up on it.”
“Maybe Howler thought it was me and figured it was alright. I mean, I am
sure he could sense that Abby was a mutual person around here and no harm.”
“That could very well be. I just couldn’t imagine life without my Howler in it.”
Steven bent down to hug the golden retriever and received a pleased slurp.
Standing up, Steven was raring to go. “It’s time we go down to the barracks
and demand to see every bit of information James has on this case.”
“You think he has been holding out on us?”
“I think that is a good possibility. I don’t know why he would keep anything
away from us that could help us nail these people, but something just seems so off to me.”
The pair headed into the city and found that James was out again.
They both knew that, that was odd for him especially; and so they took
matters into their own hands. The files they found went further into the
backgrounds of Jason and Jennifer. Jason had been raised about
twenty-five miles away from where Jamie lived and Jennifer was
from the heart of the city. Although Jamie had never seen Jason before, that
gave her a clue as to how they knew where the house was and why they had
zeroed in on her family.
“Jason’s father beat him and Jennifer’s parents bought her off to get
rid of her,” Steven said with a frown.
“Nice people.”
“Yeah, they were wonderful people, the kind that bred criminals.”
“So they are jealous because I had good parents? I don’t get it. Jennifer
doesn’t even need the money. There has to be someone calling the shots here.”
“Yeah, but who could it be?” Steven frowned even more.
“Since James is all of a sudden becoming a no show here, I wonder
if perhaps he isn’t trying to solve this whole thing alone. He claims he
wants the case to be gone and it wouldn’t bother him, but I think he has
more at stake here than what he is saying.”
“Well, if that’s the case, then we need to locate James and get to the
bottom of this, once and for all.” Steven started for the door.
Right as Steven was about to walk out of Jamie’s office, they heard shots being fired.
“Get down!” Steven yelled at Jamie and she crawled over to him.
The two listened as orders were given and more shots were fired. They
could hear the crashing sound of a door being kicked in and the destruction
of someone who was on a mission.
“Give us what we want and no one else will be hurt!” Jennifer snapped
out the order.
A silence fell over the place then, as a decision needed to be made.
“Give us what we want and don’t make us wait, or every single person in
this place dies!” Jason roared.
Then there was a shuffling. Someone came running into play and listened
for what the couple wanted. Jamie blanched as she heard the order.
“We want all the files you have on us and anything you have on Greg Conway.”
The officer sputtered, “Anything on Mr. Conway was done away with after
his passing and we don’t know where the files on you would be. Mr. Portfree
hasn’t been in since he left this morning and he no doubt has those files with
him; he has been working from home a lot lately.”
The silence that filled the air was eventually cut by a gunshot and the
thump of the officer’s body hitting the floor.
“Since none of you are of any help, I think it is high time for some new
employees in this place.” With that said Jennifer and Jason shot the place
up and left. The only thing saving Steven and Jamie was that they came
in a rental car and parked a distance away as to not alert anyone of their
being in. They figured their fellow officers had protected them because
they felt it was their sworn duty.