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Liza Monroe

 

“He’s screwing this up,” I grumbled. 

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“Liza.”

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“Look at her, Frank.” I pointed at the observation window. “He’s losing her.”

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Or more to the point, he’d already lost her, and if the detective didn’t think fast, Allyson Diamond would walk despite her sister Jessica’s continued efforts to get her sister to talk.

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The woman was shifting in the metal chair beside her sister, staring at the paper takeaway cup of shitty police station coffee in front of her and no longer making eye contact with the detective across the table. 

Why Allyson was in an interrogation room was beyond me. She should’ve been invited into an office and given something better than the sludge from the break room. 

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“Where’s Phoenix Kent?” I asked. 

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I was back in Georgia. Not my favorite place to be in the middle of summer and less so when the Peach State was amid a heat wave that made vacationing in hell a better destination. The only good thing about being back in Hollow Point was I knew two detectives at the six-twenty-eight—Phoenix Kent and Dalton Neary. 

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Phoenix or Dalton would have a better chance of coaxing the scared woman to talk. 

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“Don’t know,” Frank told me. 

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“When’s this expert supposed to be here?”

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“Jesus, Liza, he’s on his way.”

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This wasn’t the first time I’d had fantasies about punching my asshole partner in the face. But this was the first time I was dangerously close to acting on it. 

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“Her body language is all wrong,” I pointed out. “She’s having second thoughts.”

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“So? Not our problem. We shouldn’t even be here.”

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Amendment: lazy asshole partner.

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“Did you bother reading the brief?”

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Frank’s angry eyes narrowed. An intimidation tactic I’d learned early on not to pay attention to. Frank thought he was better than me, he knew more than me, and he was older and wiser than me. He was incorrect on all fronts. The man was burnt out. He should’ve put in for a desk job years ago, but his ego wouldn’t let him leave the field. Now I was stuck with him until I could pawn him off onto someone else. I didn’t know a single AFT agent who liked Frank. Worse, I didn’t know anyone who respected him. 

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“I was on the same two-hour flight you were on,” he noted. 

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That meant no, he hadn’t read it. At best, he’d skimmed it because if he’d actually read the damn thing, he’d know why we were there.  

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Damn. 

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“We can’t wait, Frank. She’s gonna…” I trailed off when Allyson pushed her chair back from the metal table.

 

Dammit. 

“I’m going in there.”

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“Shit, Liza, you can’t.”

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Wrong. 

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“Watch me.”

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“And get my ass in a sling right alongside yours? No, thank you. I’m going to grab a cup of coffee. We never had this conversation, and I didn’t see you go in there.”

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Pussy. 

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It didn’t surprise me my partner didn’t have my back. I could safely add douchebag to lazy asshole. I followed Frank out the door. He went left to save his ass from having to justify why we hadn’t waited for authorization to speak to Allyson. I went right to do my job even though I hadn’t officially been invited to interview the witness. 

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All eyes came to me when I opened the door to the investigation room. Jessica looked relieved. Allyson looked freaked. Detective-I-don’t-know-how-to-handle-a-scared-young-woman looked like someone had pissed in his Wheaties. 

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“Hi, Allyson. Hi, Jessica. My name’s Liza Monroe,” I introduced myself.

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“Hi,” Allyson hesitantly returned, while Jessica gave me a nod and a small smile, relief written all over her face. 

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“I was listening from behind there.” I pointed to the glass. “Mind if I sit and ask you a few questions?”

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“I’m not sure.”

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“Ally,” Jessica mumbled and bumped her sister’s shoulder. 

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I took the vacant chair next to the detective and smiled. 

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“What aren’t you sure about?”

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“All of it.”

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Freaking hell. 

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Now she was going to leave without reporting her concerns. 

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“You came a long way to talk to us,” I reminded her. 

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And she had, over four hundred miles from East Tennessee to report concerns, using her sister to pave her way and make her feel safe.

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“Not to mention all the work your sister did to set this up.” I glanced at Jessica who had activated the sibling staredown. Unfortunately, Allyson had her shields up. 

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“Ally, just tell them what you saw,” Jessica urged. 

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“Actually,” I cut in. “Tell me about Nu Dawn.”

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Allyson’s eyes flared, her agitation grew, and I knew I’d messed up. 

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Where the hell is this so-called expert? 

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I softened my tone and tried again. 

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“I looked into them,” I admitted. However, I omitted I’d done that six months ago before Allyson had come forward. “Personal development and clean living, right? The property is amazing. I bet it’s peaceful on the compound.”

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“It is.” Allyson finally engaged, albeit meekly.

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“Is that what drew you to the organization?”

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“No. Not at first. My friend Colleen and I went to a seminar on personal growth and learning how to manifest the future you want.” Thankfully, Allyson settled back in her chair. “It was really great. Inspiring, you know?”

“Yeah, totally,” I agreed even though I didn’t have the first clue how one was taught to manifest the future. But I didn’t buy into thinking something into reality, so unless manifestation was code for working your ass off to get where you wanted to go, I had no idea how a seminar like that would be inspiring. 

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It sounded like a bullshit money grab to me. 

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“Colleen was really into it and signed us up for a retreat.” She paused to glance at her sister. My gaze followed. Jessica looked beside herself with glee her sister was opening up. “We were going into business together. I mean, me and Colleen were starting a business. She’s an amazing clothing designer. I have a background in business and marketing. That’s what I, um, went to college for. So she wanted me to go with her on this retreat. Colleen’s on the hippy side, though she calls herself a bohemian, and this retreat was five days out in nature to clear the mind and body so it was right up her alley. I’m more of a bed-and-shower kind of girl, but I went. And by the end, I was glad I did. Five days, with a group of ten uplifting, inspiring women. I felt like I… belonged. Like I’d found this great group of women who shared ideas and stories and made me want to push myself to greatness.”

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On the surface, all of that sounded great. But I’d learned what looked good was oftentimes the very thing that was rotten. 

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“Only women were on this retreat?”

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“Yeah, Nu Dawn is women-centric. We have men living on the property, but they’re attached to one of the female members. That’s rule number one, no single men allowed. It’s what made me feel comfortable moving into the community.”

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What she meant was commune. According to Nu Dawn’s corporate filings, it was a Naturalist Commune. At one point, the leader, Mackenzie Archer had tried to file for tax exemption claiming Nu Dawn was a social welfare organization, but later withdrew her application. 

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I didn’t correct Allyson.

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“So let me get this straight?” I played along with a smile. “You live in a magical place in the mountains with a group of women who are dedicated to inspiring and uplifting one another and there are no single men to bother you? Where do I sign up?”

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Allyson gave me a nervous smile back. 

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Come on, sis, tell me what has you freaked.

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“Something like that.”

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“How long have you lived there?”

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“Three years.”

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So, long enough she was probably a trusted member.

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“And now you’re here in Georgia because you saw or heard something that has you concerned.”

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I knew what had the ATF concerned but without an insider or actual evidence, we couldn’t act on our concerns. 

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Suddenly, I felt it—the feeling I got when I was in the field and danger was close. That flutter in my stomach followed by a race of chills up my spine.

 

Before I got a lock on what possible danger was in the room, the door swung open and in walked Tucker Mitchell.

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The man who had crushed my heart to dust. 

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Yes, danger was close. 

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The walking, talking, sexiest-man-alive kind of danger that made even the smartest of women lose their minds, their hearts, and their panties.

 

Tucker’s gaze swept through the room and I braced for it—the moment those smokey blue eyes landed on me and reignited the stabbing pain I’d managed to heal to a dull ache. 

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I’d had a decade to forget one night. 

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Ten years to forget the man who owned my heart. 

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Both were unforgettable. 

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Tucker Mitchell had ruined my life. 

 

Next up is T.I.M. in Playing with Love… 

 

Playing with Love is a second chance, friends to lovers romantic suspense with a closed off heroine who fights to keep her heart intact against a hero who will stop at nothing to win her. Be warned, Tucker takes fake dating to extreme steam with his dirty mouth and persuasion.

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Order your copy here: https://geni.us/PWloveEbook

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