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    Deadly Ambition: A Jenkins & Burns Mystery
    Deadly Ambition: A Jenkins & Burns Mystery
    Deadly Ambition: A Jenkins & Burns Mystery
    Ebook116 pages3 hours

    Deadly Ambition: A Jenkins & Burns Mystery

    By Laura Bradford

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    About this ebook

    In the aftermath of the most destructive hurricane to hit the Jersey Shore in a century, Elise Burns and the other residents of Ocean Point are doing their best to recover and rebuild, which is why the recent string of robberies hits everyone especially hard. Fuming to catch the thief preying on those who have already suffered so much, Detective Mitch Burns will stop at nothing to solve the crimes.

    When another robbery turns to murder and a college student who’s interning at Elise’s newspaper is caught with the murder weapon in his hand, Mitch is convinced it’s an open-and-shut case. Elise knows the brash and ambitious aspiring reporter would go to any lengths to get a story, but was he a killer? Following clues from the intern’s notebooks and her own reporter’s gut sense, she sets out to track down a thief and a killer and exonerate a suspect she doesn't even like—even if she has to put herself in harm’s way to do it.

    About the Author:

    Laura Bradford is the author of Hearse and Buggy and Assaulted Pretzel, the first two books in the Amish Mystery series published with Berkley Prime Crime/Penguin. She’s also an award-winning romance author for Harlequin American. Her third romance, Miracle Baby, was named RT Magazine's Reviewer's Choice Award Winner for Best Harlequin American of 2010. Kayla’s Daddy—her first romance—was nominated for the same award and has gone on to be translated in both Spain and Germany. Her next romance, Storybook Dad, is available now.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBeyond the Page Publishing
    Release dateOct 17, 2013
    ISBN9781937349844
    Deadly Ambition: A Jenkins & Burns Mystery
    Author

    Laura Bradford

    Laura Bradford has spent much of her life moving around. After stints in New Jersey, Connecticut, Ohio, South Carolina, Alabama, Tennessee, and Missouri, she's finally settled in a quiet suburb of New York City with her daughters. A graduate of Xavier University in Cincinnati, Laura worked as a newspaper reporter and freelance business writer before delving head first into her first love--fiction. Today, Laura writes both romance and mysteries.

    Read more from Laura Bradford

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      Book preview

      Deadly Ambition - Laura Bradford

      Cover

      Deadly Ambition

      In the aftermath of the most destructive hurricane to hit the Jersey Shore in a century, Elise Burns and the other residents of Ocean Point are doing their best to recover and rebuild, which is why the recent string of robberies hits everyone especially hard. Fuming to catch the thief preying on those who have already suffered so much, Detective Mitch Burns will stop at nothing to solve the crimes.

      When another robbery turns to murder and a college student who’s interning at Elise’s newspaper is caught with the murder weapon in his hand, Mitch is convinced it’s an open-and-shut case. Elise knows the brash and ambitious aspiring reporter would go to any lengths to get a story, but was he a killer? Following clues from the intern’s notebooks and her own reporter’s gut sense, she sets out to track down a thief and a killer and exonerate a suspect she doesn't even like—even if she has to put herself in harm’s way to do it.

      Title Page

      Copyright

      Deadly Ambition

      Laura Bradford

      Copyright © 2013 by Laura Bradford

      Material excerpted from Deadly Readings copyright © 2005, 2012 by Laura Bradford

      Cover design and illustration by Dar Albert, Wicked Smart Designs

      Published by Beyond the Page at Smashwords

      Beyond the Page Books

      are published by

      Beyond the Page Publishing

      www.beyondthepagepub.com

      ISBN: 978-1-937349-84-4

      All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this book. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented without the express written permission of both the copyright holder and the publisher.

      This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

      The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.

      Contents

      Chapter 1

      Chapter 2

      Chapter 3

      Chapter 4

      Chapter 5

      Chapter 6

      Chapter 7

      Chapter 8

      Chapter 9

      Chapter 10

      Chapter 11

      Chapter 12

      Other Books by Laura Bradford

      Excerpt from Deadly Readings

      About the Author

      Chapter One

      Monday, April 5

      6:15 p.m.

      Elise Jenkins pulled her gaze from the pencil-sketched ocean and turned toward the door, the sound of her husband’s voice wiping away the last of the day’s tension.

      One of these days, I’m going to have to take a picture of you staring at that drawing and send it to your aunt Sophie. I think she’d be mighty pleased to see how much you still love it after all this time. Though if I do, I probably should include a note explaining all the fingerprints on the left-hand side of the glass.

      She crossed the tiny living room of their cottage and stepped into his waiting embrace. I can’t help it. The view is just so gorgeous I want to push the shutter open the rest of the way and see it all. Now. Elise cocked her head upward, only to feel her smile slip away at the sight of Mitch’s tousled hair and tired eyes. Hey . . . you okay? You look worn out.

      Mitch Burns’s shoulders rose and fell in a haphazard shrug. Eh. I’m okay. Just tired is all. Nothing an evening with you can’t cure, that’s for sure. He reached for her hand and tugged her over to the couch, his legs cushioning his drop while his arm guided hers. So what were you thinking about just now when I walked in?

      She pulled the lower half of her legs onto the couch beside her and lowered her head to his shoulder, the contented sigh he emitted returning the smile to her lips. Nothing and everything, I guess.

      His answering laugh rumbled against her ear. Nothing and everything? How is that possible?

      I don’t know, I guess I was struck by the irony of the picture and how nothing about the ocean has really changed since the hurricane, yet everything else around us has . . . and in such monumental ways.

      It’ll get back to normal soon, ’Lise. We’re almost there already.

      Until the next storm comes along.

      Or doesn’t, Mitch corrected, not unkindly. You’ve gotta remember it’s been years since a storm of Geraldine’s magnitude hit Ocean Point. And when it did, the town rebounded better than ever, just as it will this time.

      She paused, waited for the reassurance of his words to reach her heart, but they fell short. Still, she tried her best to be positive. I know you’re right . . .

      "I hear the but in that statement. His hold on her shoulders tightened imperceptibly as his free hand nudged her chin until their eyes locked. What’s bugging you, baby?"

      She sucked in a breath and then released it, mentally wading through her day at the newspaper as she did. I guess I don’t get why someone would deliberately set out to hurt people who have already been through so much already, you know? It’s just so cruel, so over the top.

      You’re talking about the robberies now, aren’t you?

      It was her turn to shrug as her gaze left his in favor of the wedding gift that graced the snatch of wall above the fireplace mantel, the breathtaking view of the ocean outside a simple window both calming and, at that moment, ire-provoking. Isn’t it enough that these people lost their livelihoods for eight solid months and have still opted to stay here, in this town, despite the very real possibility that they could lose everything to Mother Nature again one day? Does someone really need to add insult to injury by waiting until the very moment they finally get back on their feet to knock them down all over again?

      Trust me, ’Lise, everyone at the department is just as tweaked by this as you are. He retrieved his finger from the underside of her chin and brushed it through his hair in frustration. That’s why we’re sending out more patrols than ever at night, even dispatching some officers on foot to make sure no one is lurking in the alleyways.

      She nodded along with the familiar report. Ryan told me that this afternoon, though between you and me, I don’t think he was terribly thrilled to hear the news.

      Mitch drew back. Oh? And why is that?

      Because if you catch the guy doing it, Ryan will be forced to go back to a list of stories he is quick to describe as lame and worthless.

      Lame and worthless? Mitch echoed.

      "I guess you could say Ryan is, um, rather eager to make his journalistic mark," Elise offered by way of explanation. And it was true. Ryan Morgan, a senior at Ocean Point College, was pursuing journalism with reckless abandon, convinced he would one day be the next Woodward or Bernstein. Only in Ryan’s often shared fantasy, he wouldn’t need a partner.

      Or a photographer.

      Or an editor.

      Or a boss.

      No, Ryan was convinced he knew more about news reporting than anyone else—including Elise and even Sam Hughes, the lifeblood of the Ocean Point Weekly and her beloved boss.

      Are they all like that?

      By all, she knew he was referring to the shadow staff put in place by the new partnership between the local college and the newspaper—a

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