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    Danger in Paradise
    Danger in Paradise
    Danger in Paradise
    Ebook107 pages1 hour

    Danger in Paradise

    By Betty Ann Harris

    ()

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    About this ebook

    Beautiful FBI Special Agent Ruby Stone is on a leave of absence after witnessing the murder of her best friend and partner, Michael Davenport. Her friend, Sharon, asks her to take on a personal assignment and Ruby reluctantly accepts.

    When she investigates Sharon's husband, John, she finds herself involved in a dangerous and twisted case.

    Will Ruby figure out what treacherous game she's involved in before it’s too late, and in time to save herself and the man she's fallen in love with?

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBWL Publishing Inc.
    Release dateAug 2, 2015
    ISBN9781771453165
    Danger in Paradise
    Author

    Betty Ann Harris

    A self-admitted romantic, Betty Ann Harris also enjoys a good spy story. Combining the two, her most favorite genre is romantic suspense.Standing on the edge of danger, running away from the one she fears, and falling for the one who is trying to save her. This is the basic idea of her romantic suspense books. If you crave romance but love suspense, then you’ll enjoy her books.It is her desire to keep readers involved in the story, to make them feel they are right there in the scene. She writes descriptively about and uses dramatic settings. She also loves keeping her reader’s attention by building suspense and throwing twists and turns in the plot. Hopefully, you’ll be on the edge of your seat!She also enjoys delving into the world of romance and paranormal, because who doesn’t love a good ghost story?Go ahead, get swept away!

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      Book preview

      Danger in Paradise - Betty Ann Harris

      Danger in Paradise

      By Betty Ann Harris

      Digital ISBNs

      EPUB 978-0-2286-0341-2

      Kindle 978-1-77145-316-5

      2nd Ed.Copyright 2018 by Betty Ann Harris

      Cover art by Michelle Lee

      All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the publisher of this book

      Dedication

      For Lynne, Nancy and Nanette

      Friends for life

      Chapter One

      Ruby Stone, FBI Special Agent, was spending a quiet weekend in a lovely little beach cottage. The charming, little house was in Half Moon Bay, a quaint, small town a half-hour drive south of San Francisco, nestled between wooded hills and the Pacific Ocean. The cottage had been her grandmother’s home for years. Ruby spent many a summer there as a child. Ruby’s grandmother gave the house to her when she became ill and went into a nursing home. Her grandmother passed on not long after entering the home. She missed her terribly. Ruby loved the cottage but managed to get there only a few times a year. Usually when she needed a break after a particularly tough case. This was definitely one of those times.

      Almost two months earlier her partner and best friend, Michael Davenport, was killed on a case they’d been working undercover on for several months involving drug trafficking. They had finally made some inroads, and after some painstaking planning, were able to set up a meeting between Mike and the head of the drug operation. Mike posed as a potential buyer and dealer. After all the months of careful planning he didn’t want to take a chance on blowing his cover, so he’d decided not to wear a bulletproof vest. Something went terribly wrong. Mike took a bullet before he even got to the meeting. Ruby saw the whole thing from a van parked at a cross street near the alley near where the meet was to go down.

      It was a horrific scene, one she could not erase from her mind. No matter how hard she tried, she kept replaying it over and over again. She even had nightmares about it and would wake up hysterically screaming Mike’s name. For that reason she would often put off going to bed, afraid she’d relive his murder every night. Therefore, she was sleep–deprived and tired.

      It was nine fifty–five p.m. on a damp and cold Friday evening, March 21st. Mike was dropped off on the street near the alley while Ruby and the two other undercover agents on the case parked the van. They were on a side street nearby awaiting Mike’s signal. On Mike’s cue, Ruby and the other agents were going to bust in and apprehend the drug dealers when the so–called deal was going down. They waited while Mike walked up the alley where he was to meet the scum who ran the drug operation. Although he wasn’t wearing a vest, Mike was carefully wired so he could signal the crew if he needed backup at any time.

      Suddenly, out of the shadows just behind Mike, a man appeared. Ruby watched in horror as the man raised a weapon aimed at Mike’s back. She screamed and tried to push open the sliding side door of the van. The other agents stopped her and forcibly held her back. Mark, the second in command yelled at her. You can’t go out there, damn it! You’ll get yourself killed. Stand down!

      Another of the agents leaped from the other side of the van and ran after the shooter. He caught the guy and arrested him two blocks away. But the scum’s lawyer cut a deal for him with the D.A. In exchange for information on the drug operation the murderer would be sentenced to life in prison without a chance for parole, rather than the death penalty. That was little solace to Ruby.

      Grief-stricken and beyond consolation, Ruby was put on leave and was now spending most of her time at the cottage, alone. She felt secure and comfortable there, away from the hustle and bustle of the city. But sometimes the quiet solitude became deafening. Ruby’s thoughts would always flow back to Mike and what happened.

      Damn it, Mike! He should have worn a vest. He could have concealed it. Why didn’t he? I should have argued the point. Why didn’t I?

      The thoughts haunted her continuously. Immediately after Mike’s murder, the only time she wasn’t really thinking about his death was when she was entrenched in a case. For that reason, up until the previous week, she worked on case after case. She was wearing herself out and having problems concentrating. The FBI Agency medical doctor diagnosed her with depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. She was given a prescription for an antidepressant and put on medical leave.

      Her social life had become virtually non–existent. All work and no play makes Ruby a dull girl, she’d said to herself on several occasions. She’d often find messages from her girlfriends on her answering machine, and had either missed a get–together or just couldn’t make it. How could she go out and have a good time when she felt so badly?

      Sitting back in one of the Windsor chairs in the buttery–colored kitchen, she kicked off her sneakers and thought about the girls in the reader’s group she used to belong to and the fun they used to have. Once a month, they’d meet at one of the classy, upscale restaurants in San Francisco to have dinner and discuss the books they were supposed to have read. Ruby chuckled as she remembered the time her friend, Jane, almost got them kicked out of the Lavender House Restaurant for laughing too loud and causing a disturbance in the lush establishment. She missed her friends, but couldn’t imagine going out to dinner and laughing it up now and really enjoying herself. She was afraid she’d feel oddly out of place.

      As she sat there thinking Ruby’s attention turned back to Mike. She wished she could talk to him now. He always had a comforting word or some good advice when she had a problem or was feeling down. She despondently arose from the chair and walked over to the little desk in the kitchen, on top of which sat Mike’s laptop computer from work. Ruby brought the computer home with her after his death. Her boss had all the sensitive material cleared off the hard drive and told her she could take it home. Ruby was glad to have it simply because it was one thing that was Mike’s. It made her feel part of him was still there with her.

      Ruby opened the laptop and gently slid her fingers over the keys; keys Mike had touched. She sat down at the desk and turned the computer on; something she had not been able to bring herself to do until that particular moment. The laptop sign–on screen appeared and Ruby’s fingers moved over the keys. She knew Mike’s password as they often assisted each other at work. There had been no secrets between them.

      After she was in, Ruby pulled up Mike’s personal files. She opened the calendar feature and scanned the reminders for the current month:

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