Fool's Gold: A Kisses and Crimes Novel

  Copyright © 2016 by Natalie E. Wrye.

  This novel is an original work. It is a fictional writing, a work entirely derived from the author’s imagination. All characters and events are entirely fictional and not based in fact, nor based on any real person(s) living or deceased. Any resemblance or similarity to any real person(s), alive or dead, or event is purely and clearly coincidental. This book contains adult language and in some instances coarse language and, due to its content, should not be viewed by children.

  All Rights Reserved.

  No part of this book may be transmitted or reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage or retrieval system without the written permission of the author (except for the use of brief quotations in a book review).

  Cover Design:

  Alivia Anders, White Rabbit Book Design

  www.facebook.com/whiterabbitbookdesign

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  Contacting Me

  * * *

  FOOL’S GOLD

  About

  Prologue

  Blindsided

  Strange Devotion

  Stranger Things have Happened

  Why the Caged Bird Sings

  Ten Cents and a Smile

  A Dance with the Devil

  The Caged Bird Sings Again

  Into the Hornet’s Nest

  A Friendly Reminder

  An Affair to Remember

  Where There’s Smoke

  Giving in to the Good Fight

  The Man, the Myth, the Monster

  Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell

  Learning the Curve

  New Dog, Old Tricks

  Easy Come, Easy Go

  Running with Scissors

  Let There be Light

  Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag

  Over the Rainbow

  Out of the Frying Pan

  The Awful Truth

  An American Girl in Paris

  Critical Condition

  Luck be a Damsel in Distress

  The Cold War

  What Goes Around

  Coming Out the Closet

  Party’s Over

  More to Come

  Epilogue

  To the Reader

  * * *

  Step by Step

  Foreword

  About

  Place Your Bet

  Rolling the Dice

  Playing the Odds

  In Times of Stalemate

  A Rook-ie Mistake

  Double or Nothing

  Poker Face

  All Bets are Off

  To the Reader

  * * *

  Hour by Hour

  Go Hard or Go Home

  Full House

  The House Always Wins

  On a Hot Streak

  Beating the Clock

  The Wild Card

  Ante Up

  Raising the Stakes

  Going for Broke

  To the Reader

  An Additional Note

  More about the Author

  CONTACTING ME

  Hi guys!

  Hope you love this Sexy Suspenseful Mystery!

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  ABOUT

  Say hello to Dani.

  Is this your first time meeting her?

  Good. This is Dani’s first time meeting her, too.

  * * *

  Daniela Bishop has everything to live for.

  A beautiful loft in the south of France. A gorgeous albeit brooding husband who looks at her as if she’s his last meal.

  Too bad she doesn’t remember any of it.

  A life she never knew with a lover she doesn’t recognize?

  It couldn’t get any worse… until it does.

  Married to a man with secrets darker than his Greek god-like features, Daniela will do anything to piece together the life of her husband, Bishop (no first name), and subsequently her own.

  But when memories masquerading as nightmares come back to show her the real truth about her life, her family and her love, Dani must come to grips with a past that is nothing like it seems… and an unknown life she may end up dying for.

  PROLOGUE

  BISHOP

  I’ve fucked up royally.

  Releasing a ragged breath, I dial Jax’s number in the dead of night. It’s late. The sun hasn’t cracked on the horizon, and I should have been asleep hours ago.

  But I can’t.

  The events of the day have played over and over in my head like a bad re-run, and I call one of the only friends I seem to have left.

  I know what time it is here in Annecy. I don’t think to give a fuck what time it is in London.

  And his voice is rightfully gruff when he answers.

  “Jackson fucking Reed.”

  “Now, is that any way for a ‘round-the-clock’ private investigator to answer the phone when a potential client calls?”

  “When it’s three-thirty in the goddamned morning, it is.” I can hear the growing smile in his voice. “What’s up, Bish?”

  “I’ve fucked up royally, Jax,” I say, sitting on the couch.

  “Yeah? What else is new?”

  “I’m serious,” I grunt. “It’s bad. Really bad.”

  I light a cigarette in the pitch-black living room, leaning over.

  “You know how much I hate asking for favors…”

  “I know, man,” Jax commiserates. “Anything I can do?”

  I flick the cig between my fingers, thinking: Is there anything he can’t do?

  Was it really only six weeks ago that we’d eaten, drank and been merry? Only a month and a half since she’d been shot… and nearly rendered dead on the operating table?

  Couldn’t have been.

  It was strange, really.

  How a beautiful night could have turned out so wrong, how a happy occasion could have turned to horror so quickly.

  It was only an hour before the shots rang out that I had admired her from afar, pictured every inch of her pretty bared legs wrapped entirely around my head.

  I’d been a fool. Sloppy at my job. And karma had wound up kicking my ass in ways I couldn’t even have imagined.

  I puff on my cigarette, making a decision.

  “Yeah,” I finally answer Jax. “There is something you can do.”

  I lean into my phone, nearly whispering.

  “How soon can you get to Annecy?”

  “France? Bish… most of my work is done here in London.”

  “I know.”

  “I hope you know it’s going to cost ya.”

  “I know.”

  “You’ll owe me for the rest of your fucking life…”

  I sigh, blowing out smoke. Yeah… I know.

  He hesitates on the line, and I imagine Jax is thinking about all of the shit he knows I’ll get him into.

  I already know what his answer will be before he says it.

  “I’m in,” he exhales.

  “Great,” I say, dragging on the cig. I put it out on the coffee table. “How soon can you get here?”

  “Noon, at least. I’ll need a cup of coffee when I land.”

  He pauses.

  “And I’ll need to know what the hell you’
ve gotten yourself into…”

  BLINDSIDED

  DANI

  I’d never seen a body more rock solid than his.

  Even under a suit darker than his raven hair, the man at the bar could hardly hide the pure muscle lurking beneath the fabric.

  Luxurious, tailored to a T, that jacket was all that kept my sanity in tact, my one-track mind committing the look of it to memory so that my imagination could take it home later that night, peel back the layers and have fun with it in the sanctity of my own room.

  Jesus Christ, why did life have to be so unfair?

  With the exception of fantasizing about the man with the dark hair and golden eyes, I’d virtually been a fucking saint.

  Despite my obvious frustration, I’d been a good girl all goddamned night.

  I’d shaken hands when I was supposed to and nodded at people I normally wouldn’t have given the time of day. I’d traded in my brassieres and black leather for a gold cocktail dress to match my straightened hair, and when the “business” men and women approached my table at the center of the ballroom, I’d been polite.

  Well, at the least, I’d been cordial.

  And I’d paid for it with a throb between my legs that felt like a galloping pulse.

  Even the wine couldn’t do much to temper it.

  If I could just get his attention…

  I knew the moment I did, he’d have no choice but to take me home. And once we stepped through the threshold of my front door, nothing would ever quite be the same.

  So what if my father wanted me to stay behind at his dull party? Chit-chat with the dumb, dumber and dimwitted?

  He didn’t know what I needed, and he didn’t care.

  Tonight was all about his needs.

  But I was determined to make it about mine.

  Finally.

  And my one need was currently standing at the bar, looking like sex in a suit.

  What would happen to our longtime relationship, our bond? Would it be shattered into a million pieces and put back together completely unrecognizable?

  I knew that I was prepared to handle it… but was he?

  It had been a long five years, and every second I’d been wanting to tell him.

  Five years of togetherness. Five years of silent secrecy.

  I couldn’t take it anymore.

  And he was so intuitive. At the exact moment his name crossed my mind, he looked up at me, languidly standing taller from where he leaned against the old, stained wood that bordered the bar.

  His eyes fixed on me, I felt he could see right into my brain. When he walked over to my table and placed his hand on mine, I was almost certain that he could.

  But like every night before this one, we barely exchanged words.

  Plastering on smiles, we said our goodbyes, gave our common courtesies, and made our exit.

  Hand in hand, we’d stopped outside of the Regency Hotel with tension simmering on the surfaces of our skin. Our black car pulled up, the young valet hopped out, and the minute I let his hand go, I knew I’d made a mistake.

  He looked at me, his stubble-lined jaw growing solid under the glow of the humid night’s city lights, and when he reached for the door handle to open the passenger side door, all fucking hell broke loose.

  And that was when the rain started.

  Holy shit.

  I let go of the deep breath that I’ve been holding in my sleep. I awaken from the dream before even opening my eyes. My heart still pounding, I try to let the real rain outside my window beat me back to sleep.

  Most people enjoy the sound of rain; they find it calming.

  I am not one of those people.

  For some reason, the rain has never given me peace.

  The sound of water, slow, steady and rhythmic, parades through my bedroom, making it pulsate, and as I awake from the deep sleep, I reach my hands across the mattress—searching…

  What I’m searching for, I have no idea… but my hands pause when they feel emptiness—nothing.

  Just the coolness of the bedspread.

  Just the solace of an empty spot.

  I feel cold—inexplicably so, and when I turn over to face the window, I see a cloudy sky, scarlet curtains…

  And no rain.

  Not a single drop from the sky, at least as far as I can tell. The windows seem to be heavily fogged.

  But maybe not…

  I take a closer look.

  The window is thinly veiled, a tinted film outstretched over the poorly framed glass.

  Grey light filters in through its thin layer, and at this point, I can’t even tell if the sun is shining.

  I can still hear the rain.

  But not on the outside, no.

  It’s inside somehow, trickling just beyond my bedroom wall.

  I sit up straight, bracing my open palms on my bedroom pillows when it occurs to me that the pillows aren’t even mine.

  In fact, as I take a closer look at the bedroom sheets, I slowly realize… I’ve awakened in a bed that also isn’t mine.

  What the flying fuck…

  I vault out of the bed, practically diving sideways.

  My bare feet land on the cold ground near the edge of the bed. I pace, taking in the remainder of the room with sluggish eyes and an unsettled mind.

  I don’t recognize the silk robe draped over my shoulders. I’ve never been introduced to the floor rug beneath my feet.

  Nothing is familiar. None of it.

  Not the room. Not its two rust-colored doors. Definitely not the high ceilings, nor the darkened hardwood floors.

  I seem to have gone asleep in one world and awakened in another.

  Where the fuck am I, and how in the hell did I get here?

  I walk over to the nearest door, but, oddly enough, it doesn’t open.

  I walk to the window, in front of the thick glass separating me from the world, and I realize that everything around me—the buildings, the people, the marketplace just outside…

  I don’t recognize any of it.

  And I’m all alone.

  How did this happen?

  Everything, everyone, appears to be moving with a natural purpose, in a motion that speaks of everyday life.

  It seems like a normal goddamned day for the rest of the world… but not for me.

  I am the single oddity.

  I press my forehead against the hazy glass, prepared to scream, and just when I begin to… the rain that seems to pulsate in the room suddenly stops.

  The sound of heavy footsteps follows in its wake, matching the thundering of my now pumping heart.

  My heart seems to have leapt between my ears, beating at a panicky pace, and I see the doorknob turn, the door opening in slow motion as a bare foot emerges from beyond.

  Through one of two closed doors, a man enters the room, half-naked, a white towel in one hand and another wrapped tightly near his navel.

  And in that instant, my mind goes numb.

  He is gorgeous beyond fucking belief.

  Gold-green eyes peek beneath a darkly soaked head of hair, and he looks straight at me—his hazel irises expectant, one strong, tattooed arm outstretched as he dries the wet mane that drips onto his naked shoulders.

  Strong broad shoulders.

  Shoulders that sit upon a body made of olive-colored stone.

  The look in his eyes is intense, and he stares at me as if he is incapable of doing anything else.

  I don’t know why… but it thrills me, sets my senses ablaze… and scares me half-to-fucking-death.

  This is the guy—the man from last night’s dream… and I have no fucking clue who he is.

  He takes a step towards me from fifteen feet off, and I recoil.

  “What?” he asks roughly. “What’s wrong?”

  He looks towards the window. “You ok? You see somethin’? Did someone…”

  But he doesn’t even finish the question.

  Before he can utter another word, I am running, my bare soles thudding against t
he wood underneath as I make a break for the other door, sprinting towards it without a second thought.

  And I nearly make it… before the man reaches out and grabs my wrist.

  “Dani, what the hell are you doing?” he growls at me. “What are you…?”

  But I swat at him, pushing him away.

  He stumbles backwards, and before he can recover, I am jetting across the shadowy hallway outside the bedroom, my silk robe flapping as I approach the staircase leading to the story below.

  I am falling more so than running, but my steps never stop. I stumble my way down the stairs, my heels stinging with every landing as the man from the bedroom—now recovered—makes his way after me, closing in from just a few feet behind.

  How I manage to make it to the floor below, out of his grasp, I don’t really know, but I am relieved. My lungs fill with renewed air as my eyes scan around an oversized kitchen, past the counters and to a doorway that leads to an outside street.

  I run to it… just as the man’s large hand find its grip on the waist of my robe.

  My body slams backwards into his, crashing into the slippery, wet front of his brick-like abdomen.

  “Dani!” he grunts, trying to control my now flailing arms. “What the fuck is the matter with you? What are you… I’m not trying to hurt you! I just want to…”

  Whoosh! A slip of my arms, and I am out of the robe.

  The man can’t finish a complete sentence. Unexpectedly, to him and also to me, I am now twisting in his arms, turning to face him as my fists fly at him, striking near his nose and eyes.

  Bare forearms raised, he blocks them, his taut skin dulling the sound of my tight-fisted rage. I use the opportunity to kick between his legs, and he skillfully dodges my foot without so much as dropping the tightly wound towel hanging below his hips.

  We are engaged in a battle, my long golden hair whipping as I throw my full body weight into each swing, each kick, each blow at the mysterious man.