Lands End Read online

  Table of Contents

  Synopsis

  By the Author

  Acknowledgments

  Dedication

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-one

  Chapter Twenty-two

  Epilogue—December of That Year

  About the Author

  Books Available From Bold Strokes Books

  Synopsis

  In the blink of an eye, Lena Michaels's dreams of college became a distant memory. A robbery gone wrong in her family’s locally owned restaurant took the life of her parents. The only witness to the gruesome tragedy was Laura, Lena’s nine-year-old sister. Seven years later, the murders remain unsolved and Laura is now a rebellious teenager, dead set on pushing her sister’s limits. Amy Kline is a public relations hotshot for the San Francisco Miners football team. Her only focus is keeping her publicity prone clients out of hot water. When Laura’s rebellious streak puts her in the sights of the Miners' star wide receiver, Lena and Amy will have to face off to protect what is important to them. What neither is prepared for is that the price could be their hearts.

  Lands End

  Brought to you by

  eBooks from Bold Strokes Books, Inc.

  http://www.boldstrokesbooks.com

  eBooks are not transferable. They cannot be sold, shared or given away as it is an infringement on the copyright of this work.

  Please respect the rights of the author and do not file share.

  Lands End

  © 2016 By Jackie D. All Rights Reserved.

  ISBN 13: 978-1-62639-740-8

  This Electronic Book is published by

  Bold Strokes Books, Inc.

  P.O. Box 249

  Valley Falls, New York 12185

  First Edition: September 2016

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without permission.

  Credits

  Editors: Victoria Villasenor and Cindy Cresap

  Production Design: Susan Ramundo

  Cover Design By Jeanine Henning

  By the Author

  Infiltration

  Lands End

  Acknowledgments

  Once again, thank you to Bold Strokes Books for believing in the stories that bounce around in my head. It is an honor and a privilege to be part of such a strong and supportive group of people. Thank you, Vic Villasenor, for being such a fantastic editor, understanding what I am trying to say, and always filling in the blanks that elude me. Thank you, Cindy Cresap, for your editing abilities and for your patience with my redundant issues (I swear I’m working on them). Thank you, Mom, for blazing through the manuscript with your accurate and always loving insights and corrections. Thank you to my friends and family for inspiring the characters in this particular book and a great deal of the interactions that take place.

  Dedication

  For Alexis and Stacy.

  Alexis, there is not a version of reality where I would not find you and choose you, in this lifetime, or the next.

  Stacy, neither years nor distance will ever tarnish our friendship. Thank you for being my “Chloe.”

  Chapter One

  “This is Amy Kline.” Amy answered her phone while opening the garage door, blowing on her coffee, and adjusting the heel of her shoe. Multitasking was something she prided herself on, not only because she felt it was something akin to a sport, but also because it was an attribute she found most other people truly lacked the ability to do well. She liked being able to set herself apart from the rest of the crowd, in whatever ways she could.

  “Amy! This is Charlie Turner over at the Miners.”

  Charlie was in the unfortunate predicament of needing Amy’s assistance on a nearly monthly basis. Being the general manager for the Miners, a professional football team, probably had its perks, but needing a public relations firm on retainer, a very large retainer, probably wasn’t one of them.

  “Charlie! I was expecting a call from you. Please grab Frank and meet me down at my office in thirty minutes.” There was silence on the other end of her phone. Amy smiled to herself. Charlie never had much of a stomach for the situations his players seemed to get themselves into. It was an endearing quality. “It’s okay, Charlie. I’ve already been informed of the little incident this morning, and let me remind you, it’s why you keep me on your payroll. Just grab Frank and get down to the office.”

  “See you in a bit then, Amy. Thank you.”

  She pushed the unlock button to her metallic gray Audi A6 and got in the driver’s seat. This sleek, sexy machine was definitely not something she would have paid for herself. She hadn’t read every page of the owner’s manual, but she was almost convinced this car would fly if she could figure out the correct numeric combination on the touch screen monitor. It had been a payment for services from a client a few months prior. A payment Amy still believed was absolutely excessive, but he had insisted, and the senior partners told her to accept.

  She pushed the button on the dash, and the car purred with a low subtlety Amy was growing to truly love. The phone rang through the speakers, and Amy pushed the talk button as she pulled out of her parking garage.

  “Good morning, Ms. Kline.”

  Amy shook her head. “Sarah, how many times do I have to remind you to call me Amy? I feel like I’m either on the verge of my fiftieth birthday, or I’m going to morph into my mother every time you say that.”

  “Right, sorry about that. Force of habit when we’re working. Anyway, I was calling with the updates for Peter Reynolds.” Sarah was the best administrative assistant Amy had ever worked with. In fact, she was tossing around the idea of giving her a new title, something more in line with being an information superhero of some sort.

  “Okay, great, let’s go through what you’ve been able to find out so far.” She heard a few clicks of the keyboard on the other end of the line.

  “Well, as you already know, Peter was picked up outside a nightclub early this morning. He was intoxicated, getting ready to drive his vehicle, and had three girls with him.”

  Amy sipped her coffee and continued to maneuver through traffic while thinking that this would be a much easier day than she had anticipated. Football players managed to get themselves into a variety of deplorable situations, but this definitely didn’t top the “most heinous” list. “This isn’t a major emergency. We can spin the drunk in public part. He wasn’t driving, and the girls are a non-issue since the pictures at the scene didn’t divulge any compromising positions.” Sarah didn’t answer, an indication Amy had learned meant she was uneasy. “What is it?”

  Sarah said, “All three girls were under seventeen.”

  Amy shook her head. So much for an easy fix. “Fantastic. I’ll be there in fifteen.” She clicked off the phone and continued with the rest of her drive. How people continued to get themselves into these situations was beyond her. It was good for business, sure, but she hated having to deal with these really messy circumstances
, where it was nearly impossible to determine who needed the actual protection.

  It had been five years since Amy had graduated top of her class at Brown, with a degree in English. Much to her parents’ disappointment, she decided not to go to graduate school and instead took a job with a top tier public relations firm, Morgan & Morgan. She’d risen to the top quickly, and the rumor mill started spilling tidbits regarding her possible promotion to partner. This was something that had never been achieved by anyone working at the firm for less than ten years, much less a woman. Of course, along with these rumors came assumptions of sleeping her way to the top and other vulgar sexual favors. It always baffled her that people ignored the fact she was the first one into the office, last to leave, and never took a vacation. Her work was her life and she was happy with her success. Having a family or a significant other was never on her radar, and it wasn’t something she felt was missing from her life. Despite her mother’s incessant nagging that she wanted grandchildren.

  The parking garage at the office was virtually empty, which was no big surprise for a Saturday morning. Most people were out enjoying their weekend with friends or family, or indulging in the endless variety of activities that San Francisco offered. Amy loved the location of her office building. As she rode the elevator to the twenty-ninth floor, she looked out over the beautiful San Francisco Bay. It was a rare morning without the ever-present fog, and she could see the Bay Bridge. The early morning colors of red and orange coming off the water in shimmers gave her a moment of relaxation before her soon to be chaotic day pushed its way into her mind. The ding of the elevator signaled the end of solitude, and she turned around to find Sarah waiting as the doors slid open.

  “Charlie and Frank actually beat you here. They’re waiting in the conference room.” Sarah took the empty travel mug from Amy’s hand and replaced it with another cup of coffee, then took her briefcase and replaced it with her tablet.

  Amy pushed the heavy glass door of the conference room open, and the two men stood up. “Good morning, gentlemen.” The two nodded as they took their seats. Charlie pulled at his tie, a habit Amy had been trying to break him of, especially when he made television appearances. It wasn’t often she needed to deal with both the general manager and the head coach, but in this situation, she wasn’t surprised Frank had decided to come along. Having your star receiver in any type of trouble was never a good thing, but Amy assumed Frank was sweating even more because of the timing. She flipped through the images a passerby at this morning’s scene had taken with his phone. He’d been in the process of trying to sell them to newspapers, but Sarah had been able to stall the process. But five hundred dollars only bought twenty-four hours these days. Enough time to figure out the best approach for damage control or worst-case scenario to try to buy the pictures back and silence the involved parties.

  “These girls are young.” Amy glanced at them and noted their pinched expressions. “The drunk in public predicament is an easy fix, except you have a game tomorrow and it could cause a distraction to Peter and the rest of the team.” The men continued to stare, seemingly anxious to hear the rest of her analysis. “The age of these girls is an entirely different issue. We need to find out how serious this is. We need to determine if this is a habit or an anomaly. So we need to find out who these girls are.”

  Charlie rocked back in his chair and stared at the ceiling. “This job becomes more like being a babysitter every year.”

  Frank leaned across the table, the circles under his eyes and the gray in his hair that wasn’t there two years ago, proof this job as head coach was taking its toll. “We have to fix this. We’re two weeks from the playoffs, and we can’t go into the post season without our number one wide receiver.”

  Amy sighed inwardly, ignoring the slight knot in her stomach. She wouldn’t show the disgust she really felt. She was too professional for that. Her ability to compartmentalize was one of the things that set her apart from her peers. “Let me see what I can find out.” Both men looked relieved. “Keep him at the training facility or at home. No going out, no social media, nothing until I can get this situation under control. Please advise his wife to follow the same restrictions. The last thing we need is for her to fly off the handle and exponentially increase the possibility of early media coverage.”

  Both men stood to leave, shook Amy’s hand, and left for their respective missions. Amy followed, passing Wonder Assistant’s desk. No, too cliché. Sarah followed Amy into her office and shut the door behind her.

  Amy pinched the bridge of her nose and started thinking. “We have a lot of work to do and we only have twenty-four hours to do it.”

  *

  Lena’s anger had reached a level she had yet to experience in her twenty-seven years. Her heart was palpitating, her vision seemed slightly blurred, and her hands were tingling. She was pacing up and down her living room. Her younger sister was sitting on the couch, arms folded, watching her unravel. “What the hell were you thinking?” It wasn’t a rhetorical question. Lena really wanted to know the answer, but it wasn’t coming fast enough. “You told me you were spending the night at Marcy’s house, and then I get a phone call at five in the morning from the police department saying you were not only at a nightclub, but with a guy twelve years older than you, AND you were ready to get in his car, drunk!”

  Her sister shook her head and looked away. “You don’t even want to hear my side of the story!”

  Lena stopped pacing and put her hands on her hips. “That’s where you’re wrong, Laura. Out with it.”

  Laura looked as if she was going to start crying, and her obvious distress pulled at Lena, but she forced herself to not give in.

  “I don’t know why you’re so mad anyway. You did way worse when you were my age.”

  Damn it. “How would you know? You were only five years old when I was your age! What were you doing at that nightclub with that guy?”

  Laura turned her head, shooting daggers at her with her glare. “That guy happens to be the number one wide receiver for the San Francisco Miners, and someone I’m casually dating.”

  Lena needed a mirror just to make sure there wasn’t actually smoke coming out of her ears like a cartoon character. “Laura! You’re sixteen years old! Every single one of your relationships needs to be casual, unless that guy is in his late twenties, in which case, it’s illegal!”

  “I’m not a child!” Laura stood up, mimicking Lena’s stance.

  Lena’s voice was raised. She hated yelling at her sister, but this teenage specimen was a far cry from the sweet little sister she had once known. “You’re most definitely still a child, and you’re not going to keep seeing this guy.”

  Laura ran up the stairs. “Try and stop me!”

  Before she heard the door slam shut, Lena yelled back, “You’re grounded, by the way.” The house shook with the force of the door being heaved with all her sister’s might. Lena flopped onto the couch and put her head in her hands. “God, Mom, I don’t know what I’m doing here. I miss you so much. I think sometimes I do far more damage than good.” There was no response. There never was. Just the simple act of talking out loud to the silence made her feel better at moments like this. Being her little sister’s guardian was never something she had planned on, or could have anticipated. But this was her reality, the only existence she had known for years. The pain had subsided some as the days, then years, ticked off the calendar, but it was always there, twinging right beneath the surface.

  Lena shook off the memory. She was far from perfect, but she had made a promise that night, and was hell-bent on keeping it. She would keep Laura safe, no matter the cost or the circumstances, and she wasn’t going to start making exceptions now. She grabbed her phone and walked out to her back patio.

  A sleepy voice answered her call. “Why are you calling me at eight on a Saturday morning?”

  Lena smiled. Her best friend Chloe tried to sound agitated, but Lena knew she wasn’t. “Is there a specific law against
keeping a minor locked in her room until she’s of legal age?” She could hear Chloe adjusting her sitting position on the other end of the phone.

  “I think I might be able to plead a case of self-defense or temporary insanity.”

  Lena leaned back in her chair. “Perfect.”

  Chloe, who didn’t need further explanation as to whom they were speaking about, continued. “What did your Mini-Me do this time?”

  *

  Sarah tapped against the glass door that led into Amy’s office. “I have the names and contact information of the three girls who were with Peter Reynolds.”

  Amy swiveled her chair back and forth, tapping a pen against the side of her face. “Just the phone call every parent wants to get the week before Christmas.”

  Sarah gave her a confused look. “This type of thing normally doesn’t bother you.”

  Amy shook her head. “Sexual promiscuity can’t bother you in this business. It’s the age of the girls that’s gotten under my skin.”

  Sarah walked over and placed the folder on Amy’s desk. “It’s a thin line you straddle. I don’t envy your position.”

  Amy cocked her head. “And here I thought you had aspirations to take my job one day.”

  Sarah let out a loud dramatic laugh. “No, thank you. I’m perfectly happy doing what I do. It pays the bills very nicely, and I never have to take my work home.”

  Amy smiled at her. “Thank you.” Sarah nodded and closed the door behind her.

  The first two phone calls went relatively well. The parents were willing to settle for a hefty sum of money in order to not press charges, with the understanding Peter Reynolds would go nowhere near their daughters again. They, in turn, would have to sign a confidentiality agreement. From the information she was able to gather through the phone conversations, Reynolds hadn’t taken his relationship with these girls to a physical level. It seemed to be strictly to bolster his ego. Although she couldn’t quite wrap her head around why a grown, married man, would need teenagers for that. Amy was about to make her last phone call when her phone beeped in, and Sarah’s voice came through the speaker. “There’s a Lena Michaels here to see you, the sister of Laura Michaels.”