DEATH

IN THE SHADOWS

BOOK 4 – The Death Card Series

By

J.S. Peck

BEJEWELED PUBLISHING

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA

Chapter 1

I searched the crowd as they stood just beyond the security gate at the airport that held people back from the passengers getting off the airplane. When I saw him, our eyes locked. He smiled and lowered the dog onto the ground. Isabella and I raced forward. I flew into Mike’s arms, while Isabella scooped up Sweet Pea into hers.

“How was your trip?” Mike asked, holding me close.

“Short,” I laughed. As promised, Isabella and I had flown to Santa Fe for the three-day Columbus weekend so that Isabella could spend time with her Mexican family and sister-friends. Mike had stayed behind with Sweet Pea to check out an office rental space that his realtor said was soon going to be available. Since most often, any rental space was taken in a matter of hours after being offered, Mike didn’t want to take a chance of losing out on it. It’d be a perfect west coast office for him and Brian to expand their successful detective agency, based in Boston.

“Any luck with the rental?” I asked as we headed to the baggage area.

He grinned. “Yup. Got it.”

“No kidding? That’s great! Where’s it located?”

“Right in the center of old Las Vegas near 6th Street.”

“That’s fabulous!” I crowed as I reached for Isabella and guided her along with us as she held Sweet Pea in her arms.

“Did you have a good time in Santa Fe, Isabella?” asked Mike.

“Yes, we’re going there for Thanksgiving, too, right, Mama?”

I nodded.

“You’re coming too, Mike!” Isabella said with excitement. She whispered to Sweet Pea, “And so are you!”

Sweet Pea smiled her doggy smile and wagged her tail. Since becoming Isabella’s foster mother—a role I shared with her aunt Maria in Santa Fe—Isabella had become more relaxed, not so concerned about being agreeable with everything, and no longer worried about not having me as her mother. At 11 years old, she was looking for family stability, and with Mike’s and my growing relationship, things at home were pretty settled and loving. Now, if only I could say the same about the construction site where I was one of those in charge of overseeing two separate projects. That thought brought up unhappy memories.

It didn’t seem possible that it’d been less than a year since Romano and I’d been in charge of overseeing the project of building a restaurant and an office for the nonprofit agency dealing with human trafficking. Both on the same land that’d held the Purple Passion Lounge where we’d worked together. So much had happened. I sighed, and both Mike and Isabella looked at me, worry crossing their brows.

“Oh, it’s nothing,” I reassured them. “I just was thinking about some of the loose ends that need to be cleared up.”

Mike and Isabella locked eyes, and I tried to ignore them. I was excruciatingly aware of the fact that I’d escaped death several times during the last few months. First, when I’d been lovingly forced out of the way by Romano’s husband and thrown into the air while Randy took the full force of us being hit by a speeding car. I had ended up with a concussion and a few broken ribs while Randy had a badly broken leg, arm, and some internal injuries, making his recovery a tough one. It was mainly because of Mike and Isabella that I’d escaped another near-death experience after I’d been kidnapped and stuffed into a drawer at the morgue. It was no wonder both of them looked worried since that’d happened only a few weeks ago. I still had aches and pains as a reminder. I grabbed Isabella and pulled her close enough to kiss the top of her head as Mike grabbed me and did the same.

Once home, Isabella asked if she could run over to our neighbor’s house to give ‘Gramma Irene’ a gift of her favorite salsa she had bought for her in Santa Fe. “Sure, just
don’t take long.”

Mike lifted a brow. “How long do you think she’ll be? Long enough?” he asked suggestively.

“Sorry, no quickie, handsome. I love taking our time, and I don’t want that to change,” I whispered into his ear as I pulled him close.

“Fair, enough, my queen,” he said before giving me a long teasing kiss that made me want to reconsider his offer.

Mike’s phone rang, and he answered it, turning away. It was Brian, his business partner. Mike excitedly told him about the new rental office and pointed things out to him that the photos he’d forwarded to him hadn’t shown. I watched his happy face, so glad that their west coast office was going forward and that he’d be here with Isabella and me in Las Vegas. It would’ve been so disappointing for all of us if that hadn’t worked out.

My cell phone rang, and I was delighted to see it was Romano. “Hi, Romano. How are you and Randy making out? Is the nurse still coming every day to help him?”

“He’s up every day exercising so that when his casts come off, he should be in pretty good shape.”

“How’s his spirit? It’s not always easy to get through something like this, you know.”

“Tell me about it,” he chuckled. “Yes, all is good with us. The construction site has a few issues we need to discuss, though.”

“What’s up there?” I asked, discouraged. “No more bones, I hope.” Two skeletons had been left on the construction site causing us issues. Although we’d been able to identify the bones, we still hadn’t found the person responsible for their murders.

“No, nothing like that, but I think the new site manager is cheating us on the construction materials.”

“What happened to Butch? You mean he’s no longer the site manager there?”

“Not since you left for Santa Fe. I talked to Mimi about it, and she said to set up a meeting when you got back.”

“Let’s meet first thing in the morning then. How about 9 o’clock here at the house? Can you let Mimi know? I’ll tell Mike.”

“Sure thing. See you tomorrow.”

I hung up the phone, unhappy with this new problem. Unfortunately, I didn’t know enough about construction materials to ensure that they met code or not. But I knew someone who would know—Cal—Mike and Brian’s largest client. We’d called him ‘the mystery man’ for the time that we didn’t realize that he was the boss and not the chauffeur he portrayed. Also, he’d unwittingly become part of our family with Isabella calling him her ‘grandfather.’ He was looking forward to buying property here, and he’d asked me to help him. We’d made arrangements to start our search after I’d returned from Santa Fe, so now was as good a time as ever to reach out to him. I sought out Mike. “Did you know about the situation at the construction site?”

“Mimi called me.”

“Why didn’t you say something?”

“I thought I’d wait until you at least had the chance to take your coat off,” he teased as he pinched my cheek lovingly.

“We’ve set a meeting for tomorrow at 9 o’clock. I hope you can join us. I’m thinking of calling Cal. We could use his advice, don’t you think?”

“Good idea. Especially with Cal’s experience in construction.”

“Does he know if you’ve found a place to rent for the business?”

“Not yet. He’ll get to see it when we discuss his latest assignment for us—another young girl who’s gone missing here in Las Vegas.”

“There are so many missing young girls, aren’t there?” I asked.

“Way too many. It’s disturbing to realize that 5 to 6 people go missing each day here in Las Vegas. Who knew?”

“The thing that bothers me is how many of them didn’t have a choice. Human sex trafficking has become so prevalent, and it’s so sad.”

“All we have to do is look at Isabella to know how close she came to being a statistic in child sex trafficking,” Mike added with a shake of his head. He pulled me close. “Thanks to you, that didn’t happen.”

“I was lucky. The right place at the right time.”

“Quick thinking is more like it.”

At that time, I’d escaped with four little girls who were going to be auctioned off. I had reacted without thinking about anything but getting them as far away as possible from what’d been awaiting them. And, eventually, it had ended well for all of them. Isabella was now my foster daughter as we both wanted, and the others had made it back to their families in Mexico. I sighed, thinking about how easily some of our fellow humans were willing to hurt others without thinking about the consequences.