Table Of Content

KILLING MARY JANE AMARIE AVANT NICOLE DUNLAP Edited by JULIETTE CROSS Edited by JULIE DEATON CONTENTS Volume I Prologue Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 18. Thirty Minutes Ago… Chapter 19 20. Two Hours Earlier Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 24. Fbi Phoenix Headquarters Chapter 25 Volume II 26. El Paso 27. Generosa, Mexico Chapter 28 Chapter 29 Chapter 30 Chapter 31 Chapter 32 Chapter 33 Chapter 34 Chapter 35 Chapter 36 Chapter 37 Chapter 38 Chapter 39 Chapter 40 Chapter 41 Chapter 42 Chapter 43 Chapter 44 Chapter 45 Chapter 46 Chapter 47 Chapter 48 Chapter 49 Chapter 50 51. Two Days Later Chapter 52 Chapter 53 Chapter 54 Chapter 55 Chapter 56 Chapter 57 Chapter 58 Chapter 59 Chapter 60 Chapter 61 Chapter 62 63. One Week Later Thanks for Reading About the Author AUGUST: A Romantic Suspense Copyright © 2013 by Nicole Yvette Dunlap. All rights reserved All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means– electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other–except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Created with Vellum VOLUME I What is life? A Frenzy. What is life? An illusion, a shadow, a fiction. And the greatest good is trivial; for all life is a dream and all dreams are dreams… Pedro Calderon de la Barca PROLOGUE T . A T HE GOLDEN BEAUTY TREMBLED LIKE A LEAF AS SHE STOOD CENTER STAGE NEON SIGN READING HE Petting Zoo hung behind her. But her feeble attempt to shield her face from the floodlight and cover her ample curves did nothing. Before her every seat of the strip club was taken. An endless sea of men had come to see her. Those who often favored the bar had left the rickety barstools to stand and get a closer look. Their gazes locked on her lace outfit as they waited for her to dance. Yet, the wolves were kept at bay as three armed men stood at pivotal locations in front of the stage. “Give ‘em a lil’ something, sugar,” a man said, giving off an aura of importance. He was huge, almost as wide as he was tall and in a double-breasted suit. He sat front and center, plump lips pursed against a Cuban cigar. He slammed his hand down onto the tiny tabletop. A glass of whiskey trembled as much as the heavenly beauty before him. “Twirl, Mary Jane. Bitch, give ’em a lil’ taste!” The woman on the stage took a hesitant step back. Who is Mary Jane? she thought, almost losing her balance in spiky heels. Her head pounded as all her thoughts moved in slow motion. “I’m Beasley,” the man said, climbing up the steps of the stage. “But you’ve probably forgotten that by now. Haven’t you?” Before she could ask why she was there—who exactly she was—Beasley shouted, “I told you to shake that ass!” Sprays of his saliva accosted her face with each word. She slapped his face with all of her might. This was truly a nightmare. Moreover, the bastard didn’t budge. He only continued to clamp his hand across her mouth while his fingernails chewed into her cheeks. “Fuck!” she screeched from the sting. She bit down on the inside of his palm. Beasley instantly let her mouth go, and then he coiled his fingers through her hair. He grabbed a handful of thick strands and yanked her down to the floor before him. Mary Jane didn’t scream. Though she wasn’t aware of much, intuition told her that he wasn’t a man you could bargain with to keep your life. Besides, something in her was broken as if she’d done enough begging to survive for a lifetime already. Her thick lips spread into a line. He wrapped his hands around her throat, further challenging her with a hard squeeze. Her glare never wavered as she dared Beasley to take her out. The light began to dance before Mary Jane’s eyes, and her lungs screamed as he choked her. She had no idea what else there was to live for. She knew nothing about herself or even if her name really was Mary Jane. Why live? How would she even know if there was anything to live for? But deep down Mary Jane felt a seed of courage brewing and an innate need to know more about this place, about herself. She started to reach out to slap him again. She’d targeted his eyes, and they’d go out together. At least she had the sheer determination to seek revenge. “Beasley, if you kill her, she won’t dance!” another voice boomed beside them. It was one of Beasley’s strong guards who was posted against the stage earlier to keep the horny hounds at bay. The fat man let go of her throat. Mary Jane jumped up, gasping for air. She rubbed a hand across her neck. The large room hushed. “Jake, I could kill you for thinking you have the right to even speak to me without being asked to,” Beasley replied as he wrenched his tie away from his triple chin. “But…you’re correct.” She looked Jake over, concentrating on her unlikely savior in this den of sin. The guy with tanned skin and curly hair was the most beautiful man she’d ever laid her eyes on—and not because she had no recollection of the past either. His muscles strained against a V-neck shirt that clung to well- defined muscles. His eyes were the same complementing gold as his skin tone, offering a fleeting sense of comfort as he looked her over. Not leering, but with compassion. “Do you want her tonight?” Beasley grinned. Mary Jane took a stand. “Let me go. I don’t belong here!” Jake said nothing. Beasley ignored her. “Yeah, you want her, Jake. Just looking at her makes my cock stand at attention.” Beasley nodded with a sneer, this time addressing her again. “Mary Jane, you’ll be my most-prized possession at The Petting Zoo, until I grow tired of you. Because there isn’t a single soul in this world searching for you. I’ll work that little ass of yours, and then I’m going to squeeze that scrawny little neck again. Next time I do it, the trashcan out back is where you’re going.” Mary Jane’s chest puffed up as her lungs filled with air. She leaned back and hawked a loogie. The spit landed on Beasley’s nose. He backhanded her harsh enough to send her sprawling onto the floor again. This time the crowd of men heckled, some of them arguing about how they’d paid good money to see her dance. Finally, dance. Beasley knew how to advertise his new meat with just a pet here, a paw there. However, he was ruining the very thing they craved. Jake went to her side. He held out a hand, but she turned away from him in shame. His deep voice was comforting, strong, and smooth, “Come with me, darlin’.” “No!” she screamed at him and sobbed so hard her vision blurred. “No! You abducted me. I don’t belong here. I’ll kill all of you!” “Didn’t I tell you she had a mouth?” Beasley shook his head. “You stole me!” she screamed, although she couldn’t recall anything beyond the past few minutes. As she shouted at Jake, he scooped her into his arms. She unfolded her body backward, hoping the dead weight would cause Jake to struggle and drop her. Tossing her over his shoulder, he carried her toward the steps leading off the stage with ease as the crowd booed. “Tame the little animal,” Beasley called after them. Upside down, she noticed her surroundings as Jake moved toward the side of the building. He then started up another set of stairs. The murky air burned her eyes. They ascended to the second level of a square-shaped building. Below, strippers began to flood the stage. Some sort of hype man mentioned, “Mary Jane will return to The Petting Zoo soon enough, but for now…” Jake stopped before a dingy, yellow door and opened it. She felt sick as he rapidly turned around with her, closing the door behind him.