The Power of Love and Murder
Description
For thirteen years, Penny Sparks has managed to hide from the political powers who murdered her family. When she unwittingly exposes her true identity, not only is she marked for death, but the people closest to her risk meeting the same fate. Jake Winters is out of rehab and coming to grips with his demons. When he meets his sister’s roommate, Jake believes Penny might be that someone who can help him find life after rock star status…until her secrets blow up his world. With a government agent turned hit man closing in on her, Penny and Jake race to expose the presidential contender behind the murders of her family. Even if they win the race with death, the murder that stands between them could end their hope for a new life.
Chapter 1
Feb 4, 2022
Prologue
Thirteen Years Earlier
As she drove onto her street for home, Jianna Ricci’s thoughts were on the unexpected afterschool meeting with her counselor. The news Ms. Saleg had given her had her bubbly with giddiness. She couldn’t wait to tell her parents that her counselor had taken a personal interest in her and sent letters of recommendation to five top schools. One of them: Oxford.
Her imagination took flight as her cell chimed a text message. She tipped the sunglasses up on her head and glanced at the phone. John, her brother.
The smile on her face turned to stone as she read the two-letter code.
GU
A cold chill prickled her spine as she snapped her gaze back to the road. GU. Go under. Her stomach swam with nausea and sweat dampened the whole of her body. She focused ahead to the middle of the block, spotted her house and the black sedan parked in the driveway, and eased her foot off the gas. Confusion added to her dismay. There had to be a mistake.
But she couldn’t risk it.
While increasing her speed to the posted limit, she punched the photo button on her phone with a shaky hand, then turned her attention back to the road ahead. As she drove by her home, she held the camera to the side window and snapped a picture, capturing the car with government plates parked in the driveway.
Attention still on the road, heart pounding, she tossed the phone on the passenger seat and sped past the lake and out the gate of the Rock Springs Country Club community. By the time the eastside of the parking lot at the Red Rock Mall came into view, three miles away, her hands still shook. She stopped precisely where her father had directed, where the security camera on the corner of the roof couldn’t quite reach, opened the glove box, and removed the pre-paid phone. As she turned on the cell, a silent plea to her family left her lips.
Please call. Tell me it’s a false alarm.
Pings and lights held her attention as the phone came to life. For a moment, she stared at the cell, but when the hoped for tone of a message didn’t come, she shoved it into her leather hobo bag along with her own phone.
Jianna grabbed her corduroy jacket and lifted her backpack to the front seat. From the side pocket, she plucked a bracelet stowed there yesterday, an early Christmas present from her mother. No sense taking anything else from the pack. A survey of the parking lot showed holiday shoppers bustling in and out of the mall, so there was a good chance no one would notice her. She eased open her door, set her feet on the black top, and as a dusty wind ruffled her hair, stood.
When the door clicked shut it was as if some part of her life had ended. Her knees gave way, and she fell back against the car. The Spring Mountains rose above the rooftop of the one level shopping mall. While gazing on the familiar sight, she wanted to rest a second, make some sense of the last several minutes. But the need to act quickly spurred her on. After two deep breaths, she slipped into her jacket, slung her bag over her shoulder, and strode across the lot, all the time darting glances side to side and behind her.
A green, metal trash barrel stood beside a No-Parking sign at the edge of the sidewalk. She took her cell out of her bag, removed the SIM card, and dropped the phone through the swinging lid. As she walked, she unzipped an inside suede compartment in the bag and deposited the card.
At the far end of the mall and across the parking lot, The Mohave Bank of Nevada anchored the corners of Fifth Street and Main. The mushiness in her legs had firmed by the time she pulled open the glass door and shivered against the air-conditioned assault still blowing in defense of a warmer than usual December in Red Rock, Nevada.
She cleared her throat and with a deep swallow, strode to the safety deposit counter. “Hi. I’d like to get into my box. Number fourteen twenty.”
“Uhm, sure.” The elderly lady gave her a quick once over. Maybe teenagers didn’t normally have safety deposit boxes.
Jianna dug in her wallet for ID. “It’s our family box, and you’ll see I have permission.”
The woman consulted a screen on the desk. “Oh, yes. Of course, Miss Ricci.”
Alone in the closet-sized room, she wasted no time. Her father had versed all of them, repeatedly, on what to do if the code came. Do first. Think later. Get the job done. She removed her driver’s license and high school ID from her wallet, then skimmed through a side pocket and slipped out her Dillard’s charge card, Eddie Bauer rewards card, and zoo membership ID, and set them beside the metal box.
She opened the box, stared at the contents for a moment, and tightened her stomach muscles to still the flutters. The family’s new future glared back. Her father’s instructions played in her head, causing her palms to sweat and her breath to come faster. When any one of them received the code, they were to follow his instructions to the letter, regardless of what they felt. He’d warned that if the safety deposit box should be breached, no evidence of the new life could be left for someone else to find.
Their lives depended on it. Whoever survived.
Now, staring at the contents, Jianna had to remove everything except for a portion of the money. After a deep breath, she lifted out the four passports, drivers’ licenses, and Social Security cards. When the rest of the family could escape whatever obstacle they’d encountered that necessitated the code, they would come to the bank, leave their identification, and take the money to help with joining together in Flagstaff, Arizona. She would be waiting with their new identities.
Stop thinking.
After wiping her palms on her jeans, she took the remaining items, four Visa cards, and five of the stacks of banded one hundred dollar bills, leaving three in the box…for her family. She had to believe they would follow.
She stashed all of the contents in the main compartment of the hobo bag, and in their place she deposited her ID and the other cards from her wallet then closed the metal box on Jianna Ricci.
Once the bank aide had assisted her in replacing and locking the box, she stepped from the vault, scanned the interior of the bank to make sure no one took undue notice, and made a straight line to the exit. Her hands didn’t shake, her knees didn’t buckle, and the plan she’d put in motion numbed her to all but what she had to do. Jianna Ricci, a senior girl in high school with a bright future, had entered The Mohave Bank of Nevada on a December day, but twenty-one-year-old Penny Sparks with uncertain days ahead was the woman who exited through the glass and chrome door.
The Power of Love and Murder
17 Chapters
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