1
Rylee James, Special Agent with the Miami Federal Bureau of Investigation, couldn’t believe her bad luck in having this stupid, cushy job foisted on her. Her boss’s stern orders made her stop arguing, but she didn’t have to like being coerced into taking on something that she’d hate.
Duke Harrison, Special Agent in Charge, might be a sweet dream to every woman in the office, but he didn’t even register with Rylee, other than as a pain in her backside. Gritting her teeth – cuss words accumulating that weren’t allowed to be released – she left his office, kicked the nearest chair and, as she left the room, gave the finger to one of her coworkers who teased her about her snarky behavior.
Back at her apartment, she called her sister to bitch about life’s unfairness and was greeted with Mari’s normal disregard for her legitimate grievances.
As soon as it came up that her next assignment – spending two weeks on a cruise ship sailing the Caribbean – was the reason she was pissed off, her sister’s support abruptly ended, and Rylee had to suffer through a vicious tongue lashing. She did so until she couldn’t handle it anymore and with a “shut the fuck up” response she hit the end button and wouldn’t answer the recall until after a bubble bath had calmed her down.
The loud voice that greeted her when she did relent almost had her hanging up again. “What the hell is wrong with you, Rylee? Do you know what I’d give to have a fully paid vacation in the Caribbean and on a cruise ship? Excuse me if I don’t cry you a river when I’m too busy hating your guts.”
“Mari Ray James, don’t you give me lip just because I’m not the pretty empty-headed package you are. It’s not my fault I got the brains and you got the looks and the need to be coddled and spoiled.”
“Seriously, Ry? Are you shitting me? Goddammit you’re a dunce. If you ever tried to clean up your act and look like the freakin’ beauty queen you could be, then you’d be eating those words, sister-ugly.”
Click!
No way I’m listening to another whip-lashing from Miss Perfection. Damn family’s supposed to have your back in moments like these.
Enjoying her pity party, she almost ignored the banging on her door a half an hour later. “You’d better let me in, Ry.” Her sister Mari’s voice wasn’t cajoling, but firm with anger. “I’ll call the fire department. Have them break down the door. After all, the terrible news about your hideous upcoming assignment could have had an adverse reaction. How the hell do I know what’s happened? You could have offed yourself because of your agonizing depression.”
Unable to wipe the grin from her face, Rylee sauntered over and undid the bolt. Then, followed by Miss Beauty Pageant, she headed back into the kitchen to get the bottle of wine out of her cupboard with the broken latch. She had to slam it twice before she gave up and let it hang lopsided. Because her bratty sister would help herself to the wine anyway and bitch about the place falling apart, she’d pre-empted her.
In gray sweats with thick black socks and a worn Harvard top to match, her long hair caught up in a mess and scrunched on top of her head, she crossed her arms and waited for the hits.
Mari’s stare, checking her head like she was a freak of nature, made her grin. “What are you doing? Stop it!”
“I’m looking for the stab wound or bullet hole that would account for your brains being damaged.”
“It’s not funny, Mari. You can’t know how much I hate the thought of this assignment.”
Dropping her attitude, Mari pulled her sister into a hug, forcing it because Rylee wasn’t a born hugger, and then she sat in the kitchen chair compelling Rylee to find her own seating.
It was a bone of contention with them, the fact that Rylee refused to have more than one kitchen chair. Mari’s suggestion of dealing with the problem of her ridiculous tiny kitchen was to get herself a larger and more modern apartment.
That would be an option, Rylee could certainly afford it, but she liked her old suite. The cracked linoleum in the kitchen didn’t bother her, it was easy to wash. And the cramped rooms made it less lonely. Besides, the place had given her refuge through the poor years when it was the only home she could afford. Now she was too busy solving cases, doing her job, to take time to apartment shop.
Hopping up on the counter, she crossed her legs like a ninja warrior in a yoga pose and waited. Not for long, because Mari was cranked and ready to blow.
“So, dummy, what happened? Has that creepy, old boss of yours, Agent Harrison, finally accepted what a hard worker you are? When is that man going to realize you’ve taken all the dangerous cases and solved them? Isn’t one bullet and a stabbing this year enough for that bastard? It’s only February after all.”
“Slow down, Mari. Take a breath. I can handle the danger; I’m fine. You know I like those thrill-seeking rushes.” Teasing her sis usually gave Rylee a lift. But then unwanted thoughts broke through. Word’s like “if you only knew” clamored and were stuffed back where they belonged – in Rylee’s past. She’d never told anyone about the day she’d begun to hate the human race… males in particular.
“Well, I’m not okay with your choice of lifestyle. It isn’t easy being the younger sister of a dare-devil idiot who has to be in the center of every newsworthy case of whackos and sick freaks running around Florida. That old goat’s not satisfied that on your last job you were kidnapped and held hostage for a week until they found you?”
“That was part of the set-up. We had to wait until the drug lord himself showed before we could make the grab. I knew the odds going in, Mari. It all worked out fine, right?”
Mari’s head dropped to her chest and she took a big gulp of wine, unlike her usual ladylike style. “I can’t understand it. We grew up in the same house with the same parents and had many of the same friends. Since there’s only two years between us, we were always together. And yet you turned into a thrill-seeking whacko, willing to take on all the most treacherous assignments.”
“While you now own a dress shop, became a makeup-wearing model of graceful gorgeousness and made a name for yourself here in Miami. Everyone who’s anyone buys their clothes at Mari’s downtown. You’re a licensed princess and you make me proud.”
“Stop with the butter. I’m still mad at you. How could you refuse to take on this cushy assignment?”
“That’s just it. He wouldn’t let me refuse.”
“Okay, then!” Mari’s eyes glowed, and she sat up straighter. “That’s good. And quit sneering. Think of me if you can’t be happy for yourself. I’ll be able to sleep those nights while you’re sailing the ocean blue. By the way, what is the job?”
Rylee couldn’t divulge much of the case except to give the bare bones explanation. If she told her worry-wart sister that she was to be the bodyguard for a billionaire who’s had death threats from the mafia, who’s been tailed by foreign agents that would resort to almost anything to get the details of his latest discovery, and who’s been stalked by an irrational jilted female, she might be less excited.