Excerpt from Book 3 of the HOUSEWIFE ASSASSIN Series: Famous Last

- Will Donna ever be able to love and trust again, despite the betrayal she felt over Carl's lies and deception?

- And will she and Jadk find the missing intel on its agents and assets before the Quorum gets it?

As these two scenes in particular demonstrate, setting Book 3 during the holiday season allowed me to test Donna's faith: in herself, in her core values, and in her fellow beings.

Enjoy,

-- Josie

EXCERPT

“So, how old were you when you had your first kiss?”

Jack’s question almost has me swerving off the road.

The decision to take his car was probably a smart one because we may need a quick getaway, and my mommy-mobile doesn’t have the same zero-to-sixty pick-up as Jack’s Lamborghini. The decision for me to drive also makes sense, since he may have to be running like hell carrying a shoulder-launched missile, and won’t have time to fumble for his keys.

His decision to play Twenty-one Questions may be one he regrets, should we crash.

To ensure we don’t, I hold tight to the steering wheel and keep my eyes straight ahead. Not because he’s shocked me, but because I’d hate for him to see that my face has turned candy apple red.

“Let’s just say I was old enough.”

“Come on, answer the question honestly.”

“Will you do the same?”

“Absolutely. Cross my heart.”

I sigh. “Okay. I was fifteen. And yes, the boy broke my heart.”

He laughs.

“What’s so funny?”

“I was worried you hadn’t been kissed until college.”

“You take too much stock in what Aunt Phyllis says. She’s under the impression I was as pure as driven snow until Carl and I… well, until I was married.”

“So Carl wasn’t your first either?” He’s trying so hard to act nonchalant.

“To be perfectly honest, not only wasn’t he my first, he wasn’t my even ‘best’.”

Jack’s sly smile presumes soooo much. But in a flash, his smile is gone.

“At this juncture in our relationship, I think I need to tell you… Oh never mind.”

I guess this is where I hear some soul-searching blather about Valentina. I brace myself for the worst. “Don’t be such a tease. Just come out and say it.”

“I don’t know if you want to hear this.”

“Well, guess what? You won’t know if you don’t tell me, so spit it out.”

“I love you.”

I take a deep breath. “Ditto.”

He laughs. “Well, that’s romantic.”

“Let’s save the romance until after we save the world, shall we?”

“I’m glad one of us has our priorities in order.” He stares out the window. It’s already dark, so there is not much to look at. “Then I guess this is also a bad time to ask you to marry me.”

I screech off onto the shoulder of the road, and turn off the engine. As much as I like having a thousand horsepower engine at my fingertips, I’d be disappointed if a knee-jerk reaction came between me and my happily ever after.

“You now have my complete attention,” I murmur sweetly.

“I’m asking if you’ll marry me.” He picks up my hand. When his fingers wrap around mine, I wonder why I’d ever let go.

Then the answer hits me—to get to our final destination in one piece.

“Why now, Jack? And why here?”

“Why not?” He turns to face me, but his features are hidden in shadows, only revealing themselves in the fleeting headlights of passing cars. “There will always be some crisis to overcome. Some more… bullshit, somewhere in the world.”

Some bad guys to kill. Some long-buried secret to rear its ugly head.

Some deserting spouse to confront.

Which reminds me, “We’re both still married.”

He shrugs. “So let’s go to Vegas and set things straight.”

He makes me laugh. “I like the Bellagio.” I look down into my lap. “I guess you’re over Valentina in a big way.”

He doesn’t nod. He just looks straight ahead.

His silence speaks volumes.

If only he’d lied and said, “Yes, of course I am! What do you take me for, a fool?”

But no, I’m the fool. For presuming he’s over her, just because she’s over him.

“When she saw me, she told me Carl wasn’t in love with her. That he was still in love with me.” I can’t help myself. I have to say it to him, to see if it makes a difference to him.

His mouth tightens. “Do you believe her?”

“What, about Carl? Ha! You said it best. The only one Carl truly loves is himself, and the power he’s able to grab from who knows where.”

“Then, why won’t he leave you alone?”

“Because he can’t have me. Because I love you instead.”

There. I’ve said it.

I restart the engine and it roars back to life. “We’ve got a date with a stolen missile. Let’s do this,” I say as Jack’s Lamborghini leaps back onto the road.

We drive the remaining few miles in silence.

Is enough for him to truly love me back? Or now, having been told Valentina never really had Carl’s affections, will he try to win her back?

I know I’ll have to wait for his answer—

“We’re here,” he murmurs.

So we are, I think coming out of my fog.

Saved by the bomb.

I pull into the far side of the parking lot, out of view from the reception area, where the security guard is parked in front of an old big screen TV that must have been confiscated from an abandoned storage unit.

“Break a leg,” I say as he climbs out of the car.

He shuts the car door before he hears me whisper, “And yes, I’ll marry you.”

Maybe it’s for the best. Let’s face it. My answer doesn’t count if he’s already changed his mind.

****

In life, just about everything is timing.

If I hadn’t been at a certain shooting range on a certain Spring break during college, I would have never met Carl.

If I hadn’t been in the bedroom to answer his cell while he was in the shower one day, I would not have set into motion the chain of events that would have made him realize he needed to disappear from the life we’d created together.

If Acme hadn’t been looking for a few honeypots right about the time they yanked Carl’s pension from me, I would’ve taken a job as an assistant at a bank, or made time to be a class mom, instead of collecting a rogue’s gallery of scalps on my belt.

And if Jack hadn’t brought Carl home with him after one mission went awry, Valentina would never have fallen in love with Carl, and left Jack for him.

None of this I regret. Because if none of it had happened, I would have never have met Jack.

What I do regret, however, as Safe & Sound’s Storage Unit Number 121 blows off the back wing of the building, is that Jack never heard me say “Yes” when he asked me to marry him.

I run past the security guard, who stumbles out of the building in a total state of shock and denial. Deadly blasts are way above his pay scale of fourteen dollars an hour.

“Where is the man who just went in there?” I shout at him “Did he make it out?”

He shakes his head and cups his ear, to indicate he hasn’t heard a word I’ve said.

I pull him far away from the debris field, which is scattered far and wide. Coats and dresses and pants float through the air like cloth clouds, while bed frames pinwheel through the parking lot. Family photos float down from the night sky in a storm of confetti.

People hold onto too much crap.

If something is important in your life, you’ll make room for it.

I hear ambulances in the distance, heading this way. I don’t have much time if I’m going to find Jack. What if he’s injured and can’t get out by himself?

I run into the building and down the main hall, but I can’t see which way to turn because the smoke pouring out is too thick, and worse, smells like melted plastic. I can’t breathe. My lungs are on fire.

I’m crazy to think Jack has survived the explosion.

As I pass out, the only thing I can think of is how I wish I’d been with Jack at the very end.