Table Of ContentKILLING 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–
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permission of the publisher.
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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.
