Deadly Services: An Ian & Merideth Investigation: The Girl in the River, #2

By Reese Patton

 When Falling in Love Gets Buried in the Lead...

Ian Stirling, publisher of the Daily Herald, refuses to acknowledge his growing feelings for Merideth. But when she starts her first week at the Daily Herald as Ian's fake girlfriend and the story of a lifetime falls into her lap, he can't bury his feelings any longer.

They have five more days according to their agreement, when the story steals her attention away from Ian.

A missing woman with ties to Ian and his friend. A mysterious foreign visitor. A young woman possibly in danger. While Merideth worries about the story, Ian worries about Merideth's safety.

Can Ian hide his feelings? Or will he finally stop burying the lede and tell Merideth everything?

Deadly Services delivers a sexy and suspenseful serial. Perfect for when you want a sassy story but don't have a lot of time. Read the second part of The Girl in the River while it's Hot!

• Language: English
• Publisher: VAB Sassy Crime Stories
• Release date: Jan 14, 2018
• ISBN: 9781386860532

Book preview

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Deadly Services

The Girl in the River Book 2

BY REESE PATTON

The Barnes Family

The Rebound

The Rescue - Coming Soon

Immaculate Reception

The One with all the Thanksgiving Turkeys - Coming Soon

The One with All the Christmas Trees

Copperwood

Dirt

Pick

Honor - Coming Soon

Ian & Merideth Investigations

The Girl in the River

Deadly Proposal - Book One

Deadly Services - Book Two

Deadly Protection - Book Three

Deadly Retreat - Book Four

Deadly Confession - Book Five

Stand Alone Novels

Ties that Bind

Visit www.ReesePattonBooks.com and sign up for Reese’s Newsletter to gain access to exclusive content, free stories, and much more!

VoxAmoris Sassy Crime Stories

Published by VoxAmoris Sassy Crime Stories an imprint of VoxAmoris Books

This book is an original publication of VoxAmoris Books.

Copyright © Reese Patton, 2017

Originally published as Girl in the River - Page Two

VoxAmoris Books supports copyright. Thank you for buying an authorized edition of this book and for complying with copyright laws by not reproducing, scanning, or distributing any part of it in any form without permission. By purchasing this book, you are supporting writers and allowing Publisher Name to continue to publish books.

For more information about Reese Patton, visit ReesePattonBooks.com.

Identifiers: ISBN 9781948603034 (ebook) | ISBN 9781948603041 (paperback)

Cover art: images depositphotos.com.

Cover design by R Patton

PUBLISHER’S NOTE

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

In Journalism, there has always been a tension between getting it first and getting it right.

Ellen Goodman

Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Deadly Protection Preview

One

Ian stood in the rear of the Daily Herald elevator with Merideth next to him and his friends in a protective position in front of them. Her phone rang out a familiar blues song breaking the near silence within the elevator. The four men in front of her turned their heads and stared at her singing bag.

Merideth reached into the side pocket and drew out her phone. When a frown slipped across her full lips, Ian almost ripped the phone from her hands, but he resisted the urge. The call must have passed through to her voicemail because she didn’t answer it.

Who is it? Ian finally satisfied his desire to be informed and questioned her.

No idea. Merideth shrugged and tucked the phone back into the pocket.

He didn’t care for that answer. But Ian couldn’t discern if he didn’t like that she didn’t recognize who was calling her or that she might know who called, but didn’t want to tell him. Either explanation annoyed him.

Before he could reply, the elevator doors opened, and she moved ahead of Ian into the editorial room. Merideth hadn’t seen it yet, and Ian wanted to be in front her. He wanted to watch her face as she absorbed all the minor details regular visitors took for granted. His grandfather refused to alter anything about the room from when the building was first erected, and Ian honored the tradition.

He hurried over to Merideth as she looked around the room. Her response didn’t disappoint him. Merideth ran her hands over the surface of the octagonal table and gasped at the sight of the book-lined walls of the room. Everything about the editorial room was the antithesis of a corporate setting.

Ian was surprised when she sat down without him requesting it. Although, she probably wanted to study each of the books and only sat down so she wasn’t caught pulling the books off the shelves. When a journalist or editor published a book, Ian or his grandfather added it to a shelf in a private ceremony with the author. The room wasn’t just where the editors met and discussed the stories for the week, it was also a shrine to their hard work, dedication, and skill.

As the editors filed into the room, they all looked at Merideth, and then to Jason. Jason shook his head, stopping any questions from being asked. Wallace entered the room last and sat in one of the chairs against the wall. The first lesson Wallace ever taught Ian about the newspaper business was that publishers never dictated over editorial. The editors’ meeting was for the editors and the publisher sitting in on it was a privilege for the publisher, not the editors.

Ian only sat in on the Monday meetings and did it primarily so he wouldn’t be surprised by anything. Wallace accepted Ian’s tradition, and might have even agreed with it, but his grandfather never said as much.

The meeting covered the usual topics, and Ian ignored them all. Not that he planned to. In fact he prepared to have the editors lay out the week ahead for him, but he couldn’t stop thinking about the woman sitting next to him.

It didn’t help when she reached around him and tapped his grandfather’s knee. And then she passed his grandfather a note! An actual note. Like they were back in grade school. He prepared himself for a chastising look from his grandfather, but the old man read the note, smiled, and nodded over him at Merideth. It was as though Ian wasn’t even there.

When Jason first brought Merideth to his office on Friday, the last thing Ian expected was to be walking into the building with her on Monday morning. She was combative, and smart, and had an opinion about everything. And to add to it, she looked amazing in the dress Jason bought her for Friday night. So amazing, he didn’t want anyone else looking at her.

Ian had thought he’d need to keep men closer his age away from Merideth, not his own grandfather. But Wallace surprised them all by liking Merideth. He wasn’t supposed to. That was part of the plan. Wallace Stirling should have told Ian that Merideth wasn’t good enough for him. The old man should have demanded Ian break it off and then left them in peace until Ian’s next fling sold her story to the highest bidder.

The editors finished with their meeting. The only reason Ian knew as much was because they all stood up from the table and milled around, waiting for Ian to say something.

Sounds good. If anything changes, let me know. Ian had no idea what he was approving or agreeing to. When no one protested, he figured his response was appropriate.

Ian stood