To Catch a Bad Guy
by Marie
Astor
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BLURB:
Janet
Maple is convinced that her life could not get any worse: her stellar career at
the DA’s office ended with a lay off and her boyfriend of five years told her
that he wants to be just friends. When she lands a job at one of New York’s
premier boutique investment firms, Janet begins to hope that her luck is
finally turning for the better. Not only is she happy with her new paycheck,
but things also seem to be looking up on the personal front, as the company’s
handsome attorney expresses keen interest in Janet. However, her euphoria is
short-lived, as Janet soon discovers alarming facts about her new employer’s
business tactics. When her boss dismisses her suspicions as groundless, Janet
finds herself confiding to a cute IT engineer, Dean Snider. The closer she gets
to Dean, the more Janet is tempted to break her rule of not dating co-workers,
but what she doesn’t realize is that everything she knows about Dean, including
his occupation and even his name, is a lie.
Dennis
Walker is a top-notch white collar crime investigator who will stop at nothing
to put culprits away. When an opportunity for an undercover assignment at one
of New York’s premier boutique broker dealers comes up, Dennis jumps at the
chance, adopting a persona of geeky IT engineer, Dean Snider. While he may be
an ace at his job, years of experience fail him when Dennis meets Janet Maple
and finds himself torn between his professional obligations and his personal
desires. Will he have to choose between his feelings and duty, or will he find
a way to satisfy both?
On Monday morning Janet sat in her
office, tallying up the results of the weekend, which even taking her most
humiliating adolescent memories into account had been the most embarrassing
weekend of her life. Blankly staring into her computer screen, Janet compiled a
mental list of all the indignities she had endured in the past two days:
attending an engagement party as the only single guest under the age of fifty –
check, being harassed by your friend’s mother regarding your appearance –
check, being badgered by the same friend’s relatives about your personal life –
check, and last, but by far not the least, becoming an unwitting object of lust
of a formerly puny, sex-obsessed teenage pest, who had turned into a much
better looking, but still equally sex-obsessed man.
“Am I interrupting anything?” Lisa
sauntered into Janet’s office.
“Oh, no, I was just looking through some
regulatory updates.” Janet mastered a vague enough excuse.
Lisa rolled her eyes, indicating that
such a subject was not worthy of her interest. “Janie, I’m so sorry about the
party. What a jerk Andrew turned out to be! I meant to call you on Sunday, but
Paul and I were busy looking at catering venues.”
“How did you hear about what happened
with Andrew?”
“The prick had the nerve to complain to
me about it. He got all upset about me dragging him out for nothing.
Apparently, my engagement is not worthy of his attention; he also had to score
with you.”
Janet’s irritation spiked. Lisa’s
narcissism was unending. Never mind that courtesy of Lisa, Janet had been pawed
by Lisa’s sleazoid cousin in the middle of nowhere; in the end, Lisa was still
the victim.
“What exactly did you tell Andrew about
me, Lisa?”
Lisa fiddled with her blazer. “Oh,
nothing much. That you were going to be at my party…”
“Are you sure? Then how come he knew
about me being single? He also used the word ‘desperate.’”
“Oh, I might have mentioned that you
were single, but I never said a word about desperation. Clearly, you have no
reason to be desperate.”
There it was again: Lisa’s old trick of
switching the tables on you, but this time Janet was not budging. “Do me a
favor, Lisa, stop setting me up on dates.”
“Not to worry. Your personal life is now
solely in your capable hands. Rest assured, there will be no interference from
poor, sloppy me.” Lisa cocked her head as she began to slowly exit Janet’s
office.
Janet guessed from Lisa’s measured walk
that she was awaiting an apology, but remained silent. Her boss or not, there
was a limit as to how much humiliation one person was allowed to inflict upon
another.
Lisa stopped short before exiting
through the door, and Janet’s heart lurched. Could it be that Lisa was going to
apologize? That would be an unprecedented occurrence worthy of the Guinness
Book of World Records.
“Oh, and I almost forgot, I’m going to
look at wedding dresses next weekend. I expect you to be there.”
AUTHOR Bio and Links:
Marie
Astor is the author of contemporary romance novels Lucky Charm, On the Rim of
Love, This Tangled Thing Called Love, romantic suspense novel, To Catch a Bad Guy, and a short story
collection, A Dress in a Window.
If you
would like to find out more about Marie’s books, please visit Marie at her website: www.marieastor.com.
Books
by Marie Astor:
Marie will be giving away five prizes of custom made jewelry to randomly drawn commenters during the tour(Continental US only):
Prize 1: Agate and labradorite necklace with sterling silver accents
Prize 2: Smoky Quartz sterling silver plated necklace
Prize 3: Multi-quartz sterling silver plated necklace
Prize 4: Gray quartz, carnelian and onyx sterling silver plated necklace
Prize 5: Aventurine necklace with sterling silver plated accents