Deadly Seduction (New York State Trooper Series Book 6) Read online

  Table of Contents

  Deadly Seduction

  Copyright

  Dedication

  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

  Epilogue

  Excerpt from WHEN A STRANGER CALLS

  More Books By Jen Talty

  COMING SOON!

  About the Author

  Table of Contents

  Deadly Seduction

  Copyright

  Dedication

  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

  Epilogue

  Excerpt from WHEN A STRANGER CALLS

  More Books By Jen Talty

  COMING SOON!

  About the Author

  Deadly Seduction

  Book 6 in the NY State Trooper Series

  JEN TALTY

  Sign up for Jen’s Newsletter (http://eepurl.com/crLz6r) where she often gives away free books before publication.

  Join Jen’s private Facebook group (https://www.facebook.com/groups/191706547909047/) where she posts exclusive excerpts and discuss all things murder and love!

  Copyright

  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.

  Dark Water: New York State Troopers Series, Book Six

  COPYRIGHT © 2017 Jen Talty

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the author or Cool Gus Publishing except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

  Jupiter Press

  Dedication

  A special thank you to Casey Hagen. Just say no to squirt!

  To Jennifer Probst, Ray Craypo, and Jake and Josh Craypo, along with Kim Mervis Roach and Delaney Roach for letting me use the family names…Thank you!

  And to my awesome husband Mike. Thanks for giving me the beach to walk every morning so I can watch the sunrise and listen to the waves roll against the shore, giving me the inspiration for this book. I love you!

  Chapter 1

  Delaney Mervis couldn’t believe her bad luck when the man she’d been following decided to sit outside. Normally, sitting under the stars as they twinkled across the ripples of scenic lake during a warm summer evening would be a treat, but not tonight.

  Her phone vibrated, sending her stomach on a roll, twisting and churning. She didn’t check the text. She knew exactly who it was from, and what he wanted her to do.

  She ordered a glass of house white wine and a salad while pretending to be deep into a book on her Kindle. Not the best cover, but it kept people away so she could focus on figuring out how to turn herself into a seductress.

  A crowd gathered on the outdoor patio, which she thought odd for a Tuesday evening, but it was summer, and the village of Lake George, New York was known as a party place. She swallowed, tasting a mixture of fried, spicy foods, and beer. The party scene had never been her thing. An exciting night for her would be dinner and drinks with her best girlfriend…making it home by nine in the evening so she could read.

  Taking a sip of wine, enjoying the crisp pear taste, she looked across the deck at the seven men sitting at a table against the railing overlooking the water. She recognized one of them as the owner of the hotel where she’d reserved a room. A tall pitcher of beer, foaming at the top while beads of condensation rolled down the sides, stood in the center of the table with a plate of chicken wings, what looked like mozzarella sticks, and huge stack of cheesy chili nachos.

  Josh Burdett sat directly across from her, nursing his beer. Digging into her purse, she pulled out his picture, hiding it behind her Kindle. She’d thought him attractive, but his blond hair, square, dimpled jaw, sharp-high cheekbones, and plump, kissable lips went beyond the two-dimensional image between her fingertips. His piercing green eyes made it difficult for her to keep from staring, which could have been a good thing since she was trying to get his attention.

  She felt confident enough that men found her attractive since, on the rare occasion she went out to a bar, she would get hit on, but she had a rule about dating men she’d met in bars: she didn’t date them. Lately, she hadn’t dated at all.

  Setting her glass down, she poked at her salad, doing her best to keep the hot sexy trooper in her peripheral vision, hoping he had noticed the woman sitting alone, occasionally glancing in his direction. Her heart pounded, rattling her ribcage. If she did what the man with the Gray Eyes asked and seduced Josh, then maybe Gray Eyes wouldn’t kill her brother. Simple enough, right?

  Not.

  “How’s everything?” the waitress asked as she appeared beside the table.

  “Great,” Delaney said, studying the waitress. She looked familiar, but Delaney couldn’t figure out why. She probably just had that kind of face. “Can you bring me the check?”

  “More wine before I do that?”

  “One more glass, with the check,” Delaney said. Might as well have something to sip slowly, since she figured Josh and his friends might be awhile by the amount of beer and food one their table. Besides, she’d look silly at a table, reading a book, without at least a beverage. Plus, she could use it to spill on him. One way of getting a man’s attention. She shook her head. The art of seduction wasn’t her strong suit.

  Right after the waitress left, she snuck a glance in Josh’s direction, connecting with his sea-green eyes. She swallowed, unable to break eye contact.

  He tipped his glass, nodding.

  She flashed him her best smile, raising her glass, bringing it to her lips before lowering her head, focusing on the Kindle screen, breathing slowly while her pulse raced out of control. The information she’d been given indicated Josh was nearing his thirtieth birthday. Same age as her. He’d been a Trooper since graduating from the Academy at the age of twenty-two and had spent most of his career as a detective in the special crimes unit.

  The portrait that the man with Gray Eyes had built for Josh made him out to be a badass cop who abused his power. But when she looked at him, she saw only a young man with a boyish quality that made a woman want to curl up in his strong, powerful arms because he was the kind of man who would forever and always be her protector…and he’d love and worship her as if she were the most important person in the world.

  However, looks could be deceiving. She’d found that out the hard way.

  She swallowed her pride and stiffened her spine, noting that Josh continued to look her way even while engaged in conversation with his friends. That had to be a good sign.

  When the waitress returned, Delaney pushed aside her half-eaten salad, then quickly paid the bill. That way, she could sit and drink her second glass while she argued with herself that if the tables were turned and someone threatened to kill her, that her brother would go to any length to save her.

  The next twenty minutes dragged on for what seemed like an eternity before Josh and his frien
ds finally stood, shaking hands. Her fingers trembled as she closed her Kindle. Fumbling to stuff it in her purse, she dropped it on the floor. “Shit,” she muttered, collecting the rest of her things as the waitress made her way across the room with another glass of wine.

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t order that drink.” Delaney glanced toward the table where Josh had been. His buddies headed toward the parking lot, but Josh seemed to have disappeared. She couldn’t blow this chance. Not now.

  “I did,” a husky, deep voice said. “Thought we could have a drink together.” Josh stood in front of her, a fresh beer in his hand.

  The waitress set the glass on the table. “Let me know if I can get you anything else.”

  “Thanks,” Josh said.

  Delaney let out a long, slow breath, relieved and terrified at the same time.

  “I’m not usually this forward,” he said, “but we noticed each other, so thought I’d say hello.”

  “Hello,” she said, smiling, clutching her purse as if it would blow away in the slight breeze. “Please. Sit down.”

  Josh pulled out the spare chair at her table. His eyes sparkled in the moonlight. They were like a kaleidoscope, blending in various green shades and twisting in a few creamy brown tones. “Name is Josh Burdett.” He held out his hand.

  She took it in a firm handshake, hoping he didn’t notice her trembling hands. “Delaney. Nice to meet you.”

  “Are you from around here?”

  “No. I’m just here for a couple of weeks.” She hadn’t been the type of girl to look a man up and down, but Josh was nothing short of perfection with his thick biceps, broad shoulders, and… Heat spread across her face as she fantasized what his rock-hard six-pack abs looked like.

  “Vacation?”

  “Kind of a working vacation,” she said.

  “What, exactly, does that mean?” His voice had a soft, kind timbre, much like the breeze, but the undertone had a deep richness that might make the seduction easier.

  She blinked a few times, trying to break free from his captivating big eyes and sweet voice. “I’m a writer, and I’m here to finish my novel.” That sounded lame, and while she did want to finish a novel, she almost never told anyone, though she had no idea why.

  “Are you published?” he asked, leaning forward, elbows on the table, gaze locked with hers. At least he wasn’t staring at her non-existent boobs. Or maybe that was a bad thing?

  “Not yet.” Keep as much of the truth about yourself as you can. That’s what grey eyes had told her so, right before he reminded her what was at stake with an image of her brother’s beaten face. “The novel writing is a hobby. I hope to turn it into a paying gig sometime soon.”

  “So, what do you do…as a career?” He certainly had a lot of questions, which made her squirm.

  “I’m a copy editor for a publishing house.” So far, no lies. “What do you do?” she asked.

  “I’m a State Trooper.”

  “Impressive and dangerous. I bet exciting, too.” She did her best to act surprised by his profession while gauging his responses and body language. Judging by the way he pulled back a tad, he wasn’t into girls who thought his job was sexy, but what did she know about reading people? She’d thought Kirk was a nice guy, when he proved to be the biggest jerk she’d ever met.

  Josh smiled, flashing his perfectly straight white teeth. “Honestly, more than half my job is sitting in a patrol car or boat, waiting for something to happen, hoping nothing does, and wishing for the shift to be boring as hell, which I think is the complete opposite of why I became a Trooper in the first place.”

  “Did you join because you’re an adrenaline junkie?” What the hell kind of question was that? The gene that gave a woman the ability to flirt flawlessly with a man had passed her by.

  “Wouldn’t say that, but it was partly true when I signed up.” He swigged his beer. “But, I wanted to make a difference. Help people. Protect them.” Laughing, he shook his head. “This is a deep conversation for two people who just met.”

  “I’m always studying people from a distance. I like to try to figure out their story.”

  “Is that what you were doing earlier? Studying me?”

  “I was studying everyone.”

  “So, you weren’t just looking at me,” he said with an arched brow.

  She did her best to blush, letting her gaze drop to her lap. “No. Pretty much just you.”

  “Good to know. Do you want to go for a walk down to the water?” He pointed toward the long dock that extended off the restaurant into the lake.

  She tilted her head. “I’m not in the habit of going anywhere with strange men.”

  “Your profiling skills need work, because I’m not strange,” he said with a grin, then pointed to the other side of the deck. “The band is about to start, and it gets pretty loud, even sitting out here. We can bring our drinks. I can even have the waitress bring us down another round.”

  She bit down on her thumbnail, looking between him and the docks. There was nothing to contemplate, but she didn’t want him to think she was so eager and easy. She was willing to do whatever it took to save her brother, even if her brother didn’t deserve her loyalty.

  “It’s okay,” he said. “We can sit here and yell over the band.”

  “No, we can go for a walk.” She stood, tossing her purse over her shoulder, holding her drink in the other hand. “And since my hotel is just down the road and I walked, I just might have another.” She might need an entire bottle to make this happen.

  “After you.” He waved his hand out in front, then motioned to the waitress for another round.

  As they walked quietly through the gate off the deck, down a winding pathway, then onto the dock, she tried to come up with something that made Josh a bad man. He had to have an imperfection. Something to justify what she was about to do, otherwise she was nothing but a bitch, or worse…a whore.

  A boat hummed in the distance as small waves lapped against the break-wall. The smell of freshly cut flowers filled her nose. The quietness of this place made her want to go running back to the city. No matter how spectacular it was, it would forever be tainted for her now.

  “It’s really beautiful here,” she said once they reached the end of the pier. She kicked off her shoes and sat, dangling her bare feet in the water, a chilly contrast from the warmth of the alcohol. “It’s so different from any water I can see in New York City.”

  “Is that where you live?” He’d shed his shoes, and had just finished rolling up his jeans as he sat next to her. Even his calves were sexy.

  She nodded. “I lived in Brooklyn until I was twelve, then my father moved us upstate to Fishkill, which I hated. Then I went to college at Columbia, and I’ve lived right near campus ever since.” The silky water rolled off her feet as she kicked her legs back and forth, gently splashing the water. She glanced in his direction. The light from the moon hit his green eyes, making them look like gems. She cleared her throat. “Have you lived here your whole life?”

  “I’m actually from the Bronx. Lived there until about a year ago.”

  “Small world.”

  “It sure is,” he said.

  “Why did you leave?”

  “I was transferred, but I didn’t realize how much I hated it there until I came here.”

  “Why’d you hate it?” Shut up. You’re asking too many questions.

  “Cliché, but I felt like a fish out of water in the city,” he said.

  “And you don’t feel that way here?” Mentally, she slapped herself. Really, inquiring minds didn’t need to know.

  “You can breathe in this town and not have it taste like a combination of your neighbor’s three-day-old Chinese takeout and the taxicabs’ exhaust.”

  “I don’t know where you were living, but I love the smell of hot dogs and fresh pretzels on a cool fall day near Central Park.”

  “Hey, Josh,” called a woman’s voice as the dock vibrated. “I got your drinks.” The waitr
ess handed them to Josh.

  “Thanks, Viv.” He reached into his pocket, then pulled out his wallet. “What’s the damage?”

  “Fifteen.”

  He handed her a twenty. “Keep it. Thanks for bringing them down.”

  “I owed you one after what you did for me the other day. I would have lost my job before I even started it.”

  He shook his head. “It was nothing.”

  “Humble and modest, this one,” Viv said. “Tries to be the deep and brooding type, but really, he’s just the nice boy next door. You’re in good hands with him. I’ll check on you two in a bit.”

  “I think we’re good for the night,” Josh said.

  “Enjoy yourselves.” Viv winked, then turned and disappeared.

  “So, you’re a regular boy scout.” Delaney swallowed, reminding herself that she had horrible taste in men, and being attracted to this one meant he wasn’t what he seemed. Of course, that logic might help her do exactly what Gray Eyes wanted.

  “Just your average Joe Trooper.” He raised his bottle, tipping his head.

  “What did you do that earned such high praise and a wink from our waitress?”

  “Jealous?”

  She winked, wondering what the hell she was doing. As if she’d ever wink at anyone.

  His laugh rolled across the air like a feather in the wind. “She had a flat tire on the Thruway. She doesn’t have roadside assistance and couldn’t afford to pay someone to come out. She was starting her first day on the job here, so I did my job and changed her tire.”

  “Didn’t know tire changing was in the Trooper job description.”

  “Protect and serve. On my knees, getting my hands dirty. That was the serve part.”

  She burst out laughing, nearly spitting out the wine she’d managed to sip just as he spoke.

  “What’s so funny?”

  “Trust me, you don’t want to know.”

  “Did your mind just go to the gutter?” He leaned in, his green eyes dark.