Fortune Hunter (A Miss Fortune Mystery Book 8)
Jana DeLeon
Preface
If you’ve never read a Miss Fortune mystery, you can start with LOUISIANA LONGSHOT, the first book in the series. If you prefer to start with this book, here are a few things you need to know.
Fortune Redding – a CIA assassin with a price on her head from one of the world’s most deadly arms dealers. Because her boss suspects that a leak at the CIA blew her cover, he sends her to hide out in Sinful, Louisiana, posing as his niece, a librarian and ex–beauty queen named Sandy-Sue Morrow.
Ida Belle and Gertie – served in the military in Vietnam as spies, but no one in the town is aware of that fact except Fortune and Deputy LeBlanc.
Sinful Ladies Society – local group founded by Ida Belle, Gertie, and deceased member Marge. In order to gain membership, women must never have married or if widowed, their husband must have been deceased for at least ten years.
Sinful Ladies Cough Syrup – sold as an herbal medicine in Sinful, which is dry, but it’s actually moonshine manufactured by the Sinful Ladies Society.
Foreword
A catfish is a person who creates a false identity on social media and uses it to deceive others into online romances. The term was popularized by an MTV show by the same name, created by Yaniv “Nev” Schulman, who with his brother’s assistance, made a documentary of the search for the true identity of his online girlfriend.
Chapter 1
I opened my eyes long enough to glare at Ida Belle from my prone position on the couch, then shut them again and flopped over, turning my back to her. I heard her sigh.
“You can’t stay on this couch forever,” Ida Belle said. “The EPA is going to condemn it unless you get up and shower, at least. You’ve been wearing the same clothes for two days.”
“Three,” I mumbled, “but who’s counting?”
“Gertie and me, for starters.”
If I tried really hard, I knew I could force myself back to sleep, but I also knew that Ida Belle would still be there when I woke up. After the big showdown where Ahmad escaped again, and my breakup with Carter, Ida Belle and Gertie had alternated between checking in and giving me space, but now that five days had lapsed and I had yet to leave my house, they were starting to get bossy. I imagined it was only going to get worse from here, and there was a lot of summer left. I really didn’t want to spend it pretending to sleep.
Adding to my general malaise was the fact that Ally’s kitchen remodel was finally completed three days before and she’d moved back into her own home. I’d always known I would miss her cooking when she left, but I hadn’t realized how much I’d grown to enjoy just having someone around for general complaining or to watch a late-night movie and have a beer. Unless Ida Belle and Gertie were there, the house sounded eerily quiet. Even Merlin had taken to spending more time sleeping outside and less time hounding me for cat treats.
“Fine,” I said as I rolled over and sat upright.
Ida Belle sat on the end of the coffee table and gave me a critical eye. “You look like hell. When was the last time you ate?”
“When Gertie made me.”
“That was yesterday afternoon. It’s almost lunchtime. Aren’t you hungry?”
I shrugged. “Maybe. I don’t know.”
Ida Belle’s expression shifted from the slightly aggravated parental look to sympathetic. “I know this has been hard for you—dealing with things you’re not used to. But as much as we both wish it weren’t the case, the reality is you can’t lie here on the couch and wish it all away.”
I knew she was right, but somehow it didn’t seem fair. I’d never experienced this kind of angst before, even when my mother died. I was devastated at losing her, of course, but I think both the finality of the situation and my young age factored into my ability to move forward. Although looking back, I wasn’t completely sure I’d moved forward so much as I had stepped onto the path my father had carved and never once looked outside the lines to form my own thoughts about my life and future.
Now all those lines were blurred, and my future was a big dark blob of uncertainty.
I looked at Ida Belle, trying to decide whether I should say what I was thinking, especially as I thought it sounded weak. Before I could change my mind, I rushed into it. “As strange as this is going to sound to someone who knows the real me, falling for Carter is the riskiest thing I’ve ever done.”
And it was something I knew I should have avoided. Getting involved with a local deputy when you’re undercover and can’t even reveal your true identity is always a bad idea. It becomes a disaster when you blow your cover and he realizes you’ve been lying the entire time.