The Housewife Assassin's Ghost Protocol (33 page)
Read The Housewife Assassin's Ghost Protocol Online
Authors: Josie Brown
Up there, Acme has a garden with a view of the ocean. Up there, the Acme family has celebrated weddings, births, and funerals.
Up there, for a moment we forget we are agents of death while we celebrate life.
Our version of a memorial service for Carl is a drinking game.
“Worst thing Carl ever did?” Ryan tosses out there. “Let me start: What about the time he killed all of the witnesses you found that could have sent him away for life?”
“Or when he left Donna to take the rap for Jonah Breck’s death,” Jack answers.
“Nope. It was when he tried to blow up a stadium of kids,” I declare.
“You win,” Jack and Ryan say in unison as they gulp down what’s left in their glasses.
Other questions have included:
Carl’s worst kill. (Hands down, it was the mother of his unborn child: Jack’s first wife, Valentina. Again, I win.)
Carl’s worst comment. (Despite the fact that there were too many to count, the winning answer was, “Maybe you should put your head between your legs. Better yet, put it between mine. That’ll make us both feel much better.” To me, of course.)
Carl’s worst act of vengeance. (Leaving me drugged, naked, and sunburned on a beach so that the SEAL Team 6 DevGro could find me—along with a suitcase filled with cash, making it appear as if I helped him plan his escape from Guantanamo Bay.)
You get the picture. I’ve won every round.
Lucky me. It’s left me stone cold sober.
Ryan’s phone buzzes. We are being summoned for the results.
I down my drink in one gulp and take a deep breath. I guess I’m ready.
Dawn nods. “Yes, it’s Carl Stone.”
I am both elated and saddened.
I want to cry, and I want to laugh.
Most of all, I want to be held by Jack.
He must have this desire too because he nods politely, takes my hand, and starts for the door. Ryan stops him in order to hand him something: a small vial holding Carl’s ashen remains.
It’s late afternoon. We are at the beach.
The sun slants low enough that the surf glistens as the waves roll in and out. We stand at the water’s edge, staring at the gauzy haze sitting over the horizon.
Jack hands me the jar of dusty gray powder—supposedly what is left of Carl, but I know better.
Carl is in Jeff’s profile and his laugh. He is in Mary’s deep green eyes and her will to survive at all costs. Trisha’s smile is Carl’s, and so is her sense of determination.
I think of the last time I saw Carl as his loving innocent wife: on the day Trisha was born. At the time, I reveled in the presumption that our future together was rock-solid; that we would share the rest of our lives together—
And our love would last as long as one of us still breathed.
I am that one.
I can’t remember when I stopped loving Carl. It’s been too long ago.
I can’t remember the day I first realized I loved Jack. It now seems like forever.
The wind goes still. I open the jar and fling its contents out to sea, knowing full well it will wash back my way.
Memories do that, too.
Carl will never leave me alone.
At least I have Jack to protect me from his ghost.
We turn from my past and walk toward our future.
— The End —
Next Up!
The Housewife Assassin’s
Terrorist TV Guide
(Book 14)
*Coming November 2016*
Housewife assassin Donna Stone must be more than just ready for her close-up if she’s to infiltrate a television reality show in order to stop the broadcast of a live terrorist attack.
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NOVELS IN THE
HOUSEWIFE ASSASSIN SERIES
The Housewife Assassin’s
Handbook
Every desperate housewife wants an alias. Donna Stone has one … and it happens to be government-sanctioned. But Donna earned it the hard way. Her husband was killed the day she delivered their third child. To avenge her husband's murder, Donna leads a secret life: as an assassin. But espionage makes for strange bedfellows, and brings new meaning to that old adage, "Honey, I'm home..."
A nuclear arms summit, hosted by a politically connected billionaire industrialist, provides the perfect opportunity for a rogue operative to assassinate the newly elected Russian president, on American soil. Donna Stone’s mission: seek and exterminate the shooter before all hell–and World War III–breaks out. Also on Donna’s to-do list: file for divorce. Throw in a couple of killer play dates and a few naughty neighbors, and you’ve got a whole lot of fun.
’Tis the season for murder, mayhem and mistletoe! There will be no peace on Earth if Donna and Jack don’t find a shipping container filled with heat-seeking missiles. Forget Santa! Terror is coming to town…
In the fourth full-length novel #4 of Josie Brown's Housewife Assassin series, contract assassin Donna Stone's idea of a perfect relationship? A man she can trust in any situation. Yes, breaking up is hard to do. Then again, so is breaking out of a Mexican prison, and stopping a massacre by an international terrorist cell. So, how do you mend a broken heart? Donna finds out–the hard way. And FYI: falling in love with a married man isn't heart smart. Then again, neither is dating a terrorist. But when an old love gets in the way of Donna's chance for true love, she doesn't cry. She gets even.
