About A Dangerous Game
Hardcover: 336 pages
Publisher: MIRA (March 13, 2018)
TROUBLE ALWAYS FINDS HER…
Wrapping up a normal day at the office, criminal psychologist Kieran Finnegan is accosted by a desperate woman who shoves an infant into her arms and then flees, only to be murdered minutes later on a busy Manhattan street.
Who was the woman? Where did the baby come from? Kieran can’t stop thinking about the child and the victim, so her boyfriend, Craig Frasier, does what any good special agent boyfriend would do—he gets the FBI involved. And asks Kieran to keep out of it.
But the Finnegans have a knack for getting into trouble, and Kieran won’t sit idle when a lead surfaces through her family’s pub. Investigating on her own, she uncovers a dangerous group that plays fast and loose with human lives and will stop at nothing to keep their secrets—and they plan to silence Kieran before she can expose their deadly enterprise.
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.About Heather Graham
New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Heather Graham has written more than a hundred novels. She’s a winner of the RWA’s Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Thriller Writers’ Silver Bullet. She is an active member of International Thriller Writers and Mystery Writers of America. For more information on Heather and her work, check out her websites:
TheOriginalHeatherGraham.com, eHeatherGraham.com, and HeatherGraham.tv. You can also find Heather on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.
Excerpt
CHAPTER
ONE
“KIERAN? KIERAN
FINNEGAN, RIGHT?” THE WOMAN ASKED.
She was
wrapped in a black trench coat, wore a black scarf that nearly engulfed her
face, and held a dark blanketed bundle against her chest as if it were the
greatest treasure in the world.
Kieran
wasn’t sure when the woman had come in; the offices of psychologists Fuller
and Miro were closed for the day, the doctors were gone, and Kieran had just
about left herself. The receptionist, Jake, usually locked the office door on
his way out, but apparently tonight he had neglected to do so. Then again, Jake
might have already left when Kieran’s last patient had exited a little while
ago. Whether Jake had been gone or he had forgotten to lock up, the door had
been left open.
And so
this woman accosted Kieran in the reception area of the office just as she was
on her way out.
“I am
Kieran, but I’m so sorry, I’m the therapist, not one of the doctors. Actually,
we are closed for the day. You’ll need to come back. Both the doctors are
wonderful, and I’m sure they’ll be happy to see you another time.”
And
this woman certainly looked like she needed help. Her eyes were huge and as
dark as the clothing she was wearing as she stared at Kieran with a look of
despair.
“All
right, let me see what I can do. You seem distraught,” Kieran said, and
winced—wow. Stating the obvious. “I can get you to a hospital. I can call for
help—”
“No.
No.” The woman suddenly thrust the bundle she’d held so closely into Kieran’s
arms. “Here!”
Kieran
instinctively accepted it. Reflex? She wasn’t sure why.
It
began to cry. And writhe. Of course.
The bundle was a baby.
“Ma’am,
please— Hey!” Kieran protested.
The
woman had turned and was fleeing out the door. “Wait! Hey!” Kieran cried. She
reached immediately for the phone, hoping that she’d be in time to reach the
building’s security desk.
Ralph
Miller answered the phone at the lobby desk. “Hey, pretty girl. What are you
still doing at work? I’ve got a few hours to go, and then I am out of here. I
hear that the Danny Boys are playing at Finnegan’s tonight. Can’t believe your
brother snagged them. I would have thought that you’d have gotten out early—”
“Ralph, listen, please! There’s a woman who
was just up here, and she ran out. Can you stop her from leaving the building?”
The baby
wailed in earnest.
“What?”
“There’s
a woman in black—”
“In
black, yeah. She just left.”
“Stop
her—catch her! Now.”
“I
can’t hear you, Kieran. I hear a baby crying. A baby! Whose baby is it?”
“Ralph!
Get out in the street and get that woman!”
“What?”
“Go
catch that woman!”
“Oh!
Gotcha! I’m gone.”
She
hung up, then quickly dialed 9-1-1.
Emergency
services probably couldn’t move quickly enough to help, since no matter how
quickly they arrived, the woman was already on the run.
She was
running on the busy streets of New York City where rush hour was a swarm of
humanity in which to get completely lost. But Kieran still explained the
situation, where she was. The operator was efficient; cops would quickly be
out. Child Services would arrive.
But no
matter. The woman would get away.
Kieran
tried to hold and rock and soothe the baby while dialing Craig Frasier.
If you
were living with an FBI agent, it made sense to call him under such
circumstances, especially since he—like Ralph—would want to know why she was working
so late when the Danny Boys were playing at Finnegan’s. To Craig, it was still
a normal night—and a Friday night! A nice, normal Friday night—something that
would be very nice to enjoy, given their chosen professions.
“Hey,
Kieran,” Craig said. “Are you already at the pub?”
She
apparently wasn’t good at rocking and soothing and trying to talk on the phone
all at the same time. The baby was still crying. Loudly.
“No,
I—”
“Whose
kid is that? I can’t hear a word you’re saying!”
“I’m
still at work. Can you come over here, now, please?”
“Uh—yeah,
sure.”
Kieran
hung up the phone. She didn’t know what Ralph was doing; she didn’t know where
the police were. She glanced down at the baby as she hurried from the office,
ready to hit the streets herself. How old was the tiny creature? It was so
small!
Yet—nice
lungs!
Was
the woman in black the mother?
She had
looked older. Perhaps fifty. Too old for an infant.
Ralph
wasn’t at the desk; Kieran heard sirens, but as yet no police had arrived.
Bursting
out onto the New York City rush hour sidewalk, she looked right and left.
There, far down the block, she thought she saw the woman.
“Hey!”
Kieran shouted.
Despite
the pulsing throng of humanity between them, the woman heard her. She turned.
There
was something different about her now.
The way
she moved. The way she looked, and the expression on her face.
She
didn’t try to run. She just stared at Kieran, and then seemed to stagger toward
her.
Kieran
clutched the screaming infant close to her breast and thrust her way through
the people; luckily, she was a New Yorker, and she knew how to push through a
rush hour crowd when necessary.
The
woman was still staggering forward. Kieran was closing the gap.
“Listen,
I’ll help you, I’ll help the baby! It’s all right…”
It
wasn’t in any way all right.
The
woman lurched forward, as if she would fall into Kieran’s arms, if Kieran had
just been close enough.
She
wasn’t.
The
woman fell face-first down onto the sidewalk.
That’s
when Kieran saw the knife protruding from the woman’s back and the rivulets of
blood suddenly forming all around her and joining together to create a crimson
pool.
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