Page 1 of One More Chance

Chapter One

Phoenix, Arizona

Friday, 11:13 pm

Kenna raced up the last couple of steps and pushed the bar on the door to get out onto the roof. Desert wind blew at her face, sending her hair back. She slid a hair tie off her wrist and secured it all in a ponytail. She needed to focus, not worry about tangled hair in her face at the wrong moment—or why she was far more winded than she should be from running up eight flights of stairs.

She couldn’t worry about that right now. Her problems could cost someone their life.

Terri Fleming stood at the far end of the rooftop, shrouded by the night sky and backlit by the city skyline. Kenna strode over there, trying to make some noise so the woman wasn’t startled. If that happened, then she wouldn’t be jumping, she’d have fallen because of Kenna.

She stopped about ten feet behind Terri, who stood on the ledge that was meant to keep people from falling. “Ms. Fleming.” She kept her voice soft.

Terri’s white blouse fluttered around her in the breeze. She had on tan linen pants and black ballet flats. “Don’t come any closer!” Her short salt-and-pepper hair didn’t get in her eyes, which meant she could likely see the crowd gathering below.

People out late downtown, probably after an evening of drinking. Now most had their phones out, and a few were yelling, “Jump! Jump!” Which just made Kenna want to throw something down there to get them to disburse. Instead, she said, “Terri, can we talk about this?”

“What’s to talk about? It’s over!”

Kenna took a step closer to her, already sweating even though she was dressing for the weather now. It was so hot in Arizona she didn’t have much of a choice. She’d opted for chino shorts and a white graphic tee, over which she had on a thin, short-sleeved salmon-colored jacket that wasn’t meant to be buttoned or zippered. Its only function was to hide the holstered weapon at the small of her back, among other self-defense items that were on her person. Converse on her feet, of course. She never knew when she’d have to run up several flights of stairs to convince a woman in a bad spot not to jump off a roof. No point being caught in sandals or heels.

“If you’re still standing it isn’t over.” Kenna took another step toward her.

In the distance, she heard police sirens. Flashing lights reflected off a building a block or two down the street. Cops. Probably firefighters and an ambulance as well, because everyone had a part to play in resolving a situation like this.

But Kenna was the one who was here right now.

“I mean it, Terri. It isn’t over until you’ve given up, and how does that help set the record straight?”

“I’m the one who designed this building. Marshal stole everything from me. He took my design, claimed it was his, and never once mentioned that he was starting his own business withmydesign.”

Meanwhile, Terri had been skimming from the business she and Marshal Hapsworth had started together. Funding a lavish lifestyle and healthy savings accounts while her regular paycheck went to funding her retirement at hyperspeed. Instead of turning her in, Marshal had double-crossed her and opted to play the long game of revenge.

For five years, he’d been secretly running a competing business solo. Getting this building up and running. Callously undermining Terri, because she’d been skimming from him, by constructing a building she’d designed in a part of the city where Ms. Fleming never traveled to as part of her daily routine.

As soon as she’d realized what Marshal had done, she’d also realized she couldn’t go to the cops. She’d hired Kenna under the guise of preparing to sue her business partner and needing evidence to prove her case.

It hadn’t taken Kenna long to figure out what was really going on.

Kenna watched the first cop car round a corner onto this street. The crowd below started to yell louder. Because they knew the situation would be resolved soon? They wanted their live stream to go viral with something epic—a woman tumbling to her death—before the cops shut the whole thing down.

“Terri, we can’t prove what Marshal did if you take your own life.”

“I’ll go to jail for embezzling from the company.”

“But you won’t get justice,” Kenna said. “No one will know that you designed this amazing building. We might be able to talk to the prosecutor about a reduced sentence. You know I used to work in law enforcement. I have contacts, even here.”She wasn’t going to mention that her new husband was the Special Agent in Charge at the Phoenix FBI office. “I can help you get through this, but you have to trust me, Terri.”

The cops would be up here in minutes.

Unfortunately, the wrong cop could send this whole situation sideways fast.

She tugged off her jacket and laid it on the ground, then pulled her weapon and its holster from the back of her belt, which she put on the jacket. Fully visible. Making it immediately evident she was now unarmed. She took two steps to the side so she was out of reach of the weapon.

Kenna could hear the cops coming up the stairs, pounding feet and loud conversation.

A second before the door opened, she spread her hands out to the sides so that they would see right away that she had no weapon in her grasp.

The door flung back and hit the wall.

---