Dangerous Revenge - FBI Affairs series - Book 2 by Suzanne Baginskie

Special Agent Diane Emerson seemingly has it all: A successful career with the FBI, a close-knit relationship with her twin sister, and deep ties to her city of residence, Allentown, Pennsylvania. When her sister goes missing, Diane’s life is turned upside-down. As horrible as this is, other women are disappearing as well. Diane discovers the tentacles of embedded evil and a thick trail of cybercrime and murder.

When her ex-flame, Agent Alex Kane, is transferred to Allentown, Diane now has to add affairs of the heart to her worry list. But when she herself becomes a target, the affairs of the heart will have to wait as Diane and Alex fight to uncover these malevolent forces—malevolent forces that could wind up killing her.

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EXCERPT

Sunday evening around midnight, Special Agent Diana Emerson’s iPhone played a couple of bars of “Live and Let Die”. Aroused from a deep sleep, she grabbed the cell from her nightstand. At this hour, only the dispatcher from FBI’s Fraud and Cyber Crime Division or her boss, Director Owens would contact her. No one called this late, not even telemarketers.

“Agent Emerson,” she answered.

“Diana, I need your help.” Her twin sister’s voice quivered like an off-keyed violin string. “He drugged me, and I woke up in his basement locked in a cell.” Swallowing back tears, she whispered, “He thinks I’m you…he’s going to kill me.”

Diana froze. “Where are you?”

“I’m not sure…”

The line clicked dead. Cold chills traveled the length of her spine. “Dear God, this can’t be happening.” She shoved off the quilt and swung her legs over the edge of the mattress. Room darkening draperies hung from her ceiling to the carpeted floor filtering out light in her bedroom. Shaking off grogginess, she switched on a table lamp and the bedroom narrowed into focus.

She pressed callback launching a series of digital numbers across her cell’s screen, none she recognized. Seconds ticked away as busy signals vibrated in her ear. She redialed three more times and received the same monotonous buzzing tones.

Where could Danielle be? How could she save her?

Determination ignited in her brain. She speed-dialed her sister’s cellphone and listened when her recorded voicemail answered. Diana left a short message asking for a return call.

Another dead end.

Think, think. She dropped the mobile phone on her bed and rushed to her makeshift corner desk where she powered up her official FBI laptop. Her heart thundered in her throat. Once the icons loaded, she entered the ten digit number from Danielle’s first call into the FBI phone validation program. She prayed for quick results and studied the monitor. The number in question came back categorized as prepaid, a disposable device or as her coworkers called it, a burner phone. Her sister’s frightening words roiled over and over in her mind as she lowered the screen’s curser and read the final line.

Untraceable.

Adrenaline flushed through her. With one click of her mouse, she downloaded the GPS Tracking System. The Pennsylvania state map surfaced on the screen, and she directed her focus on Lehigh County. After entering her sister’s iPhone number into the search program, it confirmed Diana’s worst fear, someone had programmed the cellphone into ‘Disable GPS Satellite’ mode. Her last tracking point listed the coffee shop, where Danielle met her match-mate from Perfect Fit’s dating website.

Her twin sister, Danielle had vanished.

Out of options, she showered, dressed, and hurried to her Honda Fit. She drove three miles to her sister’s apartment with her windows down, hoping the coolness of the night air would sharpen her senses. Once there, she inserted her spare key and entered.

Danielle’s favorite perfume lingered in the air. Inhaling the sultry, fragrance of Shalimar, Diana typed digital code numbers into the alarm system. Hopefully, her twin sister slept soundly in her bed, and all this turned out to be an awfully bad joke. She rushed inside the darkened room, flipped on the lights, and stared at the neatly made bed. Her shoulders tensed. On the nightstand lay Danielle’s appointment calendar with Saturday night circled in blue ink, she’d written meet B.N. at the coffee shop and noted the time, 6:00 p.m.

No sign of a struggle anywhere. She inched toward the front door, waves of dread building inside her. Hesitating at the entryway, she closed her eyes in prayer. “Dear God, please keep Danielle safe.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR 

Suzanne Baginskie retired from a twenty-nine-year career as an office manager/paralegal in a law office. She has sold several short mysteries, romance stories and over twenty non-fiction stories to Chicken Soup for the Soul books and Cup of Comfort books. Her first book, Dangerous Charade for her FBI Affairs series was released December 2021. Her second, Book Two recently released is Dangerous Revenge. Her short stories appear in Red Penguin’s Behind Closed Doors Anthology, A Heart Full of Love Collection, Woman’s World, Plan B Mystery Magazine, The Wrong Side of the Law, two Daily Flash Fiction volumes, Woman’s World Magazine, First Magazine, True Romance Magazine, Futures Magazine and Turbulence & Coffee. She is a member of MWA, FMWA and Sisters-in-Crime and The Short Mystery Fiction Society.

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