The Devlin Deception: Book One of The Devlin Quatrology Read Online Free

shook his head sadly and pointed
further south. As she continued on, he heaved a deep sigh. His eyes
took a long time to return to the book.
    The Mimosa twins glanced at the blonde, nodded to each other and
activated the miniature sound-and-video recording equipment embedded
in their beach bags. Jill whispered to Carie, "I hope we look
that good when we're her age." Carie smiled and nodded, but
kept her eyes on the blonde.
    The blonde then sauntered up to another older man reclining on a
three-way beach lounge maybe fifteen feet further south, also near
the waterline; he was writing in a small spiral notebook.
    In a gentle, melodious voice, she said, "Excuse me."
    Startled, the man looked up and saw a face with high cheekbones, full
lips and either no or very natural makeup, a true movie star face,
framed in lustrous, luxuriantly wavy honey blonde hair. He didn't --
couldn't -- ignore her anatomically very correct figure, of course.
    Perflutzed, he held up an index finger, then pointed to his mouth,
finished chewing a chocolate chip cookie, swallowed and mumbled,
"Mm-hmm?"
    She waited, but when nothing else was forthcoming, she asked, "Are
you Jake Devlin, by any chance?"
    He swallowed one more time and said, "Yes, I am, but not by
chance; that's the name I was given."
    "You're writing The Donne Deal?"
    Jake licked some crumbs from his lips. "Yup."
    She held out her hand and Jake took it. "I'm Pamela93; I've
sent you some suggestions through your web site, back when you only
had Donne's speech up there."
    "You're Pamela93? You don't look at all like I pictured you,"
Jake said, thinking that she actually looked precisely as he'd
pictured her. "But I loved your idea on the minimum tax; that
got me thinking."
    "Minimum tax? That wasn't mine. I did the Roth IRA and the
capital loss offset increases."
    "Oh, geez, I'm sorry. My memory isn't what it used to be."
    "No problem. You missed a bit, there on the right. May I?"
    She reached down and brushed a final crumb off the corner of his lip.
"Got it.”
    "Thanks."
    "May I sit and talk with you for a while?"
    "Sure. Right here on the other side of my cooler okay?"
    "Great. And just call me Pam." She set her beach bag
down, unwrapped her sarong, flipped open a chair and slithered into
it, giving Jake a winning smile and batting her dazzling blues at him
over her elegant sunglasses.

    -5-

    Friday, December 9, 2011
    7:55 p.m. EST
    Bonita Springs, Florida

    Slinky Joe's is a popular restaurant and bar in Bonita Springs,
Florida, with a live band every night and a diverse clientele of
retirees, bikers, rednecks and tourists, a true cross-cultural local
icon. Debbie Jackson, in a skimpy red halter and denim short shorts
that revealed the top of a red thong and a "tramp stamp"
tattoo, sat at the bar, nursing her sixth beer of the night, looking
around to see who she might con into buying her her seventh, when
Pete, one of the owners, took the mike from the band and spoke to the
crowd.
    "Folks, we're gonna take a vote here. I know you've been loving
Salt and Pepper's music, but there's apparently a MAJOR announcement
about the future of our country coming on the TV in five minutes.
Joe and I have been seeing the promos all afternoon and evening, and
we know many of you have seen those, too. This sounds like something
that'll probably affect all of us, so we're gonna do a mini-democracy
exercise here. Brittany and Justin are due for a break at 8:30, but
if we move that up half an hour, we can all see just what this
announcement is all about.
    "So let's see some hands. First, those who want them to break
now and watch the announcement? Okay. And now those who don't want
that?" At that, Debbie put up both hands and yowled a loud
Confederate yell, then saw that she was the only one yelling, so she
sat lumpily back down on her barstool.
    "Okay," Pete continued, "looks like about
three-quarters of you want to watch. So let's have a BIG round of
applause for Brittany and Justin" -- and the crowd