Read Asking For Trouble for Free Online Page A

bottom of the boat.
     
    Jazzie gasped, then fell to her knees trying
to gather them up, and the tidal wave of tears she'd been holding
back started to fall, and she couldn't stop them, or the sob that
escaped with them. She forgot about the pearls, and sat on her
knees on the bottom of the boat and covered her face with her
hands.
     
    Her body was trembling, and when Beau put
his hands on her shoulders, she shook them off, then pushed back up
to sit on the seat again. This wonderful romantic night, a
momentous night in her life, had gone to crap. The man she thought
gentle and caring enough to initiate her into womanhood had turned
into a morose, cold asshole after he got what he wanted.
     
    "Jazzie, what's wrong?" he asked her with
concern, then said frantically, "I'll buy you another
bracelet..."
     
    "I don't care about the bracelet...and I
don't want you buying me anything. If I want another one, I'll buy it," she told him, then sucked in a breath to calm
herself.
     
    "What the hell is wrong with you then?" he
asked in an exasperated tone, and shoved a hand through his thick
dark hair.
     
    Manu pulled the boat up to the dock, and she
saw Jess at the end pacing, and knew something was terribly wrong.
She jumped out of the boat without waiting for Manu or Beau, and
ran toward Jess, with tears racing down her cheeks. When she
reached her tall, blond friend, she launched herself against her
and hugged her tightly.
     
    "What's wrong, Jess...tell me," Jazzie said
in a panic.
     
    "Your mom called me, when she couldn't get
you on your phone. It's Frankie, he's missing."
     
    "What!" Jazzie choked out loudly. Beau
walked up behind her and put his hands on her shoulders, and she
stepped away, then asked Jess frantically, "What do you mean he's
missing?"
     
    "That company he went to work for had him
working on something shady, and he didn't like it. A friend of his
there, Charlie Pence, who's also his roommate in Austin, told your
mom that he went to lunch yesterday, and didn't come back. He
didn't show up at the apartment last night either, and Charlie
thinks it has something to do with what he was working on."
     
    Jazzie fell to her knees and wailed, "I told
him he needed to check out that company better...an offer like they
made him right out of college was just too good to be true! When I
asked him what they did, he said he didn't really know...he's so
gullible!"
     
    "What's the name of the company?" Beau asked
in a solemn voice behind her.
     
    "Al-Godon Biotech," Jazzie replied, then
wiped her eyes, and mumbled, "I've got to get to Dallas, my mom is
probably a mess...and I've got to find someone to help us." Jazzie
scrambled to her feet and took off running through the trees.
     
    "Jazzie wait!" Beau yelled after her, but
she didn't stop.
     
    Her goal was clear, she was going to get her
stuff packed and be on the next flight to Dallas. Her family needed
her, and she was going to find her brother, before something
happened to him.
     

CHAPTER TWO
     
     
    Jazzie made it to her bungalow and tossed
her suitcase on the bed then started emptying the closet and
drawers into it. She was tossing shoes on top of the suitcase, when
Beau walked in. She lifted her hand with a stiletto and without her
permission, her hand launched it at him, hitting him right in the
midsection. He grunted, then bent down to pick it up and tossed it
on the suitcase.
     
    "Jazzie, you need to slow down a minute and
think, sugar," he told her calmly. "Running off half-cocked into
something like that could get you hurt...let me do some checking
first."
     
    She ignored him and tossed her underwear on
top of the shoes, then slammed the lid shut and ran the zipper
around to close the big wheeled case. With a grunt, she pulled it
off the bed and set it on the wheels, then grabbed the handle, and
her purse, and pushed past Beau to head down the dock.
     
    "You can't board an airplane in that bikini,
Jazz!" Beau yelled behind her and she stopped then