Big Riggs (Trilogy Bundle)
Smashwords Edition
Copyright © 2014 by Melissa F. Hart. All rights reserved worldwide.
No part of this book may be replicated, redistributed, or given away in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, without the prior written consent of the author/publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
http://www.melissafhart.com/
Books in the series
Schoolyard Bully - Volume 1
Love and Chinese Food - Volume 2
Twisted Sisters - Volume 3
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Table of Contents
Schoolyard Bully
Synopsis
1-CHAPTER ONE
1-CHAPTER TWO
1-CHAPTER THREE
1-CHAPTER FOUR
1-CHAPTER FIVE
Love and Chinese Food
Synopsis
2-CHAPTER ONE
2-CHAPTER TWO
2-CHAPTER THREE
2-CHAPTER FOUR
2-CHAPTER FIVE
Twisted Sisters
Synopsis
3-CHAPTER ONE
3-CHAPTER TWO
3-CHAPTER THREE
3-CHAPTER FOUR
3-CHAPTER FIVE
CONCLUSION
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Schoolyard Bully
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Synopsis
Fannie Riggs has always been a big girl. She comes from a big family who unfortunately hadn’t seen the irony of the name they had given her. As a kid, the school bully had relentlessly tortured her for six years until he finally moved away before high school. That was when Fannie re-invented herself. She began working on her self-confidence and sense of style while putting the past behind her. By the time Fannie graduated high school, she was on her way to law school and the fast track to the life she had always dreamed of. Fannie’s about to get a big surprise, however, when she lands an interview for the perfect job as an associate in a prestigious law firm. She’s brought face to face with her past, as the bully of her childhood, becomes her colleague. Meanwhile, strange things start to happen. She’s locked in a stairwell, and her car is vandalized. Can Grant, the firm’s investigator, help her find out who is behind it before the past begins to swallow her future?
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CHAPTER ONE
Fannie Riggs sat in her car outside of the law firm of Smyth, Banyan and Smyth, where her interview to become an associate with the firm was scheduled to take place in less than thirty minutes. She had picked out her outfit three days ago. She’d made it herself, and it was both strictly business, and flattering in all the right places. She had gone to her favorite salon and had her blonde hair highlighted two days prior, and she had visited her dentist the day before for teeth whitening. She was well prepared for this interview. She knew her stuff; she had graduated Magna Cum Laude from her law school at the University of Chicago and had just completed an internship at one of the largest law firms in the Chicago area. She should be strutting into this interview with her head held high, confident in the fact that she was the right person, maybe the only person for the job.
Yet, here she sat in her car, thinking about her parents. Fannie loved her mom and dad. They were the kind of parents that most kids only dreamed about. Mom always had something fresh baked waiting for her after school. Both of her parents routinely attended all of her school events. She had everything a little girl could want or need within reason, and she never doubted that she was loved. Now however, as she tried to prepare herself mentally for what could be the biggest interview of her legal career, she couldn’t stop wondering why. She had wondered about it before, and had even come close once to asking them about it. She had stopped herself though, telling herself that it was really a moot point, and there was no reason to hurt their feelings by bringing it up. She wondered about it again now, to the point to where she almost picked her cell phone up off the seat next to her and called her mother.
Fannie could hear how the conversation would go in her head. It would be something like,
Fannie: “Hey, Mom.”
Mom: “Hi, Fannie, I thought you had your interview this morning.”
Fannie: “I do, but I had to ask you a question.”
Mom: “What’s that, dear?”
Fannie: “What were you and Dad thinking when you named me? I mean, didn’t you think that a big girl named Fannie Riggs might just be too much for the ruthless elementary school bullies to pass up on?”
Mom: “I’m sorry, dear, we named you after your father’s Aunt Fannie.”
Fannie: “I know, Mom. But Aunt Fannie was born in a different age. Kids at school weren’t dying to share with her the obvious fact that Riggs rhymes with “Biggs” and “Pigs”, or that Fannie is obviously just another name for butt. We both know how much butt I have, Mother. I just had to know if you and Dad gave that any thought before you named me.”
Mom: “No, dear, I’m sorry. We didn’t. Come by after your interview, and I’ll make you some cookies, okay?”
Fannie: “Chocolate chip?”
Fannie snapped back to reality. She had learned to live with her name, and by the time she had gotten to college, and then law school, it hadn’t been an issue any longer, until now. Now she sat and wondered why two rotund people, who themselves had rotund parents and grandparents and brothers and sisters and a last name like Riggs, wouldn’t have given it just a little more thought before they gave her the name Fannie.
Fannie had gotten the referral for this particular job interview from one of the partners at the firm where she had done her internship. They loved Fannie, but they didn’t have the resources to take on another paid associate. One of the partners, however, a man named Luke Carter, had known that the law offices of Smyth, Banyan and Smyth were looking for an associate who could be groomed for a future, imminent partnership.
Fannie had been on top of the world. Just the opportunity alone to interview with such a prestigious firm was almost unheard of for a new graduate. She had done her research, and she had made a slightly disturbing discovery. Smyth, Banyan and Smyth had two associates. One of them was moving to take a partnership at a firm in New York, thus leaving the opening for the interview she was attending today. The other associate was a man named Mark A. Lloyd. Mark A. Lloyd was one of Chicago’s top defense attorneys. Fannie had heard the name throughout law school, but she had never had the opportunity to meet him, or so she had thought. Doing research about the firm online, Fannie had gone to the law firm’s website. Each partner had their own page, and each page contained pictures of all of them at events throughout the city. One face looked so familiar to her. It was hard to tell though, seeing him in one group picture after the other, but when Fannie clicked on the associates page, it was like she had been thrust into a time machine and spit back out on the elementary school playground in the third grade. That was when she had first met Mark A. Lloyd. Only then, Mark had called himself Allen, which was apparently his middle name. Fannie would have never thought that Allen Lloyd, king of the third grade playground, and Mark Lloyd, king of the courtroom, were one and the same.
Fannie had sat there in front of the computer screen and stared at his face. He looked exactly the same, albeit slightly more mature. The last time she had seen him was eighth-grade graduation. Mark “Allen” Lloyd had graduated with her, and after six years of relentless playground torture, he was leaving their school district
to go to a private school in the exact part of Chicago where she sat right now, the Near North Side. Fannie had been relieved back then to hear that he was moving on to torment others. She wasn’t afraid to admit that she had been so happy for herself, that she wasn’t the least bit concerned about his future potential victims. Fannie had allowed herself a few minutes of re-living the agony of elementary school then. Hearing the voice of Allen Lloyd in her head as he and his friends followed her around on the playground calling her things like “Mrs. Pigs,” and “Fannie Biggs” and her personal all-time favorite, “Big Riggs.”
She shuddered at the memory and then she told herself to get over it and move on. She had done it once already, a long time ago. She had shaken the trauma of their taunts off of her back, and she had gone on in high school to become one of the most popular girls in her class.
Fannie had always been a big girl, but she had a pretty face. Her pretty face and her knack for designing her own clothes that flattered certain parts of her body while concealing others had helped her become part of the “in” crowd. She had gone to all the football games and dances. And for a while, she had even dated the star of the basketball team. Her high school years had been good ones, and her college years even better. She had financed her way through law school by selling some of her clothing designs to a local retail outlet. She was a smart, successful, educated and sophisticated grown woman and elementary school had been a long time ago. She had come too far in her life to allow an old wound to fester. Fannie took a deep breath, and as she let it out, she told herself to blow the past out with it. She checked her reflection in the rear-view mirror one more time, grabbed her briefcase and got out of the car. Smoothing down the one-of-a-kind, made-by-her-own-hands A-line skirt she wore, she put her shoulders back, her chin up and headed toward her future.
CHAPTER TWO
“Hello,” Fannie said to the impeccably groomed woman who sat behind the desk in the lobby. “My name is Fannie Riggs. I have an appointment with Michael Smyth.”
The woman behind the desk smiled at her. “Please have a seat, I’ll let Mr. Smyth know you’re here.”
Fannie thanked her and went over to where two white, rounded suede couches had been arranged around a glass top table with a bouquet of fresh white orchids sitting atop of it. She took her notebook out of her briefcase and used the time while she was waiting to once again go over a few important laws and regulations her friend at the other firm had told her they would be sure to expect her to know. Fannie had already known them, but her type “A” personality had mandated that she write them down anyway, and carry them with her to study until she had memorized them verbatim.
She was reading through them for the third time when the woman behind the counter said, “Miss Riggs, Mr. Smyth will see you now.”
Fannie stood up and smiled at her. “Thank you.”
The woman directed her to go to the tenth floor and check in with the woman at the desk as she got off the elevator. The elevator was mirrored on all sides, and she took the time again to check her appearance. She was nervous, but it was a good nervous. She knew she had this.
The nagging little thought that Mark Allen Lloyd was going to jump out of his seat and point a finger at her as she walked in and say, “Hey, it’s Fannie Big Riggs!” had almost faded into her subconscious by the time she stepped off the elevator onto the tenth floor.
The tenth floor had dark cherry wood walls and thick red carpeting that her heels sank into as she walked. The leather couches in this office lobby were black. Fannie went up to the desk where another immaculately dressed and groomed woman sat. “Hello, I’m Fannie Riggs. I’m here to see Mr. Smyth.”
The woman smiled. “Yes, he’s expecting you. Please have a seat, and I’ll let him know you’re here.”
The woman had on a headset, and she pushed a button next to her ear. “Mr. Smyth, Miss Riggs is here now.”
Almost immediately, the heavy door to the inner office was opened and Michael Smyth appeared in the doorway. He was an older man, Fannie guessed maybe sixty-five or seventy, with snow-white hair. It was a beautiful head of hair, and styled professionally no doubt. He wore a three-piece suit and tie that Fannie would bet he had paid upwards of two thousand dollars for.
He smiled at her and said, “Miss Riggs?”
Fannie stood up. “Yes, sir.”
He put his hand out and she shook it. “I’m Michael Smyth. Thank you for coming in today. Come on in, we’re ready for you.”
Fannie took a deep breath to steady her nerves and followed him into the office. She found three other people waiting for her inside of the office; one of those people was Mark Lloyd.
“Gentlemen, this is Miss Fannie Riggs. Miss Riggs, this is Harlan Banyan and the other fellow there in the middle is my son Trenton Smyth. On the far right is Mark Lloyd.”
Fannie said hello to all three of the men as Michael introduced them. They each got up and reached across the table between them to shake her hand and welcome her. When it was Mark’s turn, Fannie forced herself to look directly into his eyes. He smiled at her as they shook hands, but she didn’t see a flicker of recognition on his face.
She took the offered seat, and they began the interview. They asked her all of the standard questions about why she wanted to work there and what were her strengths and weaknesses. Fannie had prepared for them all and when everything was said and done, she thought that it had gone very well.
Mark had asked her some specific questions about case law, and Fannie had given him an answer that seemed to satisfy him both times. The interview lasted about forty minutes, and when it was finished, they all shook her hand again, thanked her for coming, and Michael Smyth walked her back out front.
“Thank you again for coming, Miss Riggs,” he told her.
“Please,” she said, “call me Fannie.”
“You will hear from us by the beginning of next week, Fannie,” he told her.
Fannie thanked him and left. She had a good feeling about it, but it would still be a long week, waiting for that phone call. Fannie couldn’t help wondering if Mark had recognized her. If he had, he hadn’t given any indication. She had to wonder though how a person could forget a name they had used to personally torture a person with for six years of their life, even if he didn’t recognize her face?
She spent the next few days trying to do things that would distract her from obsessing about the phone call. She had finished her internship, so she no longer had a job to go to every day. She did draw and send some new designs over to the woman who was her contact at the retail outlet. Petra turned Fannie’s designs into patterns, and the clothes were made and sold via an outlet website for Big Beautiful Women.
Fannie also spent some time visiting her mom and her Aunt June and Uncle Max who lived across the river. She always ate way too much when she visited her family. They were all fantastic cooks, and since Fannie lived alone and didn’t cook very often, she would usually overdose on home-cooked meals when she was at home.
She did some deep cleaning around her apartment that she hadn’t had time to do while she was working and attending school. She caught up with friends she had put on the back burner as well, mostly by phone. She did have one friend in particular who had been feeling left out of her life lately and needed more nurturing than a phone call. She called Paul up on Thursday and invited him to have lunch with her on Friday. They met at noon at a coffee house/sandwich shop near her home.
Fannie and Paul had been friends since freshman year in high school. They used to have lunch or dinner at least once or twice a week before Fannie started law school. Once she started however, their get togethers had dwindled down to one or two a month, and that was in a good month.
Paul was already there when Fannie got to the coffee shop, sitting at a table near the back.
When he saw her come in, he stood up and, in typical Paul style, he opened his arms wide. “Where have you been all my life, you fabulous babe, you?”
Fannie
walked into his open arms and let him hug her tight. Fannie had always wished that there had been some kind of spark between them. They were so much alike, and neither of them had much luck in the arena of love. She had always thought it would have been great to fall in love with your best friend.
Paul held her back at arm’s length and looked at her. “Did you make this outfit?” he asked her, turning her around so that he could get a 360-degree look.
“Yep, I sure did,” she told him with a grin. “What do you think?”
“I think you’re amazing,” he said, sitting down. Fannie sat too and Paul asked her, “Tell me again why you want to be a lawyer instead of a rich, famous fashion designer?”
Fannie laughed. “I just like making clothes for myself. I know my own body, and the stores don’t sell pretty clothes for “big girls” like me. I wouldn’t want to do it every day, all day long.”
“But defending murderers and rapists and God knows what else appeals to you?” Paul asked.
“Alleged murderers, rapists and God knows what else,” she said with a grin.
“Icky,” he said. “You already sound like a lawyer.”
Fannie laughed. “Thanks. Just wait, one of these days when you need an attorney, you’ll be happy to have me to call upon.”
“You think I’ll need a criminal lawyer someday?” he asked her with a hurt look.
“No, but I’m sure one of those questionable women that you date will.”
“Are we going to eat?” he asked, changing the subject. Paul had been in two serious relationships since Fannie had known him. One had ended with the woman throwing all of his things out in the snow and then slashing all of the furniture with a knife before finally vacating his house. The second became a stalker, or maybe she always had been. She followed him everywhere, and would just sit outside in her car until he came out, and then follow him home. Fannie had helped him get a restraining order, and the woman had violated it within two weeks. After spending a few nights in jail, the woman decided to forget about Paul and move on to her next victim.
Big Riggs (Trilogy Bundle) (BBW Erotic Romance) Page 1
