The Whitney Powers Paranormal Adventure 3 Book Bundle

by Jason Paul Rice

  A big man who looked like the Vice President’s body guard opened the back gate and erased any thoughts Whitney may have had for a dramatic escape. The other men surrounded Trent and Whitney and started to push them toward a house across the street.

  A shrieking squawk came thundering down from the sky. Whitney looked up to see a golden object descending rapidly as it streaked through the clouds and cerulean backdrop. All the men looked up and pointed at the incoming dragon.

  Three of the men pointed their guns toward Darominius. The dragon opened his mouth and hoisted flames across the horizon. The men started shooting at Darominius, but the bullets just kept ricocheting off the steel-like scales and causing golden sparks to trail from the dragon.

  The men eventually stopped shooting and ran down the street after they realized that their bullets were useless. Whitney looked around and saw that other people had come out of their houses and were staring in awe as the golden dragon landed in the middle of the road.

  Whitney and Trent ran over and got up on their reptilian friend who wasted no time rising above the trees and houses. Whitney couldn’t understand what Darominius said as a great milky flash blinded her. She almost let go of the dragon to rub her eyes, but she remembered at the last moment to continue holding on. She had to keep her eyes shut for the entire ride back to the Capitol.

  Whitney’s heart didn’t slow down for the whole of the ride home. She dragged her weary body into the house. She and Trent climbed into bed and tried to relax and heal their physical ailments.

  “So where are we at here on the case?”

  “I know it gets worse every time we hop on that dragon. We gotta let Barrett and the guys know about this meeting and see if they can find anything out about that that we almost witnessed. If the Ambassadors reported back to their homelands, someone in intelligence will have a transcript of that conversation,” Trent said.

  “Some of the patriotic agents want to meet up tomorrow and see if we have any information since they can’t discuss this at work. They will be here at two o’clock so don’t make any plans.”

  Trent laughed. “You know me, so much to do, so little time. Too bad they raided our office before we could get all of that stuff copied. We have the zip drive too, but now they know everything that we know. I wonder if they are getting scared.”

  “Can you be scared if you don’t have a heart? So, new subject, my mom called me the other day and she wants us to come home for a few days to visit. It’s either that or she comes here and trust me, we don’t want her as a house guest. Plus I don’t want my family anywhere near this stuff. I need to keep them away from the danger. So what do you think?”

  Trent said, “I think it sounds like a great idea. We need another break from this action and since we haven’t had a honeymoon yet, it’ll be nice to get away. Not exactly the tropical destination and, speaking of which where should we go for the official honeymoon?”

  “I don’t know. A tropical getaway would be great. Or a part of the world with a lot of history. Looks like we have some time to figure this out because we can’t go before this issue of national security is taken care of. Seems like we love our country as much as we love each other.”

  Trent said, “I’m not sure if that’s a great thing or it’s just sad. And I think I love you more than anything else, so it can’t be true.”

  Whitney rolled over and gave Trent a kiss. Her entire body ached as she looked at her husband’s healing bruises. He was still the most beautiful creatures in the world to her, but it saddened her to see his blood-blister infested arms and legs. She didn’t even look at herself in the mirror anymore.

  “So as soon as the bruises and marks go away, we can head back to Pennsburgh for some real fun. I’m usually a fast healer but these babies might take a few days.”

  “I know. These guys better hope I don’t find out who was behind this. I can handle taking a beating myself, but when they hit you, they messed up bigtime. What type of dreg hits the most beautiful woman in the world?” Trent rhetorically asked.

  10

  Whitney limped back and forth by the front door as she waited for the agents to get there. Her ankle hurt more today than yesterday but she was filled with nervous energy and had to move around. A car pulled into the driveway and three people wearing suits got out.

  Two men and a woman approached the house and Whitney opened the door to greet them.

  “Come on in.”

  “Thanks,” Barrett said as he led the way.

  Whitney shut the door and they sat down at a mahogany oval table. Barrett Nedhurst, Aimee Penderhook and L.J. Udanowitz joined Trent and Whitney to fill the small room.

  Barrett said, “Are you guys alright? Holy shit you look terrible. I should have warned you two not to pick up Hopkins. He’s a true scumbag and would rather go down with the ship than make a deal.”

  The tall, slender, dark-skinned agent named Aimee said, “Everyone knows what happened and it’s brought more people to the cause. I can’t believe they kidnapped and beat you guys.”

  “It sucks, but it’s over and we need to move on. We need you three to find out anything you can about a meeting for the Bull Party at a place called the Rose Ridge Club. It happened right before the election I think.”

  “Do you have an exact date?” L.J. asked as he shifted his square frames back into the correct position at the top of his big nose.

  “No. The event was called the Bull Party International Convention and Policy Updates. The ambassadors of Starvary and Goldera were there and probably even more that we haven’t discovered yet. Most of the people who were implicated in the arms deal were at the meeting so I think this might have been the first payoff and a setup for how they are going handle all of the payments.”

  Barrett said, “I’ve been getting some calls from the F.C.U. lately about strange activity involving those island banks you two alerted us to. The problem is that every account is filled with strange activity and mystery transfers and the banks don’t help us with anything.”

  Whitney said, “I talked to my friend who works at the F.C.U. and she is going to stop by later today. She said she has some very interesting stuff for Trent and me to look at. If we can’t get these a-holes to admit that they did anything, nailing them on these shady dealings will be impossible without finding the money trail. That might be our only hope in the end.”

  Trent asked, “Have any of you found evidence that the President is involved?”

  Aimee answered, “I don’t believe there is hard evidence but most of these deals were made with his blessing, yes?”

  “They were made seemingly with his approval, but I’ve never seen any direct proof that he is even involved. We haven’t found or seen anything that shows he ordered these meetings or agreements.”

  L.J. said, “He has to be in on it and he has probably found a way to make it almost impossible to find out what he did or what he knows. Look at all the people he has promoted to fill the most important positions with one mission in mind; to kill this case. I wanted to believe he wasn’t guilty because I met him when I was a kid and I liked him, but it seems too obvious that he’s covering up something big.”

  Barrett said, “I have to agree. No one goes this far out of their way to shut everything down unless they have done something. These aren’t the actions of an innocent man that much I can tell you.”

  Aimee said, “I think we can all agree on that and the fact that we are going to have to scour the data trail to take down these weasels. I think we also need to talk to the rest of the foreign Intel groups that we know and see if they have anything they could help us with.”

  Trent said, “I think we are close on all this but we still have to remain patient. I know that sounds rich coming from the guy who pulled that foolish move but the scope of this is so big we need to be sure we can take down everyone involved. We’re looking at a list of at least fifty by now on the original crime and the continual obstruction.”

  “The
final paperwork for this is going to rival a mountain. Now we need to go find that money trail before they destroy everything,” Barrett said.

  Aimee said, “Alright, you two take care of yourselves and stay out of trouble. We should get out of here before someone spots us. You ready guys?”

  The two agents said yes in unison and Whitney and Trent led them out the front door. Whitney wished Bo was here to see how bad ass she had become. She had never imagined that she would ever tangle with the biggest mob family in her city or expose the President of Adoxia for being a corrupt traitor. A sense of pride coursed through her sore body and provided a jolt of energy.

  Later that day, a knock sounded at the front door. Whitney opened it up to see someone in a trench coat, black glasses and a winter hat over their head.

  “Can I help you with something?”

  “It’s me, Rachel. Let me in,” the person said.

  Whitney moved to the side and the short woman with her hair tucked into the hat walked into the house.

  “Trent, Rachel is here.”

  Trent walked into the room and said hello.

  “Hi guys, look, I don’t have time to stay and I shouldn’t even be here. This entire issue has become a real lightning rod. They are trying to get rid of this information that I came across, but luckily I made copies of it. Not only do I have financial info from some of those shell companies that we talked about, but my department also was mistakenly given Intel about the voting machines that were hacked to record all votes to the Bull Party. I was never here and you never saw me,” Rachel said and opened the trench coat. She pulled two folders from her waistband.

  She handed them to Whitney, performed a mock curtsy and secured her coat again. The woman from the Financial Crimes Unit left the house. Whitney and Trent tore into the folders and spent the next few hours going over the juicy details.

  11

  Trent and Whitney pulled into the driveway of Victoria and Aaric’s house. They walked inside for another Friday night party at the castle. About twenty of Aaric and Victoria’s friends mingled with members of Whitney’s family.

  Her sister had hired servers and a bartender from the country club she belonged to. They brought hors d’ oeuvres and a fully stocked bar for the guests to enjoy. Whitney said hi to a few people and noticed her dad.

  She pushed a few guests out of the way to get to Robert Powers and hugged her father.

  “EEEHHH, daddio.”

  “Oh sweet pea, I miss you so much. Where’s that husband of yours?”

  Whitney stepped back and looked around for Trent, who emerged from a pack of Aaric’s friends.

  “There he is.” Whitney pointed as Trent approached.

  “Mr. Powers, great to see you again,” Trent said as the two men shook hands.

  Whitney loved seeing her father and Trent together. She still felt horrible about Trent’s family experience and wanted him to be a part of her crazy bunch. He had been graciously accepted by everyone so far.

  Her father said, “Hey, I know what. Trent, Aaric and me were going to smoke a couple of stogies out by the pool. You in?”

  Trent answered, “I’m not too big on cigars, but every once in a while won’t hurt. You don’t mind, do you?” he asked Whitney.

  “No, of course not. Have fun with the boys,” she said in a mocking tone.

  Whitney found her mom and Victoria in the kitchen. Her sister waved as she talked on her cell phone.

  Ursula Powers said, “Well look who finally got here. Where is your husband?”

  Whitney hugged her mom. “He’s around. He’s out smoking stogies with the boys,” she said sarcastically.

  Her mom laughed and said, “Oh, don’t get mad, honey. You get to see him all the time and men need stupid stuff like that. Let them go every once in a while.”

  “I know, but we just got here and dad drags him away. I wanted to talk to my boys too. I mean they are like my two favorite people in the world…next to you two of course.”

  Her mom said, “Sure, I know exactly what you mean.”

  Her sister hung up the phone and said, “Hello there, thanks for coming.”

  The sisters hugged and Victoria kissed Whitney on the cheek.

  “So how’s married life treating you?” Victoria asked as she wiped her lipstick from her sibling’s face.

  “Not much different than before the wedding. Everything is just wonderful.”

  Victoria shook her head, “You lucky son of a gun. I know you are telling the truth because there wasn’t any hesitation in your response and you didn’t do the classic deep breath and say, ‘it’s fine.’ Keep that spark going. How’s work?”

  “A little rough. There’s a lot of bureaucratic nonsense to worry about, so it’s not just purely solving crimes and stopping the bad guys. There’s a lot more hoops to jump through when the government is involved. It’s actually kind of boring.” Whitney lied so that her mom and sister wouldn’t be jealous.

  Her mother said, “That’s why you and Trent need to open your own detective firm so you don’t have to worry about all that stuff.”

  “Yeah, I mean, I wish it was that easy but we are establishing valuable connections to use in any future endeavors like that. Alright, enough about my stupid work, what’s been going on around here?”

  The two other Powers women laughed.

  Victoria said, “Your stupid work stories are riveting compared to what’s going on around here. You know nothing changes. Oh, speaking of which.”

  Gwendolyn and Guinevere came running into the kitchen.

  They ran up and wrapped their arms around Whitney’s midsection. She leaned down and pulled the girls in for kisses.

  “Muah, there you go, and muah, there you go. How are you two?”

  Guinevere said, “We miss you, Aunt Whitney.”

  Gwendolyn chimed in, “We saw your husband outside and he told us you were here. Are you pregnant yet?”

  Whitney almost spit out her drink from laughing. “No, not quite yet.”

  Gwendolyn said, “But you’re married now. You’re allowed to have kids, mom said.”

  “Oh did she? I would have assumed you got this from grandma. I’ll tell you what. If I do get pregnant, I’ll make sure to let you two know first, okay?”

  Guinevere said, “Okay. When are you going to come back home for good so we can see you more?”

  “We should just have a little bit longer on this one we’re working on now. Unfortunately, when you deal with the really bad guys, they know how to delay the process. I’ll be back as soon as I can, though, I promise.”

  Gwendolyn said, “Maybe we can come visit you.”

  A young woman rushed into the room and said, “Mrs. Powers, I am so sorry. I went to the bathroom and when I came back they were gone. Girls, come with me now.”

  Victoria said, “It’s alright, Lena. They wanted to see their aunt. Alright girls, come on now, it’s time to go with Lena.”

  The au pair followed the girls out of the kitchen.

  Victoria said, “Should we mingle, rather than coop ourselves up in the kitchen?”

  “I kind of like being cooped up in the kitchen.”

  “Oh come on let’s go,” her sister insisted.

  Whitney stayed mostly by the bar with her mother and hardly saw Trent. It was nice for them to get some time away from each other. She was with him twenty-four hours a day in the Capitol so a little time apart wasn’t drastic.

  Whitney’s eyes lit up as she saw Bo from across the room. He spotted her and rushed over and gave her a hug.

  Bo said, “Oh girl, I missed you so much. How the hell is everything?” Before she could answer Bo put his arm around Ursula and pulled her in for a kiss on the cheek. “Hi.”

  Whitney didn’t know if Bo would show up so this was a nice surprise.

  “Things are great. Where is Andy?”

  Bo looked down at the blue carpet. “We’ve been fighting a lot lately. I was going to text you about it, but you just seem
so busy with work and everything.”

  “What? You know I always have time for you. I might sound like I’m not listening but I really am. You should know that by now.”

  Bo said, “I know that you love me, but you are taking out the government trash now and that probably requires a lot of attention.”

  Whitney’s mom said, “I’m sorry, Bo. I’m sure you’ll find another guy soon. And until you do, you should see that bartender over there, he isn’t stingy with whatever goes in a Long Island Iced Tea.”

  Bo and Whitney laughed. She said, “Mom, an L.I.T. is basically all liquor so it’s hard to be stingy with a drink that’s all booze.”

  Ursula Powers shrugged her shoulders and took a big drink of the Long Island Iced Tea. She bobbed her head to the music and made faces at her daughter.

  Whitney talked to Bo for about another hour before the party started to die down. She went downstairs where Trent and Aaric were playing a game of pool.

  Aaric said, “Shhh, be quiet, here she comes.”

  “Haha, very funny. You boys having fun down here.”

  Trent moved in to kiss Whitney, but she shoved him away.

  “Eeww. You smell like a dirty ashtray. How many cigars did you smoke?”

  Trent looked at her with glossy eyes and said, “Maybe two and a few puffs off of one more.”

  “Look at you, you’re wasted.”

  Trent said, “Don’t have to drive, so I figured what the hell.”

  He went back to his game with Aaric.

  “I agree. I’m feeling pretty good myself. Thanks for having us over Aaric. Jeez, I think this is the first time I’ve talked to you all night.”

  Aaric said, “As always, the pleasure is ours when you two can grace us with your presence. You know a few good houses went up for sale around here recently. If you guys are looking to upgrade when you move back home, I’ll have my guy take care of you. Just say the word.”

  Whitney’s feelings about Aaric had really changed after her father had revealed that he had been responsible for the huge donation to the Children’s Hospital. Trent sunk the 9 ball and the two men put their cues back in the holder on the wall.