by Diana Orgain
“We got a confession from him,” Sergio said. “It was as you thought. Juan Jose was in love with Annalise. She had snuck out to camp to visit him, but was more charmed by Cooper than Juan Jose.”
He swiveled in his chair to look at Cooper, who was downing a whiskey and singing off-key with Dad.
“It’s easy to see why, isn’t it?” I joked.
Sergio laughed. “Well, Juan Jose figured it out, had a fight with Annalise, then Scott came upon them. He tried to stop Juan Jose, but it didn’t work out. Juan Jose stole his phone and passport. Thought he left them both for dead. He was surprised in the morning to realize that Scott wasn’t dead alongside Annalise. He figured the only way to get us to stop searching for him was to send you a message pretending he was Scott and telling you it was over.”
“It might have worked, but he sent the message to my dad,” I said.
Sergio shrugged. “He didn’t know that. He actually blamed me. Said if I was a better Casanova I could have distracted you from Scott and you would have let go of the investigation.”
I laughed. Sergio laughed, too, putting a hand on his heart as if part of him were wounded.
I sipped my sangría. “I wouldn’t worry about it. I think you’re a pretty damn fine Casanova.”
He waved a hand around to dismiss the thought, but I persisted. “Monse thinks so, too.”
He stood. “Ay, Monse. She’s real trouble. Not like you.”
“Me? What? I’m fake trouble?”
He leaned in close. “No. You are very real. How’s your ankle? Better?”
I shrugged. “It’s healing, I think.”
“It better be, tonight is our last night together and I still need to teach you how to dance the Jota.”
“What about Miguel?” I asked.
“He saw a picture of Annalise that Juan Jose had on his phone. He confronted him. It was just a matter of time, so Juan Jose had to get rid of him.”
“There something I haven’t told you,” I said. “Scott’s phone was in Miguel’s room. I figured it was a setup of some sort so I took it. I’m sorry.” Shame burned at my cheeks and I lowered my head.
Sergio sighed. “I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear that. Stealing evidence is illegal and I think if I arrest you now your father or his lady friend Cheryl might kill me. He smiled and then ambled up to the bar, between Cheryl and Dad. He requested his own drink. Becca came to sit with me. “Cheryl’s going to work on him. Try to soften him up,” she said.
“Try to soften who up?” I asked.
“Sergio.”
“About what?” I asked.
“About featuring him in a show.”
I laughed so hard, I choked. Several people turned to look at me. When they’d turned away, I said, “Come on. He’s not going to do a show. He’s a cop.”
Becca gave me a look. “So were you!”
“It’s different. She can’t be serious.”
“Oh, she’s serious all right. And it’s too bad you and Gordon didn’t win. I know you need the money. Maybe we can come up with an all-star show or something.”
“Bite your tongue!” I said.
Just then, Dad, Cheryl, and Sergio joined us at my table. Followed by Cooper, Todd, Kyle, and Harris. The senora began to play some cheerful music on the stereo and then joined us, too.
“We’ve finally been given clearance to leave Spain,” Cheryl said to Becca.
“Not yet,” Sergio said, grabbing my hand. “This is La Jota Aragonesa. No one can leave Spain, until you all learn it!”
The senora grabbed Dad and the others followed suit, grabbing the closest available partner. Sergio put his arms up and led us in the joyful bouncing dance. And for the first time in what seemed like a long time, I was joyful. I knew Scott would be all right and I was filled with appreciation for the new friends I’d made and so very happy to be surrounded by the people I loved.
Read on to see how it all began in Diana Orgain’s first Love or Money Mystery,
A First Date with Death
Available now.
One
The bungee-jumping harness bit into my shoulders and legs as I looked over the railing of the Golden Gate Bridge. To say the water looked frigid was an understatement. The whitecaps of the bay screamed out glacier and hypothermia.
“You’re not in position,” Cheryl, the producer, yelled.
I felt the camera zoom in on me. They needed an extreme close-up of my every facial expression so they could broadcast my terror to the world. Magnify my embarrassment and mortification.
One of the techs said something to Cheryl and she shouted, “Cut!”
The cameraman lost interest in me.
“Why am I doing this?” I asked Becca, my best friend and the assistant producer on this god-awful reality TV show, Love or Money.
“To find your dream man,” Becca answered.
“I found him already, remember? Then he left me at the altar.”
A makeup artist appeared at my elbow and applied powder to my nose.
“Dream men do not leave their brides at the altar,” Becca said. “Clearly, he was not the one.”
I studied the woman brushing powder on my face. She had beautiful chocolate-colored skin, a straight nose, and eyes so dark and intense they looked like pools of india ink. She looked familiar, but before I could place her, she turned and walked away.
“I thought you always liked Paul,” I said to Becca.
“I did until he left me at the altar,” Becca replied.
“He left me.”
“Me, too. I was standing right next to you in a stupid tulle and taffeta dress. Anyway, enough about your horrible fashion sense—”
I laughed.
“Even if you don’t find your dream man here,” Becca continued, “focus on the cash prize. You need it.”
She was kind enough not to add “since you were fired,” but I felt the sting anyway. If anyone had told me, six months before, that I’d be on a reality TV show looking for love and/or money, I’d have called them 5150, a.k.a. clinically insane. But here I was, ex-cop, ex-bride-to-be—with a broken heart and broken career—looking to start over.
Ty, one of my “dates,” sauntered over. He was wearing jeans and boots and his trademark cowboy hat. A bungee harness crisscrossed through his legs. Despite the harness, or perhaps because of it, he looked hot. Although I was hard-pressed to think of any outfit that he wouldn’t look hot in.
“Are you nervous, Miss Georgia?” he asked.
I found myself absently wondering if he’d wear his hat while bungee jumping.
He reached out tentatively and touched the back of my hand with a single finger. “Miss Georgia?” he repeated.
I suddenly became aware of the camera rolling again and snapped to attention. “Yes. I’m nervous. I thought I’d get to pick the dates, but I didn’t. I would have never picked this. Only a lunatic—”
I heard the producer, Cheryl, grumble.
I wasn’t supposed to say anything negative about the dates, of course. They were supposed to look authentic, so that the audience wouldn’t know that I had absolutely zero control over anything. The crew would have to edit out my last comment.
Ty seemed to notice the same thing because he replied smoothly, “I’ve always wanted to bungee jump.” His lips quirked up in an irresistible manner. “And now we get to do it off this beautiful bridge.”
Cheryl, who was standing behind him, smiled. He’d just saved the scene. She liked him.
Well, in those tight jeans and boots, and with the cute southern drawl—who could blame her?
I glanced around at the others. They seemed ready to go and had started heading my way. It was inevitable, once someone started showing interest in me, that the others would follow—like a pack of dogs fighting over a lone piece of meat.
Bungee jumping off the bridge was my first date, and I’d selected five of the ten eligible bachelors—or not so eligible. The gist of the show was for me to pick a guy who was emotionally available for a relationship, someone who was on the show for love.
During casting, each guy had given a heart-to-heart interview with the producer, Cheryl Dennison. They’d confessed whether they were ready to be in a relationship. Five guys were searching for love; five guys weren’t. Because I’d worked for SFPD, somehow Hollywood thought I’d be able to figure out everyone’s motives.
I had my doubts.
If I picked the right guy, we’d split $250,000. If I picked a guy who was emotionally unavailable he’d walk off with the cash prize on his own and, maybe worse, a piece of my heart.
America would be privy to the interviews. I’m sure those clips would expose me as a fool along the way.
I pictured Cheryl’s editing staff. As soon as I said someone was cute or hot or sweet, she’d revel in playing a clip of the heart-to-heart where he told America all the reasons he couldn’t fall in love. That kind of thing would be great for ratings.
The guys I’d asked on this date were the ones I suspected might be on the show for the cash. Best to eliminate the fakes ASAP.
I’d selected Ty, the cowboy, because at the first night’s cocktail party I couldn’t actually get him to tell me what he did for a living.
Edward, the hot doctor—tall, with dark hair, a great smile, and a wonderful gentleness about him—had to have student loans from med school up the wazoo.
Scott, the brooding writer, wrote horror stories—I’d been meaning to read some to get an idea about him. He was mysterious and supersexy, with a tight body and a bit of a swagger, and he had a shaved head and dark, piercing eyes.
But who made any money as a writer?
Aaron, the investment banker, looked like the boy next door. Clean-cut, respectable, and polite.
I wouldn’t typically peg investment bankers as needing money, but something about Aaron was unsettling, as though he had some desperation vibe wafting off him.
And then there was Pietro, the Italian hunk with an accent that drove me wild.
I’d invited him because I had a weakness for accents, and weakness must be sought out and destroyed at any cost.
Everyone was suited up and ready to go. My harness felt so tight I thought I might explode out of it. It was cutting into my shoulders and crotch—certainly not a woman-friendly look. But I didn’t complain for fear they would make it too loose and I’d slip out of it at exactly the wrong moment.
Was there no happy medium for me?
The crew was urging us toward the edge of the bridge. We didn’t have time to dillydally, as the show had been granted special access for the shoot. Bungee jumping was not ordinarily allowed off the Golden Gate Bridge due to boat traffic, but the producers had been able to close down the shipping lanes for one hour. Everything is for sale in San Francisco.
Car traffic, on the other hand, was still open on the bridge. Everything may be for sale, but even Hollywood has a budget. It was nerve-wracking and noisy to have the cars whizzing by.
“If you’re nervous, maybe someone else can go first,” Ty offered.
Cheryl said, “Someone needs to go, for God’s sake. We need to get the show on the road. Aaron, want to go?”
Aaron looked surprised and Ty seemed relieved.
“Uh, yeah, certainly. Love to,” Aaron said, although he looked unsure.
Cheryl turned to me and shouted, “You, get over here and watch him jump. We need the shot.”
I don’t know what I’d imagined when I thought about possibly finding love on this show, but it certainly hadn’t included this six-foot-tall blond woman yelling at me constantly. In fact, she’d never even entered my mind and now she seemed never to leave.
Aaron took his place near the edge of the bridge and I stood next to him. The crew maneuvered around us, although one camera remained trained on my face, my every expression being recorded for posterity.
I hoped I didn’t look nauseous. I certainly felt it.
Despite the tech people assuring me it was safe, jumping off the bridge was the last thing I wanted to do.
Down below I could see the Coast Guard boat hovering, one of the conditions the City of San Francisco had put on our use of the bridge.
Cheryl hadn’t cared about the condition. In fact, she’d used it in negotiations for the show, requesting two cameramen be allowed to board and film our jumps.
“Are you ready, Aaron?” I asked, remembering to smile for the camera, but fearing it came off more as a grimace.
Aaron returned my smile, only his seemed genuine. “Oh, yeah. I’ve been jumping before. It’s really a hoot. Feels like you’re flying.” He grabbed my hand and said, “Georgia, will you jump with me?”
Before I could reply, he turned to the tech. “Is her line ready?”
I heard the tech say, “She’s—”
The din of traffic seemed to grow, a car honking at precisely that moment.
Then someone touched the small of my back and Cheryl yelled, “Action!”
Aaron let out a war cry and leapt, still squeezing my hand and pulling me forward. Someone pushed sharply on my back. I was off balance, trying to stay on the bridge.
Aaron didn’t release me and his momentum propelled me forward. I slipped off the railing, falling with him, our hands finally disentangling.
The wind howled furiously at me. I howled back. My face tight, completely stretched with the force of gravity, my own saliva streaming across my checks as I screamed. Aaron was screaming, too, only his yells were ones of sheer delight.
His arms were flung out from his sides and he held them horizontally, imitating a plane.
We were soaring through the air like birds—only birds on a sharp descent, toward water that looked like a sheet of solid glass.
Adrenaline surged through my system, everything happening in slow motion: Aaron’s expression of pure joy, the sunlight reflecting off the water and blinding me, the sound of the boat nearby.
The Coast Guard.
We were speeding, rushing closer and closer to the water. My breath caught in my throat, gagging me. I fought the impulse to retch.
How close to the water were we supposed to get?
When would the cord tighten?
What had the tech said?
All my mind could process was the water seemingly racing toward me.
And then, suddenly, my cord pulled taut and my descent stopped. I bounced up, the water receding rapidly. The negative g-force playing havoc with my stomach.
Out of nowhere a horrific crashing, splashing, screeching sound pierced my ears.
Water shot upward.
I pressed both hands over my mouth and tried to keep the bloodcurdling scream inside, but failed.
Aaron had hit the water.
His bungee cord finally tightened and snapped to position, but he was already underwater.
I continued flying upward, the distance between Aaron and me an eternity.
It felt as if I would crash right through the bottom of the bridge.
And then my descent began again, water rushing toward me.
Dear God, would I crash into the water, too?
I was paralyzed with fear as the cord tightened and then the water raced away. Then I was falling again, zooming toward the water, now my nemesis beckoning me, luring and tempting me to give up the fight.
The cord tightened one last time and I came to an abrupt stop, suspended above the bay—so close I could feel the salt spray on my skin.
I filled my lungs with air and screamed. I kicked and thrashed about, trying to break the harness that had just saved my life. Aaron was so close to me, I needed to grab him and pull him out of the water. I was vaguely
aware of the Coast Guard boat nearby, the sound of the engine revving, the fumes of the diesel gagging me.
I heard the crackle of the Coast Guard’s radio and then Cheryl’s voice frantically shouting, “Hoist him up! Holy Christ! Hoist him up!”
I raised my head and was surprised to see the Coast Guard boat so close. Without words the entire crew had sprung into action. But one camera was still trained on me. The other camera zoomed in on Aaron.
I felt a jolt and realized I was being raised back toward the bridge.
“No, no, stop! Let me go—I can reach him!” I yelled.
Then the hoist on Aaron’s harness began to crank and he was lifted out of the water.
His dripping, lifeless form hung like a rag doll from the bungee.
Diana Orgain is the USA Today bestselling author of the Love or Money Mysteries (A First Date with Death), the Maternal Instincts Mysteries, and coauthor of Gilt Trip with Laura Childs in the New York Times bestselling Scrapbooking Mysteries. She holds an MFA and BA in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University with a minor in Acting. Diana’s plays have been produced at San Francisco State University, GreenHouses Productions, and PlayGround in San Francisco. She lives in the city with her husband and their children. Visit the author online at dianaorgain.com.
Looking for more?
Visit Penguin.com for more about this author and a complete list of their books.
Discover your next great read!
