Green Jewel

GREEN JEWEL THE PAINTED DAISIES BOOK 2 LJ EVANS This book is a work of fiction. While reference might be made to actual historical events or existing people and locations, the events, names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. GREEN JEWEL © 2023 by LJ Evans All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored, in any retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior written permission of the publisher of this book. If you find this book on a free book website, it is stolen property and illegal to download. Published by THAT’S WHAT SHE SAID PUBLISHING www.ljevansbooks.com Cover Design: © Emily Wittig Cover Images: © Unsplash | weston m, Deposit Photos | VadimVasenin and Dekues, iStock| Punnarong, and Shutterstock | Alex Manders Content & Line Editor: Evans Editing Copy Editor: Jenn Lockwood Editing Services Proofing: Karen Hrdlicka Sensitivity Editor: Evans Editing, Kathryn Nolan Library of Congress Cataloging in process. Paperback ISBN: 979-8-88643-912-0 eBook ISBN: 979-8-88643-911-3 Printed in the United States 040823 CONTENTS Playlist Prologue Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Chapter 25 Chapter 26 Chapter 27 Chapter 28 Chapter 29 Chapter 30 Chapter 31 Chapter 32 Chapter 33 Chapter 34 Epilogue CHERRY BRANDY - SNEAK PEEK Message from the Author Acknowledgments About the Author Other Titles by LJ Evans https://spoti.fi/3fylO6M For those brave enough to show the world who they really are, and the families who hold them up in the light. PROLOGUE NO BODY, NO CRIME Performed by Taylor Swift EIGHTEEN MONTHS BEFORE FIADH: I hired you three weeks ago. What do you have for me? ANGEL: Patience. FIADH: You came to me. You offered to do this. ANGEL: Do you want the truth, or do you want conspiracy theories? FIADH: The truth. ANGEL: Then, patience. FIFTEEN MONTHS BEFORE ANGEL: A money trail started around the time of Landry’s murder. It’s passed through several shell corporations. He’s hiding something. FIADH: He actually paid someone…to…God, I can’t even type it. ANGEL: This isn’t a one-time payment. It’s the same amount every month. FIADH: To the baby momma, maybe? ANGEL: There’s no trace of her either since a year after the birth. FIADH: So, you’re telling me something happened to yet another woman he knew? ANGEL: I’m saying she dropped out of CHAPTER ONE Fiadh THAT DAY Performed by Natalie Imbruglia NINE DAYS BEFORE Fiadh ran down the hotel hallway with her heart pounding as loud as her feet in her clunky Doc Martens. Fear, anger, and guilt blended together into a swell of emotions so large they compressed the air in her lungs until she was gasping. Her bodyguard was on her heels. He’d barely said the awful words before she’d fled the room, desperate for one thing―to get to Paisley. Standing outside in the muggy air left over from the storm, she cursed the amount of time it took the detail to bring her a car. Once she was safely inside, nausea took over, making her wish she was anywhere but the back seat. Fee’s body shook until it felt like it would implode, or explode, or some version