Hearts on Fire 5: Loving Frankie (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Read online

  Hearts on Fire 5: Loving Frankie

  Francesca “Frankie” Sonoma is just trying to survive. She’s put the past behind her. A dirty cop ex boyfriend, a gangster who wants her in his bed, and fearful events that caused her to run for her life and start anew. The last thing she expected was to find hope and love in a place called Treasure Town.

  Frankie’s getting tired of pretending to be someone she’s not. She thinks she’s found true love in four brothers who share her and truly show they care. She’s almost forgotten about her ex and the past and when her guard is down, the unexpected happens. Her ex finds her, a gangster wants her for his own, and she’s the witness to confessions of crime federal agents need to bring the bad guys down. Now it will take her will to live, and the love and determination of four men just trying to love Frankie and have their happily ever after.

  Genre: Contemporary, Ménage a Trois/Quatre

  Length: 73,647 words

  HEARTS ON FIRE 5: LOVING FRANKIE

  Dixie Lynn Dwyer

  MENAGE EVERLASTING

  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com

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  A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK

  IMPRINT: Ménage Everlasting

  HEARTS ON FIRE 5: LOVING FRANKIE

  Copyright © 2015 by Dixie Lynn Dwyer

  E-book ISBN: 978-1-63259-119-7

  First E-book Publication: March 2015

  Cover design by Les Byerley

  All art and logo copyright © 2015 by Siren Publishing, Inc.

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.

  All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.

  PUBLISHER

  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com

  Letter to Readers

  Dear Readers,

  If you have purchased this copy of Hearts on Fire 5: Loving Frankie by Dixie Lynn Dwyer from BookStrand.com or its official distributors, thank you. Also, thank you for not sharing your copy of this book.

  Regarding E-book Piracy

  This book is copyrighted intellectual property. No other individual or group has resale rights, auction rights, membership rights, sharing rights, or any kind of rights to sell or to give away a copy of this book.

  The author and the publisher work very hard to bring our paying readers high-quality reading entertainment.

  This is Dixie Lynn Dwyer’s livelihood. It’s fair and simple. Please respect Dixie Lynn Dwyer’s right to earn a living from her work.

  Amanda Hilton, Publisher

  www.SirenPublishing.com

  www.BookStrand.com

  DEDICATION

  Dear readers,

  Thank you for purchasing this legal copy of Hearts on Fire 5: Loving Frankie.

  It is not easy to lose the only family you have and the special things that remind you of them. Frankie is holding on to that perfect image of a cop. Men like her father and brother who gave their lives to the job and lost their lives on the job. So when her brother’s best friend, a cop, promises to care for her and love her, she accepts because she’s used to what good cops do and how a brotherhood so strong cannot be broken.

  It’s too late when she realizes that her brother’s friend Kevin is a good cop gone bad. Now his troubles and problems become hers. She needs to disappear after being stabbed and a witness to confessions of murder.

  A woman set on freeing herself from the past and some bad mistakes, Frankie heads to Bayline near Treasure Town to begin a new life and remain under the radar. The last thing she expects is to fall in love and learn to trust the Hawkins brothers.

  Just as she’s learning to trust them and reveal her past and what she ran from, the men she escaped from have found her and they’re ready to take her back.

  But Frankie’s a different woman. She’ll give her life to protect her lovers, her best friend, and the kind, giving people of Treasure Town. True love is worth fighting for even in the darkest hours while staring death head on.

  May you enjoy Frankie’s story and her fight for true love.

  Happy reading!

  Hugs!

  ~Dixie~

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Dedication

  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

  About the Author

  HEARTS ON FIRE 5: LOVING FRANKIE

  DIXIE LYNN DWYER

  Copyright © 2015

  Prologue

  Francesca “Frankie” Sonoma stared at Kevin as he spoke into his cell phone. He was tall and handsome, a street cop, a detective with the attitude and charisma of a gangster. She felt that tightness in her chest at her own description of her boyfriend, her lover, the man she thought she was destined to be with. A street cop gone bad guy, Kevin was corrupt every which way from Sunday. She should have seen it coming.

  How had she been so stupid? Why was there such a deep need to keep a connection to a first responder, a cop? So what if her father was a cop, as were her brother, Mickey, and her uncle, who had all died in the line of duty. She was alone. Her aunt had lost her mind after her husband passed away, and she had been no help to Francesca, a woman finishing up college and trying to get a job. That had been a few years ago. Now here she was, twenty-three, successful in the advertising firm, and thinking that she needed to leave town. She had to disappear, but how could she with Kevin knowing her every move and keeping his hold on her tight?

  At first she’d found his possessiveness arousing. But as the months passed, and she finally slept with him, he’d become obsessed. She realized that a very fine line existed between possessiveness and obsession. But now it was too late. Now she was stuck, with no one around to help her.

  Francesca knew that a psychiatrist would have a field day with her. She was weak and all alone. Now Kevin was in deep wi
th some other dirty cops and a group of drug dealers. She sat at clubs and bars where Kevin would meet up with these men in private rooms and discuss certain transactions. At first they used code words, so as to not only keep things secretive but also to protect themselves from incriminating evidence. It wasn’t as though they really believed that the Feds were listening in. It was more a macho attitude that they were so good, so successful in their crimes of illegal money laundering, drug and gun dealing, and God knew what else, that they were unstoppable. That arrogance apparently had led to Kevin’s frantic state of mind today. He picked her up for lunch, and she had been prepared to try and break things off with him. She recited her speech. The one about needing some time apart to breathe and to work on her career. She was moving up the corporate ladder in the advertising firm of Franklin and Hursch. She could be a CEO, but she feared Kevin’s reaction.

  It was time. She’d had enough. Enough of the lies, the manipulation, and the constant promises that Kevin was getting out, was going to take her away from Chicago to live a normal life. She was done wasting her youth on him. The older, gorgeous, strong cop she’d fallen in love with had turned out to be the complete opposite of her father and Mickey. She started thinking more like a cop than his lover and girlfriend. In fact, she’d recently taken notes, writing down names he mentioned, locations of events, shipments, and even the code words and what she thought they meant. She figured she never knew if she might need those. It was information that she could probably be killed for, but it was also a little extra security. This new way of thinking made her realize it was definitely time to get out and get away from Kevin.

  Frankie watched him pace. The holster and gun, the detective’s shield, and his well-maintained body were no longer enough to make her stay with him. Her heart pounded. Her mouth felt dry. She anticipated his reaction to her breaking things off. He would be angry. Kevin angry wasn’t a good thing, especially how he lashed out at her. In the last several months, he would yank her hair or squeeze her wrist to get her attention. When they had sex, it went from slow and passionate to rough, him hurting her as he took from her body. She had bruises on her ribs and her hips from his manhandling. The kisses he applied afterward, and the profession of passion and lust he felt for her body and how he lost himself because of her, was no longer acceptable and erotic. It was abusive. She knew it in her gut that this wasn’t right. That she didn’t want to feel like an object but as an equal, a precious gift to love and cherish.

  She had fallen for his charms and his sexual experience as an older man in his thirties, but it wasn’t enough. He would only bring her down. She was a good girl, a college graduate, a woman who came from a law enforcement family that had all died in the line of duty. It was too late, and she was in deep with him when she realized the truth. Kevin wasn’t the man she’d made him out to be.

  She was alone with no family, and she thought Kevin had represented everything she wanted and everything that reminded her of her own family. She had been wrong. Hearing his conversation now, as well as the names he was throwing out there, she knew things were worse than she had suspected.

  They were names she read about in the newspapers. Gangsters, corrupt businessmen, politicians, and criminals. Well-known ones. Ones she knew the Feds or, at the minimum, local special crime units should be investigating. It made her feel sick, used, and stupid. Now how the hell was she going to end this and start over? Would Kevin give her the space she needed so she could slowly distance herself until he got the message? Or would he freak out, perhaps strike her or threaten her? She looked at him. He was more than capable of that. He was capable of worse.

  “Details. I need details,” he yelled into the cell phone.

  Kevin glanced at her as she jumped from his intense tone and gave her a wink. He reached out and stroked his finger along her jaw then gently brushed his thumb along her lower lip. That sexy expression used to set her body on fire and make her putty in his hands. Not now. Not anymore. She also couldn’t minimize the fact that he cheated on her. It was time to draw the line and end it all.

  He pulled back and yelled into the cell phone. Something about a deal and the wrong guy delivering drugs to some place Carlotto owned. Louie Carlotto, the notorious entrepreneur. Carlotto seemed to maintain the attention of the FBI yet remain free instead of behind bars for all the criminal activity associated with him and his various companies. She knew a lot of crap on him. She’d heard a lot of the discussions between him and Kevin, but more importantly, and what she feared the most, was the way Louie Carlotto looked at her. He called her by her first name, Francesca, with authority, with power, and what sounded possessive to her own ears. She never told Kevin about Carlotto’s advances or how he had the nerve to send one of his henchmen to her office with a rose and an envelope containing a phone number. The guy had told her that Mr. Carlotto said to call him. She didn’t.

  A week later she received an envelope at work. No return address, no verification of whom it had come from. Most important were the contents of the package and the words indicating a schedule of Tuesdays and Thursdays at the Hyatt hotel and lounge downtown. It also contained eight-by-ten photographs of Kevin with his tongue down some redhead’s throat and then other pictures. Intimate ones with the whore’s mouth wrapped around Kevin’s cock and others with him screwing her every possible way. Her heart had broken that day, and her entire world shattered. But, still, she couldn’t let go. She didn’t want to believe that the pictures were real or recent. She looked at the address and noted the date as Tuesday.

  She grabbed her purse, her keys, and the address, and headed out of her office. She got downtown in record time and took the elevator to the eighth floor. After pulling out the key card that came with the envelope, she slowly swiped it and watched the red light turn green. Time seemed to stand still as she quietly pushed the door open.

  She heard the sounds. The moans, the banging of furniture. Her legs nearly gave out on her, and her heart sat in her throat ready to choke her.

  She’d rounded the corner and gasped. Never had anything hurt so badly. Never had she wanted to die, to end the heartache, the insult, and the disgust she felt. She would never trust another man again. She would never trust a cop, and she certainly would find it difficult to ever let her guard down and trust anyone.

  Today she’d come here to tell Kevin goodbye and to make him realize that nothing he could say or do would make up for what he’d done to her. Nothing.

  She couldn’t help but be scared. After all, besides sleeping with whores, he was in bed with gangsters.

  “Goddamn it! They fucked this shit up. I don’t believe this. This is the biggest deal of my fucking life and some dick rookie fucks it all up. Fuck!” Kevin roared as he closed up his phone and paced the room.

  She didn’t want to hear about the crimes he was committing. She didn’t want to know anything more. She needed to sever the ties between them. She needed to forget that he was her brother’s friend and the only person she’d had to lean on when Mickey died.

  She stood up, straightened out her skirt, and reached for her bag.

  “I need to go,” she whispered, unable to look at him. If she stared into those dark eyes and that handsome face and saw his controlling expression, she would falter.

  She didn’t want him to restrain her. To put her in one of his bear hugs and make her listen to him. Then she heard him say Oscar Finery. She knew him well. He was the son of a good friend of her father’s. Like her, Oscar came from a family of law enforcement officers. In fact, she’d seen Oscar the day before she received the pictures. She’d told Oscar that Kevin wasn’t the man she thought he was and that things were getting complicated. Oscar had touched her cheek then squeezed her shoulder and offered his support. She smiled at him and had gotten an odd sensation.

  As they’d parted and Oscar told her to call him, she noticed one of Kevin’s so-called friends. That was when she knew he had someone following her.

  She closed her eyes as
he stopped ranting and moved closer. She saw the picture of the redhead. Fake boobs, big ass, and a very wild look in her eyes as Kevin fucked her in the ass. She saw it again. She heard the moans and saw how turned on he was.

  Frankie wouldn’t do that with him. It had taken six months before she gave Kevin her virginity. It took six more for her to suck his cock the way he begged her to do. She had been a virgin, an innocent, inexperienced twenty-one-year-old. She knew nothing about pleasing a man in bed, and Kevin knew it all.

  “Baby, where are you going? You know you can’t leave right now. It’s not a good time. I need you here where I can watch over you.”

  She used to love when he said that. That he was watching over her and protecting her, and that she was his everything.

  He had men spying on her, watching her every move to make sure she wouldn’t cheat on him like he cheated on her.

  “How many have there been?” she asked. He reached for her shoulders and squeezed. She pulled away and took a few steps back.

  “How many what?”

  “How many women have you fucked behind my back, Kevin?”

  He squinted his eyes at her and released a long sigh.

  “I told you that I love you. I only want to be with you. I fucked up, baby. One fucking time and I’m going to make it up to you. This deal, this was supposed to be our ticket out of Chicago, hell, out of the country.”

  “I don’t want that, Kevin. It’s over. I don’t want anything to do with you, your criminal lifestyle, or to pretend you love me and are committed to me. It’s over.”