Harlequin's Deception (The Naked Truth Series Book 1) Read online

  Harlequin’s

  Deception

  The Naked Truth Series

  By

  Candi Fox

  Copyright © 2017 by Candi Fox

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, except in the case of brief quotations in critical reviews, without permission of the author

  This book is a work of fiction. The characters, names, events, and places are fictitious and products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any similarities to actual persons, living or dead, places or events is entirely coincidental.

  Cover design: © Karen Williams

  Edited by: Avril Stepowski

  www.aveseditservice.com

  ISBN-13: 978-1545240250

  ISBN-10: 1545240256

  Table of Contents

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

  CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

  CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

  DEDICATION

  “I could not, at any age, be content to take my place by the fireside and simply look on. Life was meant to be lived. Curiosity must be kept alive. One must never, for whatever reason, turn his back on life.”

  – Eleanor Roosevelt

  Many people have encouraged and inspired me to write The Naked Truth Series. In truth, I’m writing this series for me. I needed Harley in my life. I needed her to do and say the things I do not always have the courage to. Harley is a strong female that is much like many of you. She’s had her share of hard knocks in life. She chose to go on. Step by step, she has reached her goals in life. Instead of hiding she rode on and continued with life.

  This book is for all of you. Any person that has felt the crush of life, yet continued on. To all who have ever shed a tear, felt hopeless, wondered how they got here. For those that never fail to put on their big girl panties. I watched my mom go through many tough situations. As a child, those situations though not fully realized were felt on many levels. As an adult, I never wonder where I got my strength from. The energy to keep on going regardless of what life throws at you, is an ability that she taught me.

  Cheers to the wonder woman locked inside each of us. To the inner goddess who is often hidden, waiting to be realized. Step forward like our kickass heroine and grab life by the balls.

  Cher, Demi Moore, RuPaul, Lady Gaga, thank you for being positive influences in my life.

  CHAPTER ONE

  “You have a most unusual name, tell me how your parents decided on it?”

  Ahh, small talk, Harley wasn’t into small talk, on the other hand, the guy across the table was hot. Really hot, so she would do her best to wade through the tedious part.

  “My parents are big fans of old Hollywood movies. “Platinum Blonde” is my father’s favorite movie. He is in love with Jean Harlowe. My mother’s favorite movie is the 1946 version of “The Blue Dahlia” with Veronica Lake. I’m named after Jean Harlowe and Veronica Lake. Kelly is my married name.”

  He smiled at her, his perfect white teeth showing. “Harlowe Lake Kelly is a beautiful name. I like the way it rolls off the tongue.”

  She wished something else would roll off his tongue, or rather across his tongue. She smiled at him. Ok girl, slow your roll.

  What she really wanted to do was undress him, gag him, and have her way with his hot body. Just a little BDSM. Christian Gray has it all wrong. Harley liked to be in charge, although there was one exception to that rule. Her exception was a man she called Cowboy. He was an entirely different story. This wasn’t the time to tie anyone up or to be tied up. Instead, she would endure the small talk and hope it paid off in the end.

  They ordered drinks and dinner. The small talk continued. He was intelligent, handsome, and seemed to genuinely care about what she had to say.

  Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad after all, she thought, sipping on her second glass of wine. Roger Davies was a handsome, successful man. He was worth investing a little time in. The waiter had just brought their food when her phone rang.

  “This is Harley.”

  “Harley, this is Lieutenant Meyers. We have an emergency call and we need you to get here right away.”

  “Anyone else on backup? I’m a little busy right now.”

  “Yes, but I think we need your expertise, Harley. I don’t trust this to anyone else.”

  “Must be big. Give me the address Meyers, I will be there as soon as I can.”

  Harley made apologies to her date and said she would call him tomorrow. Ten minutes later she was in her Escalade headed toward Ardmore, Oklahoma. The lieutenant told her that a group of college students had reported a gargoyle on the loose.

  A little over ten years ago, the paranormal world exploded into the normal world. Since then life had not been the same. Harley had been a practicing witch at the time, what she didn’t know was that she was a generational witch and preternatural or paranormal abilities ran in her family.

  After “The Shift”, which is what the day became known as, her mother and grandmother began to display magical abilities as well. They weren’t as strong as Harley’s, yet they were there.

  The world was now full of vampires, werewolves, gargoyles, and so many more things, that were once only fairytales. Being a witch was one of the more acceptable paranormal entities. As it was, she still received hate mail every day. She would hate to be a werewolf or vampire.

  In the beginning, nearly every type of paranormal entity had been hunted, shunned, and murdered in cold blood. The world, did not take kindly to finding out the things in their movies and story books were actually real.

  It had only been two years ago, that the world had started creating laws to protect the paranormal world. She firmly believed the only reason any laws were in place, was due to the fact that the paranormal entities stopped fighting each other and unified. They decided to start an all-out war with the rest of the world.

  The thought terrified the “normal” people of the world and laws quickly passed across the globe giving them protection. America had the most accepting laws by far and began to see an influx of paranormal entities flooding its borders.

  Harley had been married at the time of the shift. She remembered the look on David’s face that first morning. She was sound asleep when she thought she heard a muffled scream.

  She had. David seemed nearly terrified that her long honey blonde hair had turned the deep red color of cooling blood. He had been up watching the news and had come back into the bedroom to check on her. Anything that
wasn’t normal, or explainable by science had always thrown David off kilter.

  That his own wife might be something other than human was unacceptable. Paranormal beings around the world began to come out of the proverbial closet.

  More than sixty percent of the people had no idea they were paranormal until the shift. The world went wild, as newly transformed people suddenly became super-powered paranormal entities. Many of them had no clue how to control what they had become.

  Some event had taken place while the world slept. It stirred what was locked deep inside many people. Those deep inner thoughts, those daytime fantasies, and even longing dreams while they slept, had now become a reality.

  For Harley, it had awakened generations old magic. She found out later she came from an ancient line of witches that had been “asleep” for over a hundred years. No one in their family knew about it. Though all the women in her family had awakened that day, none of them carried the amount of power that she seemed to have.

  Harley was still researching her heritage, but there seemed to be more questions than answers about the paranormal world. Her blood red hair was one of those questions. She knew it had something to do with her bloodline, but no one else’s hair in the family had turned.

  He hated her from that moment on. Their marriage was over that morning. While he hadn’t gone out and filed for divorce he had moved out of their bedroom saying that he didn’t know if it was safe or not.

  He convinced her that she could be dangerous to herself and others because she had no idea what kind of “creature” she had become.

  It had taken months for most of the paranormal entities to sort out what they were. She had felt an undeniable draw to the craft she already practiced, only now she was much more powerful.

  She had always been a witch. She was just a different kind of witch now. Not every practicing witch had paranormal powers, in fact, only about one in ten thousand actually had any kind at all.

  Harley’s magic went beyond chants, spells, and rituals. It became a being of its own. Something she could draw upon as innately as one drew a breath.

  David died in an accident the following year. She had been devastated. In some ways, she still was. She never stopped loving him, although he seemed to hate her.

  Life with him had been miserable. She had hoped he would come to his senses and go back to being the wonderful loving man she thought he always was.

  Looking back, though, there had been problems the whole time. She had just not seen them. She had been so in love with David, she thought it was just normal.

  Harley was a curvy girl and David was the captain of the college football team. He was an all-star who was slated for the pro’s before he had a career ending injury his senior year.

  As the miles went by she continued to think of her life with David. Life was much better without him, at least that is what her head said. Her heart always told her differently.

  Harley tucked away the memories and pulled out newer ones. She studied everything she could about the paranormal world after the shift. She had needed to know what she was and what was now in the world.

  Gargoyles started out as architecture designed to move excess water from the roof. Most were designed with spouts coming out of their mouths. The Catholic Church used gargoyles to illustrate evil.

  During medieval times gargoyles were believed to be protection against evil. The church believed they would keep away the terrible spirits.

  It is believed that they came alive each night after sundown and became the protectors of the buildings they were attached too.

  Made of stone, gargoyles were thought to be unstoppable warriors in the fight against evil. They were noble warriors who fought on the side of God.

  These stone warriors were often carved with horns, wings, claws and ferocious faces. Some with beaks, others bordered on being handsome.

  When the shift occurred, the gargoyles became real. Some of them with little intelligence were sold to the highest bidder in the form of employment, while others were higher in intelligence and became every bit as functional as a vampire or werewolf.

  Either way, they were incredibly strong and nearly impossible to kill. Their skin was as hard as stone, and they had magical protections. All the centuries of people believing in them as guardians had imbued them with magical protection.

  Harley would have to use a combination of magic and the sword that she always carried. Her friend Emery had enchanted the sword to pull from a small pocket dimension. Harley had a replica of the sword tattooed on her back. She pulled the sword from the tattoo.

  It wasn’t a normal tattoo. It had to be done the ancient way which meant tapping it into her skin one dot at a time. It had been painful but well worth it.

  CHAPTER TWO

  It took Harley two hours to get to the site. Lieutenant Meyers, head of the supernatural task force, was waiting for her by his squad truck.

  She had worked with him over the past three years since she opened an agency in the area. Harley had one of the top witch firms in the nation and was highly sought after.

  “Harley, over here.” The lieutenant waved her over as soon as she opened the door of her SUV.

  He didn’t waste time filling Harley in.

  “Five students reported they saw a gargoyle about three and a half hours ago. No one had heard from them since then. We were able to trace the call to these woods.

  “A team has been out for about an hour combing through the woods. So far, we haven’t seen the students or the gargoyle. We could really use your expertise.”

  “I don’t suppose we lucked out and have a personal item?”

  “No, sorry. Nothing to go by, just your raw talent.”

  Harley smiled cheekily at the older man. He was Tom Selleck handsome, only with gray hair at his temples. She had no idea how old he was, only that he was happily married.

  If he hadn’t been, Harley would have tried much harder to get him in bed. He was so attractive, in so many ways. She still flirted shamelessly with him. Good thing he viewed it with a great sense of humor.

  “I am talented in so many ways.” She smiled broader and winked at him.

  He shook his head and filled her in on everything he knew before turning her loose.

  She was walking away when she felt a hand on her shoulder. “Hey, be careful out there kiddo.”

  She blushed a little and smiled softly. He really would be amazing in so many ways, if he were single.

  Harley mock saluted him. “Will do.”

  It was colder out here than she originally thought. Heading back to her SUV she grabbed her cloak and gloves donning them before heading to the woods.

  Good thing she never wore stiletto heels. The knee-high boots sported four-inch heels, but they were much sturdier than a stiletto. Sexy, but sturdy.

  CHAPTER THREE

  The wind whipped around them picking up her skirt and blowing her cloak behind her like some movie scene.

  A group of four men followed behind her, close, but not too close. She was the paranormal expert on the team and they were the muscle.

  Harley had previously worked with two of the four men before, and they knew her method of operation. The men spread out in a flank behind her keeping silent following her lead.

  She needed to concentrate keeping all her senses open. She reached out several yards in front of the group searching for signs of life.

  All she felt was normal, garden variety wildlife. The fall leaves crunching on the ground was the only noise as they swept the surrounding area. They should have seen or heard something by now.

  Harley found it odd that there was no sign of the students or any trace of the gargoyle. Suddenly a chill ran down her entire body. They had crossed a ward. A powerful ward.

  The power in her mouth tasted like vampire. Very old vampire. Shit just got real. She stopped, making the signal for the group to halt.

  “We just crossed a ward. If I’m correct it’s a vampire’s ward. A ve
ry powerful vampire.”

  She heard one of the new men scoff. “If it’s a powerful ward how did we cross it so easily?”

  A smile tugged the corner of her lips. “Easy, the ward was not meant to keep us out. It’s meant to tell the property owner that he/she has company.”

  The new guy looked at her as if she had three heads, then spoke.

  “How do you know that?”

  Harley’s first reaction was to tell him, it’s a witch thing and you wouldn’t understand.

  “Don’t you know anything about vampires?”

  “Yes, they suck blood.”

  “Ooh, a real smart guy.” Harley turned to the senior officer.

  “Rick, where did you get this one? Nursery school?”

  Rick chuckled. “It’s a possibility, this is his virgin run.”

  “Oh, a virgin. I haven’t had one of those in a long time.”

  Harley was about to say more when her senses pricked. She quickly gave the signal for silence. Something was coming.

  The gargoyle swooped down above their heads before gliding off deeper into the forest. The strong wind and chatter had prevented them from hearing it approach them.

  Close call. After that, she was all business. Casting a shield spell on them she led them deeper into the forest following the gargoyle.

  Stopping a few times she cast her senses out beyond them to see if she sensed any other life forms. She knew that the vampire that had set the ward was old and powerful.

  Contrary to belief, not all old vampires were powerful and not all powerful vampires were old. In this case, though, she sensed the vampire was old and very powerful.

  She hoped they didn’t run into him or her tonight. She hadn’t had a chance to prepare any potions or have any of her magical weapons that would help them against a vampire. Save her sword, of course, that was always with her. The sword did not give her preternatural strength or speed. It would still do aggravated damage to anything supernatural.

  She thought quickly about a paper and dice game she played a few times in college. Her weapon was like a plus one sword, it did damage that normal weapons wouldn’t do.