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  Shadow of Misgivings

  Margot Harris Book 5

  Nora Kane

  Shadow of Misgivings by Nora Kane Copyright © 2021 by Nora Kane.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher. It is illegal to copy this book, post it to a website, or distribute it by any other means without permission. This book is a work of fiction. Any reference to real people or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the authors imagination and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Books by Nora Kane

  1. Secrets of Woodcrest Manor

  2. Wolverine Harbor Novellas Series

  Book 1 - The Veil of Deceit

  Book 2 - The Veil of Envy

  Book 3 - The Veil of Vengeance

  3. Emmy Grimm Series

  Book 1 - Lured

  Book 2 - Chased

  Book 3 - Blindsided

  4. Margot Harris Series

  Book 1 - Shadow of Greed

  Book 2 - Shadow of Pretense

  Book 3 - Shadow of Suspicion

  Book 4 - Shadow of Betrayal

  Book 5 - Shadow of Misgivings

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  When the Patriarch of the Woodcrest Family was found dead in the flowerbed under his bedroom window, the local police department called it suicide. His son hired Private detective Emmy wanting to uncover the real truth behind his father's death. Surrounded by so many individuals who could benefit from his death, now the responsibility is on Emmy to figure out who was responsible. When Emmy starts to talk to the heirs the Woodcrest family's secrets begin to emerge.

  Table of Content

  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

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  Prologue

  “Sorry man, but business is business.”

  “He could have at least heard what I was proposing.”

  “It’s clear he wasn’t interested.”

  “How about you? You interested?”

  The man smiled and shook his head. “Come on, bro, we both know there’s nothing you can propose that will come close to the scratch we’re making from them.”

  Mal had nothing to say to that. He certainly didn’t want to tell the man he was right.

  “You know if I go with you, I’m going to go slow, right?” Mal asked.

  “What do you mean ‘go slow’?”

  “I mean when he kills me, he’s going to take his time about it. He’s going to torture me.”

  Mal could tell the man in front of him, the oldest of the group, couldn’t care less. The kid behind him though? He looked concerned.

  “Don’t look at him,” the big man directly in front of him said, “he’s not going to help you. The question is, do you want to walk out of here like a man on your feet? Or do you want us to carry you out like a little bitch?”

  “Is there a third option?”

  “Not really.”

  Mal nodded and hung his head like he was sad about his impending demise. True, he wasn’t happy about it, but that’s not why he’d taken the stance.

  “Is he going to cry?” one of the trio of would-be abductors asked.

  “I hope not,” the big man standing in front of him said. He bent down so he was eye level with Mal and lifted his chin before he said, “Come on, man. I didn’t figure you to be the type to get all weepy.”

  When Mal lifted his head, he’d taken the little twenty-five caliber pistol—what they used to call a Saturday Night Special—out of his boot. It wasn’t something he advertised, but he’d been carrying the little cheap five shot pistol there ever since his days as a cop.

  He put it under the big man’s chin and growled, “I’m not crying. Even if I was, it wouldn’t be for me. I’d be crying for you because you and your boys need to do what I say or you’re a dead man and you don’t really look like the type who can follow directions.”

  “Come on, man. What are you going to do with that little peashooter?”

  “Send a bullet through the bottom of your chin and up through your brain for starters,” Mal said as he stood up.

  The man with the gun under his chin stood up with him. Mal remembered that, when they had come in, the big dude had snatched his Glock 21 from the nightstand and stuck it in his belt. Mal took the gun and pointed it at the man behind him on the left while he kept the gun under the other man’s chin.

  This did nothing to stop the man to his right from drawing his gun and pointing it Mal’s way.

  “You sure you want to do this?” Mal asked him. “Once the shooting starts in this kind of situation, things tend to go bad for everybody.”

  The man didn’t lower his gun.

  Mal pulled the trigger on the Saturday night special as the man with it under his chin tried to grab it.

  As Mal predicted, things went back for everybody. Some worse than others.

  Chapter 1

  Margot didn’t think much about the motorcycle making noise in the parking lot below her apartment. Plenty of tenants had bikes. She was too busy reading a book and sipping on a glass of Maker’s Mark over ice to be concerned about a neighbor whose motorcycle needed a new muffler.

  She thought about it, though, when there was a knock on her door soon after the sound died down. Instead of using the peephole, she took a peek from behind the curtains on the front window. Marv, wearing his normal uniform of a leather vest with a Devil Racer’s MC patch on the back over a tee-shirt and blue jeans, was standing by the door waiting patiently for her to answer.

  Marv was Mal’s older brother. They looked a lot alike, Mal was taller but Marv was thicker. Though no one would call Mal fashionable, he was the better dresser. Margot couldn’t think of a time she’d seen Marv wear anything but a variation of his current outfit. Both brothers liked tattoos. Marv’s right arm was completely covered and his left was getting there.

  Margot considered whether or not she should answer. It wasn’t like she and Marv were friends. Mal got along with his brother about as well as Margot and Mal were getting along these days, which was not at all. Marv, being five years older and already deep into the outlaw biker gang thing, had been angry when Mal became a cop. He was even more upset when Mal got himself kicked out of the police. Marv was an ‘if you start something you finish it’ type of guy even when it came to things he didn’t like his brother starting in the first place. As far as Margot could tell he never liked her much either. She didn’t figure this was a social call.

  “I see you looking through the curtains, Margot,” he said to the door. “I’ll just keep coming back.”

  Margot didn’t think, despite his animosity towards her, that he was here to do her harm, but after recent events, she didn’t trust her instincts as much as she used to. She slung her purse over her shoulder and undid the zipper so she would have quick access to the weapons she kept in the big pocket. Depending on the threat level, she could snatch a can of mace, a telescoping baton, or a short-barreled S&W forty caliber.
r />   Margot opened the door. “What can I do for you, Marv?”

  “You still favoring that Makers over ice?”

  “I am, but I doubt you stopped by for a drink.”

  “I didn’t. but that doesn’t mean I don’t want one. I know you don’t like me much, but I was hoping to ask you some questions and I figure if we keep it friendly I’ll have a better chance at getting answers.”

  “Maybe if you give me an idea of what you want to ask me about and I’ll consider offering you a drink.”

  Marv shrugged before he said, “I wanted to ask you about my brother.”

  “I don’t know what I can tell you, we aren’t on the best of terms right now.”

  “I heard. When was the last time you saw him? Or talked to him?”

  “Why?”

  Marv didn’t like being questioned. It was clear he wanted to be the one asking the questions, but he seemed to remember what he’d said about keeping it friendly and replied, “He’s missing. I’m worried something happened to him.”

  “Did things change between you two? Last I checked, you weren’t communicating enough to know if he was missing or not.”

  “No, nothing really changed, I suppose. He reached out to me. We might not get along, but we’re still family. If he asks for my help, I’ve got his back. He wanted help and I said yes. When it came time to get that help, he was nowhere to be found. He isn’t answering his phone and he ain’t at the house.”

  “I don’t suppose you can tell me what kind of help he wanted?”

  “I can.”

  “You like your whiskey neat or over ice?”

  “Neat.”

  “Alright. Come in and sit down. I’ll pour you one.”

  “Thanks, Margot.”

  Marv sat on the couch opposite the easy chair Margot had been sitting in. She brought in the bottle and tumbler, refreshed her drink, and then poured two fingers for Marv.

  She sat and took a sip of her drink before asking again, “What kind of help did Mal want?”

  Marv laughed. “You know I came here to ask you questions.”

  “You should have known better.”

  Marv laughed again and then told her, “You know, for the most part, the Racers are just a bunch of guys who dig riding bikes, but for better or worse, there’s more to us than that. Some are in deeper than others. Mal wanted me to hook him up with someone immersed in the outlaw side of Racer operations.”

  “He say why?”

  “No, and I didn’t ask. That kind of thing is usually better not to know. He also asked for a place to lay low a while. He said he might be in some trouble. I didn’t ask about that either.”

  Margot could have told him what the trouble was but she didn’t.

  “I put him up at a clubhouse and set up the meeting. The next thing I know, Manny is calling me asking why my brother didn’t show up. I head out to the clubhouse to ask him the same thing, Manny isn’t somebody you want to be on the bad side of and Mal didn’t do me any favors not showing up. His car is still there, but he isn’t.”

  “So, you start looking for him.”

  “Yeah. So, have you seen him?”

  “Not for a couple of weeks.”

  “You know what he might want with a guy like Manny?”

  “No idea.”

  “How about who he was hiding from?”

  “I have an idea on that one.”

  When Margot didn’t elaborate, Marv asked, “Could you share it with me?”

  “Mal and I got on the wrong side of one of the cartels a while back.”

  “That was a dumb thing to do.”

  “Yeah it was, but it wasn’t like we set out to do it. The whole thing started with an infidelity case that wasn’t what it seemed. It got worse from there when I decided not to let them murder me and a house full of people.”

  “Yet, you’re still alive and I don’t see you hiding.”

  Margot nodded and drank some more whiskey before she told him, “Maybe I shouldn’t be the first and should be doing the second. From what I understand, a deal was made and Mal and I are in the clear.”

  “He wasn’t acting like someone in the clear.”

  “Yeah, he told me we might not have been as much in the clear as we thought and I think there was something to it. They sent someone who made a deal with Mal to kill a man. That was supposed to make things square, but I didn’t let him do it. If you’re wondering why we had a falling out, that was it. After all that, the deal to get them off our backs was still made, but according to Mal, the guy they sent didn’t see our business with him as being completed.”

  “You said him, not them.”

  “You don’t miss much do you?”

  “I miss plenty, but I didn’t miss that one.”

  “You’re right. The deal was with the cartel. Mal thought this guy was operating independently.”

  “Why? I’m assuming he’s a pro, so if no one’s paying, why bother?”

  “I don’t know, pride? Maybe he sees having a loss on his record as bad for business.”

  “That makes some sense. This guy have a name?”

  “Mal called him ‘the cowboy’ because he dressed like a cowboy. Other than that, I’ve got nothing.”

  Marv leaned back and sighed.

  “Sorry. I know that probably wasn’t much help.”

  “I know more now than I did when I came in and knowing shit is never a bad thing. I heard one of the things you do now that you’ve gone private is find people.”

  “That is one of the services I offer.”

  “I heard you were good at it.”

  “You heard that?”

  “I did. Like I said, knowing shit is a good thing. Is my information accurate?”

  “I’d like to think so.”

  “Well, I’ve got a person I’d like to find.”

  “You want to hire me?”

  “No, I want you to do this free because it’s Mal, but I’d understand why you might not want to. Following him hasn’t exactly been good for you.”

  “I’m doing fine, but I still have bills to pay.”

  “Family discount?”

  “We’re not family.”

  “You’re more family to Mal than I ever was. We may not be blood, but I’m no stranger walking in off the street.”

  “Fine, twenty percent off the normal rate.”

  “I figured the family rate was closer to fifty.”

  “Are you negotiating with your brother’s life on the line?”

  “I’m just asking.”

  “Well, don’t. Take the twenty percent or hit the bricks.”

  “You’ve got a deal. Where do we start?”

  “The last place you saw him.”

  “The clubhouse. Do we start tonight?”

  “Tomorrow morning. I’m meeting a friend for dinner.”

  “You know, I wanted to get started today.”