Somebody's Bound to Wind Up Dead Mystery

Lonely and broke, Cleveland divorce survivor Allie Harper believes all her problems would be solved if she could find a nice, smart, hot guy and enough money to get her car fixed.The hot guy arrives first: he's in a crosswalk clutching a bag of groceries while a blonde in a Hummer is leaning hard on her horn, sending the man's groceries and white cane flying. How has this woman missed the fact that the man is blind? From the curb, an outraged Allie jumps to his rescue, rebagging the groceries as well.The money is in the bag-literally. Thomas Bennington III, for that's who the handsome guy proves to be, has bought a MondoMegaJackpot ticket along with canned tomatoes. Allie takes him home and turns his groceries into dinner for two. Later that night, Tom hears the numbers announced. He's won. And he's less than thrilled. PhD Tom had gambled on the odds of losing (175 million to one) to prove a point to Rune, a kid from the projects he's befriended, that only losers buy lottery tickets. Instead, Rune, who'd helped pick the Mondo numbers, will share Tom's jackpot.Allie and Tom grasp two things: one, they're hot for each other, and two, the ticket is a hot target, and now so are they. Every scheming weasel in Cleveland will be after Tom's $550 million. Yes, once the Mondo ball drops, it's game on with killers and kidnappers as players.Allie and Tom need to get smarter about the threats all around them. On the run from one fancy hotel refuge to another and from one dangerous moment to the next, with only Allie's feisty landlady, Margo, and a couple of Cleveland cops for backup, Allie and Tom evolve a strategy. First, turn in the ticket and claim the jackpot. Second, set up accounts to manage the millions. Third, stay alive to the end of the week ... if they can.

Ten months ago, Allie Harper-smart, feisty, too broke to get her car fixed-rescued Thomas Bennington III-a hot, blind, college professor-from a crosswalk in her dicey Cleveland neighborhood. When Allie saved Tom and his groceries from traffic, she unwittingly retrieved his winning $550 million MondoMegaJackpot ticket. The payout steered the two of them into a wild dash from romance to mayhem and multiple murders.Nothing's changed. Sure, Allie and Tom now reside in a rented nine-thousand-square-foot lakeside mansion with a sky-lit shower and breathtakingly high-thread-count sheets. True, Otis Johnson, Allie's deliverer from last summer's would-be-kidnapper, is now their live-in bodyguard and gourmet chef. Yes, Allie's dream of creating the T&A Detective Agency to solve "mysteries of the heart" by using Tom's money, Otis' P. I. credentials, and Allie's intrepid ... intrepidness ... now has its first case.That's where the real trouble kicks in.Lloyd Bunker's obsession with avoiding stoplights has run him and his '67 Pontiac GTO off the road, maybe for keeps. As they race to figure out what happened to Lloyd, T&A recruits Allie's former nemesis, Officer Tony Valerio, plus her best friend and ex-landlady Margo and television reporter Lisa Cole, to help them follow a lethal trail of escalating crimes ranging from scrapping to pushing opioids to multiple murders. It's no longer just about Lloyd.An assault on the mansion's high-tech security system by a talented hacker signals the presence of a formidable adversary, one with big bucks and a ruthless plan to destroy the lucky couple. As the action ramps up, Allie and Tom are plunged into a high-speed race against danger and death.