Suckered Read online

  LACEY LUZZI: SUCKERED

  LACEY LUZZI: SUCKERED

  Copyright: Gina LaManna

  ISBN: XXXX

  Published: September 2nd, 2016

  Kindle Edition

  The right of Gina LaManna to be identified as author of this Work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in retrieval system, copied in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise transmitted without written permission from the publisher. You must not circulate this book in any format.

  This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be resold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Amazon.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  First and foremost, this book is dedicated to all of the readers who love Lacey as much as I do. Without you, she wouldn’t be here. Thank you for your support, encouragement, and friendship!

  ** **

  To Mom & Dad—Cheers to finally taking that Italy trip—it’s here!

  To Alex—Look for three hidden message bottles around the apartment. Surprise! я тебя люблю!

  To Meg & Kristi—Three sisters, three states, three BFFs.

  To Stacia: For everything you do, and for making this book shine. Plus, a huge happy 29th birthday to you!

  To Kim: Thank you for everything and more. Especially unicorns.

  To my Oceans Apart ladies: Joy, Asheley, and Monique—for always being there!

  To Connie: Thank you for being the first eyes on this book! Your knowledge of brakes is a lifesaver.

  To Angela B: Your idea is coming!

  To Katie Hamachek: For being my only friend to actually read a book.

  To Sprinkles On Top Studios, my awesome cover designer. Photo Courtesy of Deposit Photos

  And last but not least, to all my family and friends, thanks for making me laugh.

  For updates on new releases, please sign up for my newsletter at www.ginalamanna.com.

  Feel free to get in touch anytime via email at [email protected]!

  Contents

  LACEY LUZZI: SUCKERED

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  Synopsis

  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

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Chapter 50

  Epilogue

  The End

  ** **

  OTHER FUN STUFF.

  Synopsis

  When Lacey, Meg, and The Family find themselves buckled into airplane seats and jetting across the Atlantic Ocean, it’s not a sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride sort of flight. Between Meg’s new diet, Lacey’s feverish wedding nightmares, and an unwanted stowaway, the gang’s first trip out of the country promises to be one chaotic disaster.

  As the wheels touch down in Milan, Lacey Luzzi Security Services are back in business in a serious way. The Violet Society, a group of elite, uber-stealthy criminals, have come out of hiding—and Lacey’s tasked with finding them. As if gelaterias and house wines aren’t enough of a distraction, Anthony is swept away by secret business, Carlos uncovers a friend from his past, and Nora’s convinced she’s got a new grandbaby.

  Despite all this, if Lacey can’t put a stop to the thefts, her client will be out millions of dollars. Even worse? If The Violet Society finds her first, she’ll have a lot more to worry about than a few missing jewels.

  ** **

  Chapter 1

  “Nora, no!” I backed away from my grandmother, my pulse pounding. “Please, leave me alone!”

  Nora brandished her bread knife like a sword, chasing after me as I raced through Casa Luzzi. “You need to try it!” Nora called. “Come here. Just try it, Lacey.”

  Gasping for air, I sprinted up the staircase in the Grand Entryway, the red carpet bending beneath my toes. I glanced over my shoulder in horror; although Nora was approaching ninety, she kept up a ridiculous pace, flying through the hallway only steps behind. Turning the corner, I slammed the door to the ballroom shut, leaned against it, and breathed a sigh of relief.

  “There you are.” Meg stood in the center of the wide open room, a devilish grin on her face. “Welcome, Lacey. It’s time to pick your wedding cake.”

  “No, no! It’s all too much. I’m too full,” I said, glancing around at hundreds and thousands of cakes stacked on one another. Somewhere in the back of my brain I knew I loved cake, but this was too much—too much cake, too much sugar, too much of everything. I tried the handle on the door to the ballroom, but somehow it had locked. Trapped.

  “You can’t escape.” Meg stepped closer to me, her eyes flashing. “Try the cake, Lacey.”

  I shook my head, but she grabbed a handful of cake anyway and pushed it toward me. Shrinking against the wall, I slid to the ground, my back pressed against the door. Hugging my knees to my chest, I cowered as far away from my friend as I could get. “Leave me alone!”

  “Try it, Lacey…” Meg got closer and closer until suddenly, I couldn’t breathe. The cake swelled, stealing the oxygen from the room.

  Out of the blue, Nora appeared by my side with Marissa and Clarissa. Together, they shoved a big, fluffy white dress over my head.

  “No,” I screeched, as the dress started to strangle me. “Get it off!”

  “You’re getting married,” the girls said in unison. They sounded like robots. Terrifying robots. “Wear the dress.”

  “Eat that cake.”

  “Smell these flowers.”

  “Taste this chicken.”

  “Pick those invitations.”

  They bombarded me, closing in, sucking the life out of the room until the stars swirled in my head, and…

  “I need help.” Meg elbowed me out of the dream, her forehead furrowed in confusion. “Serious help, chickadee.”

  “Is that right?” I asked, pretending that my hands weren’t trembling and my heart wasn’t racing. My neck was damp with perspiration, and my words sounded slurred. I shook sleep from my brain and focused on the conversation. “What sort of help are we talking about?”

  “Psychological.” Meg dropped her voice to a whisper and shot a suspicious glance around the airplane cabin. “Serious psychological help.”

&
nbsp; “I know you do,” I agreed. Ironically, I wondered if she wasn’t the only one. With all the nightmares I’d been having lately, I might need psychological help, too. “But we should probably wait until we have some privacy to discuss these things. By the way, was I talking in my sleep?”

  I whispered the last part, glancing around the spacious airplane. These particular business class tickets had been purchased by none other than Lizabeth Harriet Morgan the Third in preparation for our second official job as Lacey Luzzi Security Services.

  “Yes, you kept saying ‘Let us eat cake.’” Meg shrugged. “I kept agreeing with you, but you wouldn’t stop talking.”

  I ran a hand over my face. It’d been months since Anthony and I had gotten engaged. He’d proposed back in February. Time had flown by and somehow, the months had turned into August.

  I loved him more than ever, but the stress of thinking about all things wedding was starting to make me crazy. I did want to get married. I didn’t want to end up in the looney bin. However, if I didn’t do something, I’d crack.

  “Here. Color this.” Meg slapped a book in front of me. “I read online that coloring books help calm people down. You’ve been so twitchy lately that it’s making me a little bit nuts. I ordered this special for the plane ride in case you mumbled in your sleep again.”

  “When have you heard me mumbling in my sleep?” I asked. “That’s invasive.”

  “Listen, my problem can’t wait.” Meg’s foot tapped the floor with anxiety. “Let’s call this a time crunch. You color and listen, and meanwhile, you can ask me about my problems.”

  I sighed, thumbing through the book. At least the pictures featured candy. I could get on board with that. “Well, Meg, what sort of psychological issues are you having today?”

  “I need help flirting.”

  I coughed in surprise. “You have a boyfriend.”

  “Sort of a boyfriend. We don’t like labels.”

  “Who are you planning to flirt with, then?”

  Meg nodded across the aisle to where Clay sat with dinner-plate-sized earphones swallowing his skull whole. His eyes were closed, his face white. A fleet of airline staff prepared for takeoff around him. “That hunk of burnin’ love.”

  I winced at her description. Clay was my cousin. Clay was also tall and awkward and a tech-nerd. “Meg, I love you, but you’re nuts. You two are dating! Just hold his hand or something.”

  “I want to keep things spicy, Lace. Exotic.” Meg shivered, eyeing Clay over my lap. “Clay’s a wild, wild man.”

  “You haven’t even been dating a year. Things shouldn’t be stale yet.”

  “Oh, chickie, they’re not stale. Not like you and Anthony—”

  “—we’re definitely not stale,” I said. “No way is our relationship stale.”

  “—but I want to take things to the next level. We’re talking medium salsa to a gallon of Sriracha.”

  “That’s really spicy.”

  “Now you understand me.”

  I squinched my eyes, covering my ears with my hands. “I don’t want to hear it. You forget that I’m related to Clay and therefore have no desire to hear about these details.”

  “It’s just flirting!” Meg gave an exasperated eye roll. “What tickles Anthony’s pickle?”

  “Please refrain from referencing Anthony or pickles in such a manner ever again. I really happen to enjoy pickles.”

  “What makes Anthony tick? Think, Lacey. Little things. This is me asking you for advice, one sister to another. I don’t know that this moment will ever happen again—I usually know everything.”

  My cheeks burned as I glanced a few rows up to where Anthony sat next to Carlos, the two men engrossed in a murmured conversation. “Let me think a minute.”

  “It shouldn’t be this hard.”

  Truthfully, it wasn’t difficult to think of what turned Anthony on—it was more difficult to think of what didn’t. Just the other week I’d walked out of the shower in my “laundry day” undies—a pair of unflattering boy shorts with cupcakes across the behind. They did nothing to flatter my figure. Even so, Anthony had suddenly developed a ravenous sweet tooth.

  Meg poked my shoulder until I answered.

  “Like you said, it’s the little things.” I shrugged, then leaned over and whispered softly into Meg’s ear. “Like this. Just whispering nice things into someone’s ear can do the trick. Or something like this…” I trailed off, grabbing Meg’s hand and running circles with my thumb over her skin. “See? Don’t overthink it.”

  “That’s totally working. You’re definitely almost turning me on.” Meg looked down at her hand, her eyes wide. “Wow, you’re a genius.”

  I dropped her hand, made some disturbed noises, and shifted as far away from her as possible. Thankfully, we were joined by company before Meg could make any more moves.

  “Time to prepare for takeoff.” A pretty, smiling stewardess walked by our row, scanning for fastened seatbelts. “Buckle up, please.”

  “One sec.” Meg raised a hand. Then she lumbered over me, stumbling into the aisle. She patted the stewardess on the shoulder. “Sorry, honey, I just have to try something really fast. You don’t mind waiting, right?”

  The stewardess made a disgruntled noise, but I shook my head. “It’s probably best if you let this play out. It’s faster than arguing with her, I know from experience.”

  The stewardess turned to watch as Meg hip-checked Clay so hard it bumped him from an aisle seat to a middle seat. She plopped down next to him, lifted one of his monster headphones high, and leaned close enough to whisper lovingly into his ear as I’d suggested in Flirting 101.

  Except, instead of whispering softly, all gentle and seductive like I’d demonstrated, she spoke loud enough for the entire cabin to hear. Moreover, she didn’t bother to personalize her words, shouting “Nice things!” straight into Clay’s eardrum.

  Without waiting for a response, she let Clay’s headphones smack back against his head with a resounding clank! Clay wiped his ear free of Meg’s germs and then looked at me, his face flooded with confusion.

  I sighed as Meg climbed back over me and fastened her seatbelt. “How’d I do?” She grinned, sneaked a peek across the aisle, and winked at Clay. “I think it worked.”

  Clay’s face melted into whiteness. He stared at Meg like she’d grown antlers, and he wasn’t sure what to do about it.

  “Sure,” I said, patting her leg. “We’ll work on it. Good thing we have a long flight ahead of us. Let’s get started by reading every edition of Cosmo.”

  The stewardess cleared her throat. “Can I get you ladies anything to drink?”

  Meg raised two fingers. “Champagne, please. Make it a double.”

  Ten minutes later, armed with two glasses of champagne each, Meg and I flipped on a movie as the plane accelerated down the runway, taking off with a rumble. Meg squealed with excitement, and even my heart leapt a few beats. It was my first time out of the country. Meg’s, too.

  “Sit back, relax, and we’ll keep you updated on our progress. We should land in Milan around six p.m. local time. Thank you for flying with Air-Italia!”

  ** **

  A thunk, a clunk, and four girlish screams later, we landed with a resounding screech on the runway. The girly screams came from Clay, the screech from Meg. The rest of the plane landed smoothly and without incident.

  My grandparents sat a few rows ahead of us. I’d never seen anyone move so fast to get off a plane; Carlos threw elbows left and right, pushing his way out of the aircraft without waiting for anyone. This was probably because of Meg.

  During the flight, Meg had joined Carlos at his seat and spent a good chunk of time over the Atlantic Ocean asking detailed questions about how he and Nora had kept their relationship spicy after so many years of marriage.

  My grandmother, full of wine and brimming with smiles, happily told anyone and everyone listening exactly how she liked to keep things fresh. She spared no details, including the feathe
r boa in her closet and the handcuffs in the hidden box under her bed.

  During this phase of the discussion, I went through multiple glasses of champagne, and somewhere over Germany, I finally fell asleep. Thankfully, the alcohol kept my nightmares at bay.

  When I woke, the champagne had worn off, and my nerves were back. This was the second ever “official” gig for Lacey Luzzi Security Services, and we’d booked an international project this time around. Italy, no less! Which was why the entire family had decided to come with me for moral support. Or utter disaster.

  We exited the plane well behind Carlos and, somehow, the entire gang made it through customs without getting arrested. Meg did volunteer herself for a strip search to three different Italian officials. They all declined, though one of them had looked tempted.

  Finally, we all gathered on the street in front of the taxi line. Meg had claimed two boats, disguised as suitcases, and dragged them behind her. Clay was little help, since he’d injured his pointer finger with some serious mouse-clicking on the plane ride over.

  “Over here, over here!” Lizabeth waved a hand. Standing in the middle of traffic, her smile beaming like a lighthouse, she didn’t appear to notice—or to care—about the honks from angry cars trying to leave the airport. Cars streamed around her while she waved harder and yelled louder. “Lacey and Meg, come with me. The rest of you go with Roberto! We won’t all fit in one car!”

  “Doll.” Anthony’s arm snaked around my waist, pulling me into a tight hug, hips stuck together like melted lifesavers. “Do you want me to come with you?”

  I glanced at Lizabeth, who was ushering traffic into the surrounding lanes, while my grandparents and Clay gawked at the spacious black car driven by Roberto. I glanced at the vehicle Lizabeth had reserved for me, Meg, and herself. It was a Fiat the size of a Barbie car.

  “No, I’m okay,” I said. “I don’t think you’ll fit in the Fiat, no offense.”

  He kissed my forehead. “I don’t take offense to that, sugar.”