by Diana Orgain | Jun 13, 2021 | Love or Money, Sneak Peek, Uncategorized
From A Second Chance at Murder Chapter One The cold snap in the Spanish Pyrenees was a surprise. My sleeping bag had only been rated for forty degrees and it was already thirty, if not lower. I shifted in the bag, hoping to share a little body heat with my boyfriend. The space beside me was empty, so I stretched my arms and reached across the length of his sleeping bag, thinking maybe he’d shimmied over to the side of the tent in his sleep. “Scott?” I murmured. When no answer came, I pried an eye open and scanned the dark tent. “Scott?” I said, bolting upright. My head rubbed against the microfiber of the tent, making my hair stand on end. Where was he? Perhaps nature called. I sighed, shivering as the low temperature caught up with my brain. My back ached, too, and I realized I must have been sleeping directly on a rock. What in the world was I doing tent-camping? How had I gotten myself into this mess? Oh yeah. Becca. After our stint on the breakout show Love or Money, where Scott and I had met, we’d agreed to appear on the reality TV show Expedi‐ tion Improbable. The show was a series of races and competitions. Whichever team came in last in each leg would either be penalized or eliminated. There were five teams of two people. Scott and I were up against an NFL player and his manager, two girls trying to break into the Nashville scene, a mother-son team, and a brother-sister team. How or why I had agreed to be...
by Diana Orgain | Jun 13, 2021 | Love or Money, Sneak Peek, Uncategorized
Did you miss Chapter One? Did you miss Chapter Two? Did you miss part one of Chapter Three? From A Second Chance at Murder Chapter Three Continued… “We’re not celebrities,” I said “Not like that. I mean, he wasn’t kidnapped by the paparazzi or anything,” I said. Sergio made me walk through the events of the previous night one more time. I knew the drill. He was listening for inconsistencies in my story. The walkie-talkie on his shoulder holster beeped, a burst of Spanish firing across the wire. I sprang off the bench. Sergio listened, a grim look on his face. “What is it? Did they find him?” I asked. Sergio frowned as he listened, giving me an almost imperceptible shake of the head. Anxiety clawed at my chest. “What then?” I asked. Sergio stood and walked away from the table, speaking rapidly into the walkie-talkie. My heart raced and I felt like I was about to come out of my skin. Even though I couldn’t understand Sergio’s words, I could tell by the tone of his voice something was desperately wrong. I rushed to the tent and called Becca’s name. She popped her head out. “What’s going on?” she asked. “How good is your Spanish?” She glanced toward Sergio and frowned. She shook her head after a moment. “He’s talking too fast.” I buried my head in my hands, the uncertainty taking a toll. “Damn, he’s hot though, huh?” Becca asked. “I hadn’t noticed” I lied. She snorted. “Please. I know this is a tough time for you Georgia, but anyone with a pulse can see the guy’s...
by Diana Orgain | Jun 13, 2021 | Love or Money, Sneak Peek, Uncategorized
Did you miss Chapter One? Did you miss Chapter Two? From A Second Chance at Murder Chapter Three After searching the woods into the afternoon and coming up empty-handed, Juan Jose, Miguel, and I headed back to base camp to check in with Becca and the others. I prayed that Scott had made it back to camp during our absence. After all, if he’d gotten lost last night, the sensible thing to do would have been to wait for daylight to find his way. Becca was pacing by the picnic table, the other cast and crew members gathered nearby; everyone looked downtrodden. I imme‐ diately knew by the look on Becca’s face that Scott hadn’t returned. When Becca saw me she looked at me hopefully, but surmised quickly that we hadn’t had any luck, either. Becca’s walkie-talkie chirped and she said into it, “What?” She held it away from her ear, glanced at it, then said, “Reception up here is choppy.” I sagged onto the picnic table bench. Victoria and Parker, who were standing close by, distanced themselves. Suddenly the others, who’d been roaming by the campfire, disappeared into their tents, as if my bad luck was catching. Becca patted my shoulder. “Don’t worry honey, we’ll find him. I know we’ll find him.” Then into the walkie-talkie she said, “Our GPS coordinates are forty-two north, uh . . . Oh . . . Yeah . . . The 24camp that’s over . . . okay, okay sure,” she said, hanging up. “They’re here.” I sprang to my feet and we both looked down the trail. A tall woman with...
by Diana Orgain | Jun 13, 2021 | Love or Money, Sneak Peek, Uncategorized
Did you miss Chapter One? Did you miss part one of Chapter Two? From A Second Chance at Murder Chapter Two Continued… “Good morning,” he said, striking me as overly cheerful. Perhaps it was my sour mood. Juan Jose was a local, hired to help with the show. He was in charge of logistics. He was supposed to know the terrain like the back of his hand. “Juan Jose, I need your help. My boyfriend, Scott, isn’t at camp.” A look of surprise crossed Juan Jose’s face. “What do you mean? Not at camp? Where is he?” “I don’t know. He’s missing,” I said, anxiety fluttering in my chest. “I woke up in the middle of the night and he wasn’t in our tent. I went looking for him with Parker.” “Parker?” “Yeah, the tall guy. The one here with his sister. He was looking for her, too, but she was down by the river—” The look of surprise on his face changed to alarm and he whis‐ pered almost to himself, “The river?” “Yeah. She said she was alone and hadn’t seen anybody. Well, except for Cooper, but I already talked to him. He doesn’t know where Scott is.” Juan Jose stroked his dark stubble; a concerned expression clouding his features. “Mmm.” After a moment, he said, “The river is very high this year. Very dangerous.” “Right.” Unease strangled the breath out of me as a vision of Scott’s dead body floating down the river crossed my mind. “We need to organize a search party! Can you help me with that?” Juan Jose nodded, looking slightly dumbfounded....
by Diana Orgain | Jun 13, 2021 | Love or Money, Sneak Peek, Uncategorized
Did you miss Chapter One? From A Second Chance at Murder Chapter Two Even though I’d wanted to search for Scott, Parker and Victoria convinced me to go back to camp. After all, it was likely Scott could have returned in the time we’d been away. When we arrived at camp, the silence was ominous. Parker unceremoniously announced, “My ribs are killing me. I’m going to lie down.” I turned to Victoria, shining the lantern in her face. “You said you saw the NFL guy. Did you mean Cooper or his partner, Todd?” Victoria snorted. “Todd’s not NFL. He’s more like a sumo wrestler, if you know what I mean.” It was true that Todd hadn’t played football for the NFL, but he was still associated with it somehow, as Cooper’s manager or some‐ thing. I realized with a shudder how little I knew about the people I was stuck here with. Victoria shrugged. “Anyway, I meant Cooper. He was hanging around the campsite when I got up. We chatted for a few minutes, but when I asked him if he wanted to walk to the river with me, he said no and went back to his tent.” She motioned toward one of the two-man tents across the meadow. My mind was whirling. Should I wake Cooper and ask him if he’d seen Scott? Should I call Becca or the authorities and start a search and rescue? In the States, anyone could call for search and rescue as soon as someone in his or her party was overdue. Was it the same in Spain? Was Scott overdue, or was...
by Diana Orgain | Jun 13, 2021 | Love or Money, Sneak Peek, Uncategorized
Did you miss part one of Chapter One? From A Second Chance at Murder Chapter One Continued… He nodded slowly and then he sagged like a deflated balloon. “My sister’s not in our tent,” he confessed. “I came out to find her. She’s got a bad habit of going off on her own and I want to win this stupid contest. If I don’t get control of her, I can kiss this thing good-bye.” A nervous energy wiggled through my stomach. His sister was missing and so was Scott. Okay, maybe missing was an overstatement. But he sure as hell wasn’t where he was supposed to be and according to Parker, his sister, Victoria, wasn’t, either. I picked up my phone. “Where do you think she skulked off to?” He shrugged. “I was going to check the outhouse. She’s probably not there though, because she would have come back by now, right?” I remained silent. Silence was usually the best way to get informa‐ tion out of people. At least that’s what they’d taught us at the police academy. “Anyway,” Parker continued. “I figured I’d walk down the trail to the restrooms, then check the path that goes to the mountain stream. It’d be just the kind of thing she’d do alone.” My stomach churned as I considered that perhaps she wasn’t alone. A midnight stroll to the mountain stream would be right up Scott’s alley, too. I flashed my light against the dark soil, illuminating a small circle. “Let’s get a lantern,” I said. “If we’re going down to the river, we’ll need more light than this.” Parker...
