How do things fall apart so easily?

Kate:

As a former teacher, my mission is to keep the disadvantaged youth of our city engaged with school. My non-profit has been wildly successful with the kids, but now I'm forty mentors short for the Christmas season. It didn't look like we would be able to find enough help, until Jim Adelson got involved. He may have solved my mentor problem, but he's created another: I can't concentrate with this panty melting God around.

Jim:

The community has been good to me. I'd built my successful security business with hard work and determination, and when I got approached to help Kate Monroe's non-profit, it seemed a fitting way to give back. I'd offer to spend time with some kids, but it’s Kate that I find myself wanting to spend time with. With beauty obvious to everyone, and a compassionate heart she wears on her sleeve, she has me reevaluating my priorities.

When the children's Christmas gifts go missing, Jim and Kate are forced together in the hunt.

Can true love fight through the drama to find a happy ending?

Gifted is the first book in the holiday series Clear Security Holidays. This is a standalone holiday romance suspense novel, but characters from the Venture Capital series and from Tech Billionaires can be known to make appearances.

Excerpt

Kate

Forty kids won’t have a Christmas, and it’s all my fault.

Over two hundred kids from middle schools across the city and county of San Francisco—from some of the most at-risk areas—met the requirements for our contest, and I’m forty donor/mentors short for our upcoming celebration. At two hundred dollars apiece, I don’t know what I’m going to do. How do I break a promise I made to these kids on the first day of school? Go to school for seventy-five days, don’t be absent, don’t be late, and get a passing grade. If you accomplish all that, you’ll get a two-hundred-dollar shopping spree at Bullseye.

Some people think “paying kids to go to school” is a bad thing. But we get paid to come to work, and some people play solitaire on their computers while they sit there. How is that not paying you for just showing up? In a lot of low-income areas—in San Francisco and elsewhere—over half of the students that complete middle school never walk into a high school, and less than ten percent of those who do will go on to graduate. Life isn’t easy for these kids, and going to school every day is not easy with so many distractions. But with some incentive, we see improvement.

To make those incentives happen, I’ve got to figure out how I’m going to fund these last few students and find mentors to spend the day with them while they shop. I’ve tapped my network, and it’s pretty dry. But I can’t disappoint these kids; they’ve had enough disappointment in their lives.

I open the app to my bank account: three hundred dollars. I was going to use that money for my rent next month, and, you know, to feed myself. Right now, there’s no man in my life to make sure I get at least an occasional dinner. I check the account for my Visa card, and I can squeeze out maybe two thousand dollars to cover ten kids. But that still leaves me with thirty more, and still no mentors. Crap! What am I going to do?

Tess walks into my office. “Isn’t this great? We’ve never had this many kids, ever! This could mean we have at least a hundred more kids graduate, and fifteen of those will go on to college, plus sixty more to trade schools. This is amazing. Are we going to be ready?”

I force a smile. “I hope so. We’re short a few donor/mentors.”

“In this town, people spend two hundred dollars on dinner without a second thought. We should be able to find a few that will support a good cause.”

“I hope so. I’ve reached out to our board members and asked them to check with their network.”

“How many donors are we short?”

“Forty. I can leverage my credit card for ten of those, but I’m not sure how we’re going to be able to make this work.”

“Kate, if anyone will get this figured out, it’s you. Last year we had barely one hundred kids complete this project. This year we have over two hundred. You need to celebrate that.”

“I will when I lock down the rest of the people we need.”

“Well, then don’t be shy. Bug those board members.”

“I will.”

But that may not be enough. Somehow, I need to get to the big players in town.

“What about your new board member?” Tess asks.

“That’s Stephanie Paulson, and she does seem pretty well-connected. She must know a few people that can help us.”

I’ve asked her about this a few times during our meetings, but I need to try again in writing. I don’t think my board members realize how tough it is to keep a nonprofit up and running in this city.

I craft a carefully worded email to remind Stephanie of our remaining need and looming deadline, trying to sound just the right amount of desperate. We’re only a five-year-old nonprofit, but we’re making a difference. I can feel it in my bones. However, if we can’t make this happen for all the kids who earned it, we may not recover.

I send my message, and after just a few minutes, an email pops up.

To: Katherine Monroe

From: Stephanie Paulson

Subject: RE: Brighter Future Christmas Party

I’m sorry I keep forgetting. Thanks for the email reminder. I’ve forwarded your note to everyone in my contact list with your information. We should be able to come up with more than forty donors. We’re only asking them for $200 and a Saturday morning, for goodness sake! The party on Christmas Eve is a bonus! Let me know if you don’t hear from enough and I’ll rattle the cages, but at the very minimum, I’ll send over a check for $5,000 you can use for the party.

Keep up the good work.

XOXO

Steph

Suddenly, I can take a deep breath again. This guarantees the needed money, and I’m on the road to having the volunteers as well. That’s probably the most important part. These kids need mentors, and spending the day with adults who’ve accomplished something means a lot.

My phone interrupts my thoughts. “Kate Monroe,” I answer.

“Hello, Miss Monroe? This is Jamal Jenkins.”

“Hey, Jamal. How are you?”

“I’m doin’ real good. I just wanted to make sure you saw that my name was on the list again this year.”

“You better believe I saw your name. I’m very proud of you.”

“Jose made it, too. And we have four other friends who made it this year. Once they learned they could get two hundred dollars of stuff for just going to school, they were joining us.”

“I can’t wait to see you guys on Saturday when you pick out your gifts.”

“I’ve got a list,” he says proudly. “Is it okay if I bring my baby sister to the party on Christmas Eve?”

“Of course, and your grandmother, too.”

“Just make sure the Santa you get this year is a little more realistic.”

I laugh. Last year’s Santa was our CPA, and he’s tall and really skinny. “I’ll see what I can do.”

“Great. See you at Bullseye next Saturday.”

“I can’t wait.”

I worked as a teacher for five years, and it’s the hardest job there is. Not only are you responsible for educating the next generation, but many students have so much going on in their personal life that you end up being their mentor, friend, confidant, and sometimes parent as well. That’s exactly why I decided to start Brighter Future.

Chapter 2

Jim

Sitting behind my desk and doing mundane things like answering emails is my least favorite activity. I’d rather sit in the rain, soaked to the bone for eight hours, than sit behind a desk.

Today I’ve got two hundred and sixty unopened emails. I know some of them are unopened because I know I don’t feel like looking at them, but others I should manage.

Just not today.

I need someone else to start handling these emails. Ever since we made the national news for helping bring down an international crime ring, we’ve had more inquiries than we can handle. I don’t have the bandwidth to keep expanding. My security firm has only been in business for about eight years, and I already have more clients than I know what to do with and a team spread throughout the US.

Scanning the emails, I delete the junk mail without opening it, but Stephanie Paulson’s email titled “Help” stops my scrolling.

I click it open. She sits on a nonprofit board that’s looking for forty people to go shopping with a middle schooler next Saturday and cover a two-hundred-dollar shopping spree.

Interesting concept.

Their goal is to keep kids in school. Thinking back to my own childhood, I remember how opportunities came to me. I was more trouble for my mom than she could handle. When I was seventeen, I landed in front of a judge and he gave me two options: jail for two years or join the Marine Corps.

I didn’t expect to be in the Marines long, but once I got there, for the first time I felt like I belonged somewhere, and I loved the structure the service gave me. I ended up giving them two tours. During my last tour, my commanding officer was a Naval Academy grad. While in school he’d developed an app that moved artificial limbs to a new level where they could behave like actual limbs.

When we reconnected a few years later, Nate had created a multimillion-dollar business, and his daughter had been kidnapped by some less-than-savory characters in a local Chinese gang. The police and FBI were overwhelmed, so he reached out to me as an intermediary and to provide some security. We got his daughter back, and that was the start of my security firm. After that, additional work began falling into my lap.

In short, I’ve always felt incredibly lucky. Sometimes it takes unexpected opportunities to change the path of a child.

There’s literature about the nonprofit attached to the message, and I open the director’s memo about her passion for kids and the importance of education. I can’t help but relate.

I peruse the Brighter Future website, looking it over carefully, and I do a background check on the director and founder to make sure everything is on the up and up. Katherine Monroe immediately piques my interest. There are some candid pictures of her on the website, and I open up her PeopleMover page to learn more about her.

She has all her privacy settings on high, and that impresses me. Using my super-secret backdoor password, I’m still able to look at her account. She has pictures of travels and friends. Her status says she’s single—I’m not sure why, but that seems important. She has pictures at an Oakland A’s game. She must be a glutton for punishment if she likes the A’s. Also, she’s stunning—chocolate brown hair with deep auburn highlights, green eyes that I get lost in, and curves in all the right places. I find my pants are tighter than they were before I looked at her pictures, and I very much want to help her cause.

I have a very high-end clientele. I’m sure I can help her get forty donors. I know exactly what these small gestures mean. Usually, my clients are asking for something from me, but now maybe I can ask them for something. I start with one of my bigger clients, SHN, a successful venture capital firm. Mason Sullivan is the managing partner and has his hands in the pockets of some of Silicon Valley’s best companies.

Before the call even rings, Mason answers. “Hey, Jim. What’s up?”

“Mason, glad I caught you. I just sent you a message, and I wanted to make sure you saw it at the top of your list. One of my other clients, Stephanie Paulson, needs some help, and it seemed right up your alley.” I walk him through what I know. “I thought maybe you and Caroline wouldn’t mind getting involved, and maybe you could pull in Dillon and Emerson and a couple of the other partners to help out these kids.”

Mason is quiet for a few moments. “I think that‘s definitely something we can pull off. Shouldn’t be an issue at all.”

“That’s great news. You think all four of you would be willing to commit?”

“I will check everyone’s calendars, but there are nine partners and their significant others I should be able to drag along. I’ll commit to twenty donors. It’ll be good for us to do something for the city who hosts us.”

“I like it. Send me over a list of names, and I’ll pass it along.”

I hang up and call my old friend and former CO, Nate Lancaster. He’s working on his third successful startup and has more zeros in his bank account than Bill Gates.

“My man Jim. How’s it hangin’?” he says as he answers.

“Hey, Nate. What’s going on?”

“You know, living the dream. Every day is a holiday.”

“Yeah, in your case that’s probably true.”

“Hey, man, how did you know you were on my list to call today? Cecilia wants to know if you can stop by for dinner this weekend.”

“I will commit to dinner with you and the family if you’ll consider a favor for me.” I explain the nonprofit and their need. “Can you help me out?”

“Of course. So…can I tell Cecilia you’ll be bringing a date this weekend?”

I don’t have time to date. When I have an itch that needs scratching, I have a few women I can call, but nothing serious. Women aren’t patient with the lifestyle my job creates. I have to be flexible at all times.

“No, it’ll be just me.”

“She wants to fix you up with one of her friends.” In a low voice he adds, “I know who she’s thinking of, and I like her, but don’t even consider it. Marnie is sweet, but high maintenance doesn’t even describe her adequately.”

“Well, you also know my work schedule. No woman is in for this lifestyle.”

“The right one will be.”

I need to change the subject. “Anyway, I emailed you the information. We need another ten people, so if you know of any others, please ask. Then send me a note with the names of who can come.”

“You need ten? I can probably come up with at least five—one will be Marnie.”

I groan internally. “You just said she was a train wreck.”

“I still think she’d enjoy this.”

“Great. Confirm and let me know.”

I check my email and find a message from Mason. He has twenty-six people from SHN and a few of their clients. Then I see an email from Nate pop up with the five he’s promised. That leaves us short just nine, and I know my team can cover that and then some.

To: Katherine Monroe

From Jim Adelson

Subject: Donors

Hi, Kate,
Stephanie Paulson emailed me about your need for 40 people to take some kids shopping. I’ve come up with a list of 42, just in case some flake out. And I know I can easily talk a few more people into participating, if needed. Let me know if you have any questions.

Jim

Jim Adelson

CEO, Clear Security

I attach a list of names with emails and phone numbers. I’m actually looking forward to this. Now I just need to hope my Saturday doesn’t blow up and make my time with my award-winning student rushed in any way.

Grab Your Copy Today!

About Ainsley St. Claire:

Ainsley St Claire is a Romantic Suspense Author and Adventurer on a lifelong mission to craft sultry storylines and steamy love scenes that captivate her readers. To date, she is best known for her series Venture Capitalists.

An avid reader since the age of four, Ainsley’s love of books knew no genre. After reading, came her love of writing, fully immersing herself in the colorful, impassioned world of contemporary romance.

Ainsley’s passion immediately shifted to a vocation when during a night of terrible insomnia, her first book came to her. Ultimately, this is what inspired her to take that next big step. The moment she wrote her first story, the rest was history.

Currently, Ainsley is in the midst of writing a nine-book series called “Venture Capitalist.”

When she isn’t being a bookworm or typing away her next story on her computer, Ainsley enjoys spending quality family time with her loved ones. She is happily married to her amazing soulmate and is a proud mother of two rambunctious boys. She is also a scotch aficionada and lover of good food (especially melt-in-your-mouth, velvety chocolate). Outside of books, family, and food, Ainsley is a professional sports spectator and an equally as terrible golfer and tennis player.