His Other Side (A Jessie Reach Mystery—Book One)

By Rylie Dark

When another high-profile politician is found murdered by a serial killer, the FBI assembles an elite team to solve murders in the political world. FBI agent Jessie Reach, the most brilliant of them all, must lead the team through treacherous political waters—while coming up against the most diabolical killer she has yet to encounter….

“A brilliant book. I couldn’t put it down and I never guessed who the murderer was!”
—Reader review for Only Murder
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

HIS OTHER SIDE is book #1 in a new series by #1 bestselling and critically acclaimed mystery and suspense author Rylie Dark, whose books have received over 2,000 five-star reviews and ratings.

A cat-and-mouse thriller with harrowing twists and turns and filled with heart-pounding suspense, the JESSIE REACH mystery series offers a fresh twist on the genre as it introduces a brilliant protagonist who will make you fall in love and keep you turning pages late into the night.

Future books in the series are also available.

“I loved this thriller, read it in one sitting. Lots of twists and turns and I didn’t guess the
culprit at all… Already pre-ordered the second!”
—Reader review for Only Murder
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

“This book takes off with a bang… An excellent read, and I'm looking forward to the next book!”
—Reader review for SEE HER RUN
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

“Fantastic book! It was hard to put down. I can’t wait to see what happens next!”
—Reader review for SEE HER RUN
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

“The twists and turns kept coming. Can't wait to read the next book!”
—Reader review for SEE HER RUN
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

“A must-read if you enjoy action-packed stories with good plots!”
—Reader review for SEE HER RUN
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

“I really like this author and this series starts with a bang. It will keep you turning the pages till the end of the book and wanting more.”
—Reader review for SEE HER RUN
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

“I can't say enough about this author! How about ‘out of this world’! This author is going to go far!”
—Reader review for ONLY MURDER
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

“I really enjoyed this book… The characters were alive, and the twists and turns were great. It will keep you reading till the end and leave you wanting more.”
—Reader review for NO WAY OUT
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

“This is an author that I highly recommend. Her books will have you begging for more.”
—Reader review for NO WAY OUT
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

• Language: English
• Publisher: Rylie Dark
• Release date: Dec 8, 2023
• ISBN: 9781094396088

Book preview

cover.jpg

H I S

O T H E R

S I D E

(A Jessie Reach Mystery—Book 1)

R y l i e   D a r k

Rylie Dark

Bestselling author Rylie Dark is author of the SADIE PRICE FBI SUSPENSE THRILLER series, comprising six books; of the CARLY SEE FBI SUSPENSE THRILLER series, comprising six books; of the MIA NORTH FBI SUSPENSE THRILLER series, comprising six books (and counting); of the MORGAN STARK FBI SUSPENSE THRILLER series, comprising five books; of the HAILEY ROCK FBI SUSPENSE THRILLER series, comprising six books (and counting); of the TARA STRONG MYSTERY series, comprising six books; of the ALEX QUINN FBI SUSPENSE THRILLER series, comprising five books; of the MAEVE SHARP FBI SUSPENSE THRILLER, comprising five books (and counting); of the KELLY CRUZ MYSTERY series, comprising five books (and counting); and of the JESSIE REACH MYSTERY series, comprising five books (and counting).

An avid reader and lifelong fan of the mystery and thriller genres, Rylie loves to hear from you, so please feel free to visit www.ryliedark.com to learn more and stay in touch.

Copyright © 2023 by Rylie Dark. All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior permission of the author. This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold 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 it and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictionally. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

BOOKS BY RYLIE DARK

JESSIE REACH MYSTERY

HIS OTHER SIDE (Book #1)

HIS OTHER SELF (Book #2)

HIS OTHER SECRET (Book #3)

HIS OTHER WISH (Book #4)

HIS OTHER PLAN (Book #5)

KELLY CRUZ MYSTERY

WHERE YOU GO (Book #1)

WHERE YOU HIDE (Book #2)

WHERE YOU SLEEP (Book #3)

WHERE YOU RUN (Book #4)

WHERE YOU FEAR (Book #5)

MAEVE SHARP FBI SUSPENSE THRILLER

WITH MALICE (Book #1)

WITH ENVY (Book #2)

WITH VENGEANCE (Book #3)

WITH RAGE (Book #4)

WITH YOU (Book #5)

ALEX QUINN SUSPENSE THRILLER

FIRST, MURDER (Book #1)

SECOND, DEATH (Book #2)

THIRD, ENVY (Book #3)

FOURTH, LUST (Book #4)

FIFTH, WRATH (Book #5)

TARA STRONG MYSTERY

GIRL WITHOUT A CHANCE (Book #1)

GIRL WITHOUT A HOME (Book #2)

GIRL WITHOUT A TRACE (Book #3)

GIRL WITHOUT A NAME (Book #4)

GIRL WITHOUT A PRAYER (Book #5)

GIRL WITHOUT A PAST (Book #6)

HAILEY ROCK FBI SUSPENSE THRILLER

BEHIND YOU (Book #1)

BESIDE YOU (Book #2)

AFTER YOU (Book #3)

WATCHING YOU (Book #4)

JUDGING YOU (Book #5)

FOLLOWING YOU (Book #6)

SADIE PRICE FBI SUSPENSE THRILLER

ONLY MURDER (Book #1)

ONLY RAGE (Book #2)

ONLY HIS (Book #3)

ONLY ONCE (Book #4)

ONLY SPITE (Book #5)

ONLY MADNESS (Book #6)

MIA NORTH FBI SUSPENSE THRILLER

SEE HER RUN (Book #1)

SEE HER HIDE (Book #2)

SEE HER SCREAM (Book #3)

SEE HER VANISH (Book #4)

SEE HER GONE (Book #5)

SEE HER DEAD (Book #6)

CARLY SEE FBI SUSPENSE THRILLER

NO WAY OUT (Book #1)

NO WAY BACK (Book #2)

NO WAY HOME (Book #3)

NO WAY LEFT (Book #4)

NO WAY UP (Book #5)

NO WAY TO DIE (Book #6)

MORGAN STARK FBI SUSPENSE THRILLER

TOO LATE (Book #1)

TOO CLOSE (Book #2)

TOO FAR GONE (Book #3)

TOO LOST (Book #4)

TOO BROKEN (Book #5)

CONTENTS

PROLOGUE

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

CHAPTER NINETEEN

CHAPTER TWENTY

CHAPTER TWENTY ONE

EPILOGUE

PROLOGUE

Tammy held her ID up to the security guard, who scanned the badge, checked the photo that came up on his tablet, then waved her inside.

Well, not inside, inside. That was just to get into the parking lot. Before Tammy actually made it inside her boss’s office, she would pass three more security checks: one in the lobby, one on her boss’s floor and one more at the senatorial wing. The latter one was usually nothing more than a brief nod. The guards there had known her for two years. The other two were always tedious. Her bags would be searched, she would pass through a metal detector, she would be patted down twice—once in the lobby and once on her floor—and her ID would be checked and rechecked by nearly everyone she saw.

She understood the need for security, but that didn’t make it any more irritating at eight-fifty-two on a Monday morning when she had an entire week of dozens of security checks each day as she ran errands for her boss, Josiah Cratton.

Cratton, the fifty-eight-year-old former senior Senator from Ohio and now Chief of Staff to the President, was among the needier of the employers Tammy had worked for in her short career. He wasn’t exactly her boss, at least not her only one. She worked as a floating assistant, meaning she covered for any of the full-time assistants when they needed time off. Cratton’s assistant often needed time off, and Tammy could understand why. It wasn’t uncommon for her to arrive only to be immediately sent for coffee, even though he had her phone number and could simply call her on her way in. She would certainly be sent away for lunch, and again for more coffee, and in the meantime, she would be sent to collect documents from various other government functionaries. Each time, she would have to check in and out of security.

Another day another dollar, she muttered under her breath, before taxes, bills and rent.

She reached the line to enter the lobby and sighed as she shuffled slowly toward the metal detector. She, like so many others in Washington, D.C., had entered government service with the wide eyes and green ears of children who expected government to be as shiny and hopeful as academia presented it to them.

Ha.

As it turned out, government was made up of people, and the people of government expressed all of the failings of humanity in truly alarming amounts. Tammy alone probably knew enough secrets to throw the entire capital under the bus.

But she wouldn't, and neither would anyone else who worked here because they needed their paychecks as much as anyone else did, and it wasn’t smart to destroy one’s source of income. The wheels of capitalism turned over the bones of those it ground to dust, and those it ground to dust were the ones turning the wheels.

Hey, that was deep. Maybe she could use it in a speech one day.

She wondered what it said about her that despite the drudgery and disillusionment of the past two years, she still wanted to be a Congresswoman herself and maybe even a Senator one day. She didn’t dare think about the Presidency anymore. She couldn’t imagine having everyone blaming her for everything that went wrong anywhere, but as senator, she could have the power to effect change without needing to worry about suffering the fallout if the change she affected wasn’t desirable.

So, she told herself anyway. If her boss was any indication, she wouldn’t be a senator until she was too old, too bitter, and too tired to care about anything other than cheap thrills.

Somedays, she didn't mind that.

She endured the check at the third floor, the floor where the former Senator Cratton and five other senior staffers worked.

She finally made it to her boss’s wing, nodding and offering a half-hearted smile to the two guards. The guards lifted hands in greeting, and she walked in, finally free to breathe.

At least for as long as it took her to reach her boss’s office. She had no doubt she would be passing the same checks in a few moments.

Let’s see, will it be a latte or a French press today? she thought. Maybe we’ll branch out and do a tea. Wouldn’t that be something?

She knocked on his office door and waited for him to call her inside. She had learned the hard way that just walking in was an unwise idea.

She waited but received no answer. She knocked again. Mr. Cratton? Sir?

When there was no answer after a third knock, she risked opening the door a crack.

Josiah Cratton sat at his desk, leaned forward in his chair with his head on the desk. Tammy’s first thought was that he had fallen asleep. He did that on occasion when he was up late working.

Sir? she said.

He didn’t move. She sighed. She’d have to wake him up.

She strode toward him and made it nearly all the way before she saw something on his forehead. It was a red letter A, written in a flowery script that reminded Tammy of the old-style script used on the old documents the White House displayed behind glass in the tourist area.. A spark of fear went off inside her chest, spreading icy tendrils up her spine. She shivered and told herself it couldn’t be what she thought it was. Her mind must be playing tricks on her.

Mr. Cratton? she said again, her voice thready and weak. She took a step closer and Cratton settled lower in his seat, his head turning to the side as it pressed harder into the desk.

That’s when Tammy saw that blood.

Her body began to tremble. She opened her mouth, but the only sound that came out at first was a soft whistling noise.

Her eyes drifted to Cratton’s. They stared, filmy and sightless, up at the ceiling. Just above them, on his forehead, was an uppercase letter A written in his own blood.

She took another breath, and this time, she screamed.

CHAPTER ONE

Special Agent Jessie Reach was in her element. Unfortunately, her element required her to chase an armed serial killer through a condemned warehouse. It was times like these that she wondered why she had chosen a career with the BAU and not Cyber Crimes or Financial Crimes.

As always, the answer was that she would be bored senseless doing anything else.

Be careful, she told her team. Carl could be anywhere.

The killer they were chasing today was Carl Hogan. Mr. Hogan was the kindly, gentle owner of Hogan’s Hogs, a hot dog shop near the beltway. He was also the Butcher, an apt name considering the FBI had found twenty bodies in various states of dissection in his basement.

They had found those bodies two days ago, after Jessie had given them the profile for the butcher, an overweight white male in his early- to mid-thirties with soft features, poor social skills and a lack of confidence around women. He would seem harmless, even gentle, and would react to conflict by retreating.

That fit Hogan to a T. He came home, saw the FBI there and immediately ran.

And, in the most shocking display of incompetence Jessie had ever seen, the Bureau had somehow lost him.

This is why I need to lead every collar, she thought.

Well, maybe after this, Caesar would be more inclined to listen to her.

The team navigated through the warehouse, moving as quietly as possible, which wasn't quiet at all with broken glass, twisted steel and loose piles of brick and dirt covering the ground. The remains of loaders, conveyor belts, and forklifts filled the spaces in between debris. The warehouse had been closed for just over a year, but it looked like a centuries-old ruin.

She heard a scraping sound ahead of them and turned her eyes swiftly toward the noise. A bit of dust fell from the upper scaffolding onto the floor. She looked up and saw a shadow retreating ahead of them. She motioned to the two agents flanking her and they split off, widening the gap between them and outpacing Jessie, hoping to flank Hogan.

Jessie saw a ladder ahead that led to the upper scaffolding. That would be the riskiest part. Hogan might decide to wait for her as she climbed the scaffolding and shoot her as soon as her head popped through the hole.

She spoke softly into her radio. I’m going up. Can you get eyes on the ladder?

A moment later, her agents veered back toward the center. One of them tapped his earpiece and said, Got it, Special Agent Reach.

Thanks, Gary, she said.

She rushed forward and shimmied quickly up the ladder. She just managed to reach the top and draw her weapon when she heard a cry of shock. She looked up to see Carl Hogan staring at her, wide-eyed, a shotgun dangling from one hand.

He lifted his shotgun, but Jessie had her handgun leveled at him before his other hand even started toward the trigger.

Bad idea, Carl, she said. Put the weapon down and come quietly.

Hogan shrieked and fired at Jessie. She ducked underneath the shot, and when she looked up, Hogan was careening through the scaffolding back the way he came.

She shook her head. It was always a chase. Just one day, it would be nice if one of them accepted their circumstances and didn’t run.

Oh well.

She darted after Hogan, radioing the other two that she was pursuing the suspect on foot.

Hogan moved with a great deal more nimbleness than a man his size would seem to have. Of course, he was running from a guaranteed life sentence. She supposed that would motivate people to move quickly.

Still, Jessie was a good hundred pounds smaller than Hogan and in far better shape. She caught him before he made it halfway to the end.

Come on, Hogan, she cried, Make this easy on yourself.

He tried to aim his weapon at her, but she caught his wrist and wrenched. He cried out, dropping the weapon, which clattered through the scaffolding toward the ground.

In desperation, Hogan lunged at her gun. They struggled for a moment, and she managed to wrest her hands free of his, but he kicked at her ankles, and she stumbled, nearly falling from the scaffolding. She caught herself just before she fell to the ground, but by the time she managed to make her way back up, Hogan was descending the staircase into the lobby.

And into the waiting arms of the other agents. She could hear his scream as he realized the trap he walked into.

A shot rang out, then a cry. She rushed to the lobby and found one of her agents holding his own drawn weapon. I don’t think I got him, he said, He ducked behind a beam just before I fired.

That’s all right, she said, I’m going after him.

Agent, no! the other agent—Chase, that was his name—replied.

But she was already gone, leaving the other two to struggle to keep up.

Hogan! she called after him, this is a waste of time. Where are you going to go? There’s police outside surrounding the building.

Leave me alone! he called back. They deserved what they got!

They were the twenty-three