His Other Wish (A Jessie Reach Mystery—Book Four)

By Rylie Dark

When the FBI assembles an elite team to solve political murders, Special Agent Jessie Reach must navigate through treacherous political waters and powerful secrets. But when a journalist investigating a powerful politician is found drowned in a bathtub of black ink, Jessie must wade through layers of power to discover the truth—before he strikes again.

“A brilliant book. I couldn’t put it down and I never guessed who the murderer was!”
—Reader review for Only Murder
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HIS OTHER WISH is book #4 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
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“Fantastic book! It was hard to put down. I can’t wait to see what happens next!”
—Reader review for SEE HER RUN
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“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
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• Language: English
• Publisher: Rylie Dark
• Release date: Mar 5, 2024
• ISBN: 9781094396118

Book preview

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H I S

O T H E R

W I S H

(A Jessie Reach Mystery—Book 4)

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 © 2024 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

For God’s sake, Gary said as he stood up. He was well past the point of expecting his wife to show him attention all the time, but she’d promised to spend time with him tonight, and he’d been waiting for two hours for her.

Let me take a quick shower while you finish the show and then we can order some food and watch the movie, he mimicked in a sarcastic voice. Well, the show was long since over, and so was the next episode. The group of airline passengers were no closer to figuring out what in the world was going on in their crazy island and he was no closer to understanding why the hell a woman he’d known for twenty years thought she had to put on full makeup to watch a damned movie with him.

Are you out? he shouted. His wife didn’t answer. I'm going to just order pizza, okay? He listened, but there was still no response. Damn it, he said softly.

He shook his head and went back to the living room to order the pizza. He seriously considered ordering anchovies just to screw with her. She insisted the smell of them made her nauseas even though he could eat three pieces right next to her and the smell never bothered her until she saw what he was eating. Sometimes he thought she did things like this just to piss him off. Like it bothered her that he could be content when she was never content.

When they met in college, he found her constant drive sexy as hell. Her need to always be doing something important and worthwhile was a nice break from most girls, who seemed more interested in doing as little work as possible. To be fair, most of the boys were like that too. When he met Florence, it was like a cool breeze on a hot day. Finally, he found someone who could see past college life and actually want something more.

He still admired her for that. God knows she was more successful than he was. Not that he regretted his middle management position. He found the work interesting enough, even if it wasn't particularly challenging anymore, and it allowed him to contribute enough to their finances that he didn't feel like a sugar baby.

But Florence Parker was the Hollywood stereotype of a strong female journalist in all the best ways. She was fierce, independent, sharp as a whip and fearless as a badger. It didn’t hurt that she was also sexy as hell.

The problem was that she was always like that. There was always a next story, a next scoop, a next breaking news. She would go to work at six in the morning, come home at six at night and spend the entire evening working. The last time they went out for dinner, she spent half the evening on her phone with different sources trying to find hard evidence that the CEO of some energy company had paid off the EPA to lie about the environmental impact of a plant they were building somewhere in Kansas.

He supposed it wasn’t entirely fair to blame her. When he was younger, he had been just as driven as she was. That was what attracted them to each other in the first place. He had dreamed of becoming a C-level executive, maybe even a high-powered entrepreneur with his own manufacturing firm.

The difference is that he had slowed down when he got older. He realized that in order to have the success he wanted, he would have to sacrifice nearly everything else in his life for that pursuit. He would never have a family, never have a hobby, never have friends outside of the equally ambitious work friends who, like his wife, lived, breathed, and died their careers at the expense of everything else.

So, he decided that he didn’t really want that success after all. By that time, he had reached a Vice President position and had enough money saved to buy them a house in Woodley Park and a couple of luxury cars—a BMW for his wife and a Lexus for himself. He resigned the VP position and accepted a position with a steel company as regional director of manufacturing. It paid enough to maintain their lifestyle and allow him to save for retirement, a goal he was counting down the days toward since turning forty the year before.

He was happy. He was satisfied with his accomplishments.

But Florence wasn’t. Florence, if anything, became more obsessive about her work the more successful she became. It was common for them to go days at a time without speaking because she would wake up before him and return home after he slept.

And he understood. He really did. He wanted her to have her career, her success, her prestige, whatever she needed to be happy, he wanted her to have it. He just wanted to be in the picture for God’s sake. Was it really too much to ask that one night a month, the two of them spend time together without thinking about work? Was it really too much to ask that the sex, still explosive, didn’t become a substitute for any other kind of intimacy?

He ordered the pizza, refraining from ordering anchovies but deciding that if his wife wanted anything tonight, she would have to initiate it. He wasn’t really in the mood for her to give him sex as a matter of course, eagerly when asked but without any initiation on her part. Maybe she could show him some desire for a change.

He believed she loved him. Why else would she be with him? She had her own money, so she didn't need his income. She had friends, and God knows all of the straight male friends would jump at the chance to jump her bones.

Jump at the chance to jump her. Heh.

When they did spend time together, it was wonderful. She was sweet, affectionate and funny, and she seemed to genuinely enjoy his company.

So why couldn’t she be that way more often?

He sighed. Whatever. This is what I signed up for, I guess.

He switched on a different show. This one was a competition show where fabricators had to forge copies of ancient weapons and experts would put them through a series of tests to see who had made the better weapon. It was one of the boy shows he watched that Florence always wrinkled her nose at. It was a good thing to watch. Maybe she would hear the show and run downstairs to insist they change the channel.

The episode finished. No Florence. Five minutes into the second episode, the doorbell rang. He sighed, walked to the front, paid for the pizza and headed back to the living room.

It was now three hours since he’d seen his wife. The first alarm bell went off in his head. He shifted uncomfortably in his seat and looked uneasily upstairs. It had never taken her three hours to get ready for anything. Hell, on their wedding day, she had been ready before he was and even chided him about spending forever ironing his tux.

Maybe he should go check on her.

He headed upstairs, calling as he did, Hey, honey? Pizza’s here! I ordered extra anchovies just for you!

This would normally earn him a Screw you, Gary!

No response.

Had she just gone to sleep? He walked into the bedroom, not sure if he would wake her up just to make sure she was awake to see him walk back downstairs in a huff or if he would let it go and wait for her to apologize tomorrow. She’d be sincere but she’d so something like this again.

The bed was empty. The light on the bathroom was on. A second alarm bell sounded in his head. Honey? He knocked on the bathroom door. Are you all right in there?

He tried the door handle. Locked. Honey? Is everything okay?

No answer.

A third bell sounded in his head. Honey! Open the damned door! I’ve been waiting for three fucking hours! If you don’t want to spend time with me, the least you can do is say something so I don’t waste my damned time!

Nothing.

Now he was really worried. There was no way in hell that Florence would let him get away with yelling at her like that. Not without saying anything.

He tried the door handle again. It was still locked. Honey? Florence, open the door!

Still no answer. He stepped back, heart pounding, and lifted his leg to kick the door open. He stopped with his leg in the air and considered. If he was wrong, and Florence was just chilling in the bathtub with her headphones in—one of the few relaxing activities she allowed herself—then he would be damaging the house for no reason. That would earn him a real fight with her and kill any chance of quality time tonight or for some time.

He lowered his leg slowly and thought of his next move. The master bathroom was on the second floor, but there was a tree near the window that he could climb to get inside without jimmying the lock or kicking down the door. Climbing trees was not an activity the childless, forty-one-year-old Gary Parker ever imagined he would do again, but it was better than breaking a door down. Besides, imagine the look on Florence’s face when she saw her husband hanging outside the window glaring inside at her for once more blowing off their date night.

He held that image in his head, forcing laughter as he convinced himself that the only thing he was going to find when he looked in through the window was his wife luxuriating in the bath. He told himself that the reason he ran down the porch steps and jogged to the back of his house without bothering to put on shoes was his excitement to see the shock on her face. He told himself that he didn’t mind the splinters that buried themselves in his feet as he climbed the tree. Just something more for him to tease her about. He told himself all of that, but the rapidly growing weight in the pit of his stomach told him something entirely different.

Then he saw that the bathroom window was open, and a chill ran down his spine. He scrambled up the tree, moving with more spryness than he’d had in years.

Please let her be okay, he prayed silently. Please let her be all right.

When he reached the window and looked inside, he saw that  Florence was indeed in the bath. The water was black as night. Her head and the upper portion of her breasts were visible out of the water, a sight that he would have found irresistibly sexy if not for her open glassy sightless eyes.

Florence! he screamed. Flo!

She didn’t answer.

CHAPTER ONE

The journey was short, or at least average for D.C., about thirty minutes, but those thirty minutes seemed eternal. Jessie Reach, eager to jump into any mystery head-first, now felt almost numb from the onslaught of recent events. She was in the back seat of a standard government SUV except the back