Rannigan's Redemption: Complete Collection Read online

  Rannigan's Redemption

  Rannigan's Redemption

  Pandora Spocks

  Published by Bratty Ginger Books, 2016.

  This is a work of fiction. Similarities to real people, places, or events are entirely coincidental.

  RANNIGAN'S REDEMPTION

  First edition. July 26, 2016.

  Copyright © 2016 Pandora Spocks.

  Written by Pandora Spocks.

  Also by Pandora Spocks

  Rannigan's Redemption

  Rannigan's Redemption Part 1: Resisting Risk

  Rannigan's Redemption Part 2: Running Rogue

  Rannigan's Redemption Part 3: Ransoming Redemption

  Rannigan's Redemption

  Standalone

  Luke & Bella: Two Streets Over

  Watch for more at Pandora Spocks’s site.

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Also By Pandora Spocks

  Dedication

  Preface

  Rannigan’s Redemption Part 1: | Resisting Risk

  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

  Rannigan’s Redemption Part 2: | Running Rogue

  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

  Rannigan’s Redemption Part 3: | Ransoming Redemption

  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 (Epilogue)

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  Further Reading: Luke & Bella: Two Streets Over

  Also By Pandora Spocks

  About the Author

  For my Love...Every day, you prove to me that 'happily ever after' is a real thing. Without your love and your belief in me, I would never have had the courage to step out of my comfort zone and try something scary. I appreciate you more than I can say. And I love you more.

  Thank you to my tribe, the talented members of the Alliance of Self Published Authors, for your encouragement, support, and wisdom. Special shout out to novelist A. M. Manay, who proofread part of this epic. Be sure to check out her amazing November Snow series, starting with She Dies at the End.

  Undying appreciation especially to gifted writer Eeva Lancaster. She's the intrepid leader of the ASPA. She's also The Book Khaleesi and she designed the cover for this boxed set. Eeva, I'm forever grateful for your honest opinions and smart advice. You push me to be better.

  Preface

  Rannigan’s Redemption is the story of the complicated relationship between sexy high-profile Manhattan attorney Michael Rannigan and sassy red-haired fellow lawyer Maggie Flynn.

  People often ask where I got the idea for this story. My all-time favorite movie is The Fisher King. It’s about an abrasive talk-radio host whose off-hand remarks to an unstable caller result in an unspeakable tragedy. He spends the rest of the film seeking redemption.

  I became fascinated with the idea that such an arrogant, self-absorbed person could burn with the need to find absolution. So I came up with Michael Rannigan. It seemed a bit of a risk, making my hero difficult to like. But ultimately, I fell for him, loveable rogue that he is. I hope you will, too.

  Before being formally published, Rannigan’s Redemption was posted chapter by chapter on its own Wordpress blog. Although it was intended to be one book, I found that the story was too long. It also covers nearly ten years of Michael’s and Maggie’s lives, so I released it as three separate novels.

  This is the complete story in one book.

  Pandora Spocks

  June 26, 2016

  Shadow Pines

  Rannigan’s Redemption Part 1:

  Resisting Risk

  Brilliant Manhattan attorney Michael Rannigan has his life arranged exactly the way he likes it. As a founding partner at the law firm of Murphy, Rannigan, & Metheny, he can let his underlings do the legwork on the high profile defense cases his exclusive 50th floor division handles. He prefers to simply breeze in and do what he does best: dazzle juries and charm the press.

  His private life is well-ordered, too. Michael doesn’t have the time or the patience for relationships. Instead, he has a contact list of hot blondes who meet his needs at any given moment, whether it’s a date to a gallery opening or awards show. Or he just wants to get laid.

  Some people would call him shallow. But they’re just envious.

  Maggie Flynn has her life mapped out as well. After she graduates from law school she plans to take a job with the Prosecutor’s Office where she interned. But when she attends a job fair and meets Michael Rannigan, her plans change. She’s studied his cases, even heard him speak once. He’s smart and sexy and she can’t resist interviewing with him.

  Michael hires Maggie and has her assigned to his elite 50th floor team. He knows smart when he sees it. He also sees the spark in her eyes. She wants him. And having her nearby strokes his ego. It’s not like anything will come of it, s
he’s so far from his type. But there’s something unsettling about Mary Margaret Flynn, like she can see through his bullshit in a way no one else ever bothered to do.

  Maggie realizes that her crush on Michael is all but hopeless. He’s a self-absorbed womanizer. But beneath that cool exterior, she’s seen the man he can be and she’s sure that love can bring that out. In the meantime, she’s content to work with him.

  What would happen if they ever crossed that line?

  Chapter 1

  Fucking her had been inevitable, he reasoned. After all, Maggie was not unattractive with her thick red hair, bright green eyes shaded by long red lashes she darkened with mascara, the smattering of freckles across her nose. Beneath those inexpensive business suits she favored, her body wasn’t bad. Don’t think he hadn’t noticed.

  It was an odd line of thought for a man on vacation. He stretched out his legs on the chaise and gazed past his tanned bare feet to the turquoise water of the Indian Ocean. His travel agent had assured him that he’d love the Maldives. He raised his glass of bourbon in a toast to Nancy at East Coast Travel, but his thoughts returned to Maggie.

  He’d actually been surprised at the firm, full, round tits he’d unearthed beneath that conservative grey blouse. They were much larger than he’d realized, in a natural, homegrown sort of way.

  Obviously, she wasn’t his usual taste. He preferred bottle blondes with tiny waists and store-bought tits, the bigger the better. In fact, if a woman resembled Barbie, it was a plus. Not that he’d turn down a hot brunette, either. He gravitated toward socialites, models, or occasionally actresses, the more successful the better. Less successful women tended to be needy, emotionally speaking. Flight attendants were his among his favorites. They could never stay.

  He glanced to his right at Vivian, the chosen one accompanying him on this trip. She wore only the tiniest black bikini bottoms, having removed the top to avoid tan lines. Her white blonde hair was swept up in a knot on top of her head. Expensive designer sunglasses shaded eyes he knew were violet, albeit artificially so, thanks to purple contacts. Plumped pouting lips were precisely situated beneath her perfect designer nose. Had she told him that she’d had her lips done again just before they left New York? He couldn’t seem to remember. His gaze fell to her enormous tits. They really are her best quality, he thought. Later, he’d fuck those tits. She could always shower before dinner.

  She noticed that he was looking her way. “Hey, baby,” she simpered, fingering her left nipple provocatively. He winked at her then looked away without answering.

  As a fellow attorney, Maggie was much too bright for his liking as well. He wasn’t in it for the conversation, after all; he was never interested in what they had to say. And boning a colleague was usually a bad idea. But she’d liked him. She always had, since she first was hired at Murphy, Rannigan, & Metheny.

  There were those who called Michael Rannigan shallow. He shook his head. Fuck them, and the horse they rode in on, he thought.

  Chapter 2

  (Five years earlier)

  Maggie Flynn checked her image in the mirror. Her thick red hair was styled in what she hoped projected ‘professional’. Her charcoal grey suit was paired with a deep green silk blouse she’d borrowed from her best friend Casey and it accentuated her green eyes which sparkled with excitement. She wore basic black mid-heeled pumps, slightly elevating her five foot five stature.

  It would have to do. And she didn’t think it was too bad, either. This was her opportunity, what her years in undergrad and in law school had all led up to. Law firms from around the country had sent representatives to interview newly minted lawyers at the annual job fair.

  Unlike some, Maggie wasn’t worried about landing a position. She had a stellar GPA and glowing recommendations from her law professors and from the internships she’d done. She had an all-but-firm offer from the New York County District Attorney’s office, her most recent internship. There would be the formalities of an interview but Rance Stockwell, her immediate supervisor during her time there assured her that he wanted her working on his team. Truthfully, she liked the idea of working for the good guys. She wasn’t at all sure that being a defense attorney was her cup of tea. She was just idealistic enough to find distasteful the idea of helping possibly guilty clients avoid accountability.

  She knew Casey thought she was crazy. “You’ll never get rich working for the DA’s office,” she’d cautioned Maggie. Which was ironic, really, coming from Casey. She herself planned to take her law degree back home to Rhode Island and slide right into place in her father’s law firm. She’d never had to worry about money because her father had paid for all her schooling. Maggie, however, had serious student loans that would come calling just as soon as she graduated.

  She checked her reflection once more before gathering up her faux leather clipboard folio containing copies of her resume, and left the ladies room to join the others in the banquet hall of the law school’s main building, Vanderbilt Hall. She was surprised to see Casey standing with Ben Kauffman, a friend of theirs who would also be graduating next week, new law degree in hand.

  “What are you doing here?” she asked Casey. “You already have a job.”

  “I know. I’m just checking out the action,” Casey replied. “I don’t know what you’re doing here. You could just call Rance and tell him you accept.”

  Maggie rolled her eyes. “It doesn’t work like that. I have to interview along with everybody else.”

  “You could always change your mind, you know,” Ben added. “Nothing says you can’t look around and find something you’d rather do than work for the prosecutor’s office. Have you seen all the firms that showed up?”

  Maggie glanced around the room. The perimeter of the large banquet hall was lined with white linen-covered tables. Occupying each table were teams of three or four interviewers seated behind banners identifying their firm. The guests were themselves scanning the room, laptops and spreadsheets open before them, searching for the newest additions to their respective teams. Only the best and brightest candidates would do. Some of the firms were familiar to her, many were not. She saw the table for the New York County District Attorney. She didn’t recognize the woman and two men seated there but Rance had said he wouldn’t be attending the interviews; the team would have his recommendation, she merely needed to mention her internship there. Maggie didn’t feel in a hurry. Still perusing the field, her eyes widened when she saw a name she recognized.

  Murphy, Rannigan, and Metheny, Attorneys at Law. Maggie smiled to herself. This was a firm with which she was very familiar. One of the more prestigious in all of Manhattan, the firm had an incredibly high success rate with high-profile defense cases.

  Casey saw them the same time she did. “Holy shit! Look who’s here,” she exclaimed. “Murphy, Rannigan. I should interview with them.”

  “You have a job,” Maggie reminded her.

  “Don’t look now,” Ben said. “Michael Rannigan himself is here. Flynn, didn’t you do one of his cases for Siegler’s class?”

  Maggie smiled. “I did.” She followed Ben’s gaze and saw him. He was tall, like she remembered. His expensively tousled salt and pepper waves framed his handsomely tanned face, perfectly complementing his soulful brown eyes and seemingly permanent five-o’clock shadow.

  Michael Rannigan. He was the public face of the firm, young, good-looking, a hot shot who never missed his sound bite on the evening news. He occasionally showed up in gossip items in the newspaper for hosting charity events or escorting society beauties to red carpet affairs. But he dazzled juries with his legal expertise and handsome smile. And he won acquittals for the firm’s very rich, very grateful clients.

  Maggie had once heard him speak at a charity event. His obvious physical appeal had not been lost on her. But she’d been impressed by his intelligence, by his earnest words about the importance of providing clients with the best representation possible. She’d studied the firm in depth and had even chose
n a case tried by Rannigan to use for a project she’d done the previous year.

  An idea began to form in her mind. I could simply go over and give them a resume, talk to them for a moment. No reason I couldn’t test the waters a bit, she thought. Interviewing with Murphy, Rannigan would be more competitive than with other firms, to be sure, for several reasons. A job there would pay significantly more than the DA’s office. Oh, those loans, she thought. And...he was there.

  “I’m going to talk to them,” Maggie said decisively, startling Casey and Ben.

  “What?” Casey asked. “I thought you were dead set on New York County.”

  “Nothing ventured...” Maggie called over her shoulder, heading toward the Murphy, Rannigan table before she lost her nerve.

  Chapter 3

  Michael Rannigan dry gulped three ibuprofen tablets as the car from the service weaved its way through mid-day Manhattan traffic. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d had a hangover. The previous night had been exceptional. At an art gallery opening, he’d met twin flight attendants who matched him drink for drink before going home with him for an extended threesome adventure.

  I’m getting too old for this shit. Should have called in sick today. As a partner at Murphy, Rannigan, there was no one to question his absence. But it was his turn representing the firm at the job fair at NYU. Brian Murphy was out of the country on vacation. And James Metheny was recovering from surgery. Tonsils or some shit, Michael mused. Didn’t everyone have their tonsils out when they were five?

  Sure the firm needed new talent. But why did he need to be there? He knew exactly why. Without his presence, John Hemphill would be the senior man there, and that couldn’t happen. Hemphill’s an idiot, he thought.

  The car dropped him at the entrance to Vanderbilt Hall. He knew it well. After all, NYU was his alma mater. He took a moment to straighten his tie before entering the building. As expected, the hall was full of fresh young faces, soon-to-graduate litigators who needed jobs. Unconsciously his eye roved, looking for nubile young female candidates. Not necessarily for the firm, mind you. He was always on the lookout for his next conquest. He passed a group of girls who giggled as he walked by.