Fifth Ave 02 - Running of the Bulls

Running of the Bulls

A novel by

Christopher Smith

For my great friend, Margaret Nagle.

Thank you for everything.

Excerpts from the best-selling

FIFTH AVENUE and BULLIED

are at the end of this novel.

Copyright and Legal Notice:
This publication is protected under the US Copyright Act of 1976 and all other applicable international, federal, state and local laws, and all rights are reserved, including resale rights.

Any trademarks, service marks, product names or named features are assumed to be the property of their respective owners, and are used only for reference. There is no implied endorsement if we use one of these terms.
 
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or information storage and retrieval) without permission in writing from the author.

First ebook edition © 2011.

Excerpt from "Fifth Avenue" © 2011.

Excerpt from "Bullied" © 2011

For all permissions, please contact the author at:
mailto:[email protected]

Disclaimer:

This is a work of fiction.
 
Any similarity to persons living or dead (unless explicitly noted) is merely coincidental.
Copyright © 2011 Christopher Smith.
 
All rights reserved worldwide.

http://www.christophersmithbooks.com

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For their help with this book, the author is particularly grateful to Erich Kaiser, Ross Smith, Ann Smith, Margaret Nagle, Matt Bialer, Brandi Doane, Jon McCann, Ted Adams, Antonio Gragera, Constance Hunting, Deborah Rogers, Tim Moore, Caroline Moore, Suzie Irby, R.J. Keller, Laura Baumgardner, Martine Bound, Jamie Clark, David H. Burton, Misty Rayburn, Sandy Phippen, Keri "The Book Heroine" Rico and Matthy Matturro Terrill.
 

The author also would like to thank the amazing team at the Chief Medical Examiner's Office in New York City; the City of Pamplona, Spain (and the bulls the author ran with which were kind enough not to trample him); Ivan Boesky for his inspiration, however unintended it was on his part; for supportive readers everywhere who send along the best, most encouraging mail; to those men and women who introduced the author to the real Wall Street while he researched this book; and to friends, old and new, all of whom either helped to shape this book or who offered support as it was written.

Thank you.

Books by Christopher Smith

On Kindle

Fifth Avenue

Bullied: Book One in the Bullied Series

Revenge: Book Two in the Bullied Series

Running of the Bulls: A Wall Street Thriller

On Kindle UK

Fifth Avenue

Bullied: Book One in the Bullied Series

Revenge: Book Two in the Bullied Series

Running of the Bulls: A Wall Street Thriller

On Nook

Fifth Avenue

Bullied: Book One in the Bullied Series

Revenge: Book Two in the Bullied Series

Running of the Bulls: A Wall Street Thriller (June 2011)

On Sony

Fifth Avenue

Coming soon:

Bullied: Book One in the Bullied Series

Revenge: Book Two in the Bullied Series

Running of the Bulls: A Wall Street Thriller (June 2011)

Also available on iBooks (which you can read with the Kindle app or through the iBooks store)
 
Please search for each because there are no direct links.

Fifth Avenue

Bullied: Book One in the Bullied Series

Revenge: Book Two in the Bullied Series

Running of the Bulls: A Wall Street Thriller (June 2011)

BOOK ONE

PREFACE

New York City

Bebe Cole was an apparition that moved forward without sound, an enigma in the center of the dim foyer, where she turned on unsteady feet, unbuttoned her full-length cashmere coat, and let it fall to the gleaming marble floor.
 

She was naked, bloody, bruised.

“They’ve killed us,” she said.

Still stunned from the beating, Edward Cole stared at his wife from the doorway of their Fifth Avenue apartment, unable to answer her, unable to speak.
 

The bandage they’d wrapped around his chest was too tight for him to breathe with any comfort; the drugs they’d pumped him full of were too much of a chemical blow for his body to handle.
 
He brought a hand to his ruined face and felt its altered shapes and swollen cheeks.
 
He smoothed his fingertips along the uneven curve of his broken nose and wondered how he’d ever explain this to a public who would want to know.

“You said they'd show restraint.”

Her voice sounded as though it came from the far end of a winding tunnel, and Cole had to concentrate to hear it.
 
He tried to focus on the petite figure that was his wife, but she was disappearing, vanishing, becoming one with the darkness rapidly unraveling along the edges of his vision.
 

“You promised we would be safe.”

He shook his head at her in frustration, took a step toward her and was not aware that he’d fallen until he lifted his head from the cool marble floor and tasted the fresh surge of blood rushing into his mouth.
 

Again, he tried to speak, but words wouldn’t come.
 
And so he lay there, listening to the shallowness of his own breath, watching with fading eyesight as Bebe’s shoes turned toward the dark library, stopped, and then backed up quickly as shoes that weren’t hers raced forward.
 
Too weak to comprehend or to even care, Cole slipped into unconsciousness.

When he woke, he saw his wife first.

Strapped to a Queen Anne chair in the center of the foyer, her carefully dyed blonde hair tousled and hanging in her face, Bebe was surrounded by four tripods, each holding a digital video camera trained on her.
 
She was naked, shivering, gagged.
 
There was a scrape on her forehead, cuts and bruises on her breasts.
 
She locked eyes with him and moaned.