Alter Boy

Publisher Marketing: A $7.5 million lottery winner files for bankruptcy and hides the windfall from the court. For a man with Adam Garnett's "skills," the task is challenging, but hardly daunting. Until his street smart ex-girlfriend decides to fight for the palimony he owes her. Convinced Garnett is hiding assets, Rita Jensen contests his bankruptcy, and hires financial consultant Zack Bello to investigate. Zack learns Garnett may have won a lottery jackpot and sold the ticket. But Rita abruptly drops the lawsuit and terminates the investigation. Pleading emotional burnout, she has decided continuing the fight isn't worth it. After all, the lottery possibility is no more than a theory. Dumbfounded but accepting, Zack moves on to other business--until Rita and Garnett are found dead. Given his familiarity with the two, he questions the official ruling that Garnett killed Rita, then himself. No stranger to criminal cases in his practice, Zack continues investigating on his own. The lottery jackpot he tentatively linked to Garnett is eventually claimed, and Zack follows the money. It leads him to the mother of an abused teenage girl, to current and former priests, and to a Senator facing reelection. The path ends at the door of the politician's sister and billionaire family matriarch, Elizabeth Henley. The closer Zack gets to Henley and the past she is protecting, the more dangerous the attempts to thwart him. When Henley unleashes the full muscle of her security staff, Zack must draw on his skills as a former military sniper. He formulates a plan to permanently protect himself and the innocents he has exposed along the way. But the risk he doesn't anticipate is the one making this case personal since he decided to pursue it on his own. A risk that if manifested, will turn his plan against himself. Contributor Bio:  Azzolina, Ronald Azzolina has been the CEO of a hotel/casino company in Atlantic City, a bank president, and a financial consultant. He also spent 10 years as a reserve police officer with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.