She held him so firmly, as if he was her safety line, and he wanted to be. The idea of leaving her again made him want to throw up. But he’d just been handed the biggest promotion of his life, a promotion that could help shape the future of millions of desperate people. He couldn’t turn that down even if she begged him.
The medics lifted Sienna from the car and onto a stretcher. Suddenly Audrey ripped out of his arms. “I’m coming with you,” she shouted as she ran after them.
“Cops are going to need a statement,” he called out, sounding pathetic even to his own ears.
“They know where to find me.” She turned and smiled at him, those eyes of hers as beautiful as they were sad. “Goodbye, Patrick.”
He opened his mouth, closed it again without saying anything. She climbed into the ambulance, and the paramedic closed the door. She wasn’t going to beg. She wasn’t going to cling.
It was up to him now, he realized. Their relationship. Their future. Considering how callously he’d walked away from her last time and the fact she’d already told him she loved him, why the hell wouldn’t it be his move?
He was flying to Saudi Arabia tomorrow.
And still he stood there stupidly, watching the ambulance drive away. Noah clipped him around the back of the head. “If she was my woman she wouldn’t be riding out of here alone.”
Killion nodded, and then blinked and looked around at the chaos and carnage of the crime scene. He drew in a deep breath. “Let’s sort out this mess.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
ELEVEN DAYS AFTER Sienna had been shot she was released from the hospital. Audrey stood by the door and watched her mother push Sienna along in a wheelchair.
Sienna paused at the threshold to her bedroom and touched Audrey’s hand. “You sure you’re okay, Audrey?” The kidnap and shooting had made Sienna more concerned about her than her sister had ever been in the past.
“I’m fine, sweety.” She took her sister’s cold hand in hers. “You just concentrate on getting better.” The shadows under Sienna’s eyes looked like bruises, her skin alabaster pale. But there was a determination in her eyes too, a steadfastness Audrey hadn’t seen before. Emotion knotted her throat. “I’m proud of you for doing this, Sienna. I am so damn proud.”
Her sister took a deep breath and nodded. She’d asked to be put into rehab—especially important with the pain medication Sienna needed to take as her wound healed. “I don’t want to die, Audrey.” Her voice shook. “It’s been a long time, but I finally want to live.”
“I love you.” Audrey told her and kissed her on the cheek. She’d been saying that a lot lately. Each member of her family heard it at least once a day. She’d even said it to Logan and Noah before they’d headed back to Colombia. She’d never be able to repay them for looking out for her.
There was another person who would have heard it, but she hadn’t seen him since the shooting. Some days that made her angry. Most days it just made her sad.
The nurse took over and Audrey pulled her mom away by the arm. “Come on, you. Time to take a break.” Her mother had pretty much been going non-stop since the shooting.
“Think she’ll be okay?” Sandra Lockhart asked wearily.
Sienna was here for three months without any contact with her family or friends. The hardest part would be the separation from Redford, but everyone knew it would be better to miss three months of his life, than continue this damaging, painful cycle of addiction.
She put her mom in the passenger side of her car and headed back across the city. She was actually driving her own vehicle again and had moved back into her own house. But it didn’t feel like home. Not anymore.
She pulled into her parents’ driveway. Her father came out with Redford in his arms. He probably hadn’t believed Sienna would go into rehab. Audrey turned to watch another car pull up alongside the curb. She smiled and went to meet the young woman who stepped out. She shook hands and introduced the woman to her parents.
“Mom, Dad. This is Frances. Frances Torrino. She’s the new nanny.”
“We can’t afford a nanny.” Her mom looked horrified, but her dad frowned thoughtfully.
“Gabriel left me some money in his will.” Audrey choked up a little thinking about his generosity and tried to forget how he’d died. Painlessly according to the police officer she’d spoken to. “This is what I’m doing with it.”
“We can’t take your money, Audrey,” her mom objected.
Audrey raised her hands. “It’s done, and you’d be a fool not to accept the help. Frances comes highly recommended.” She went over and kissed her parents each on the cheek. “I love you, but I can’t stay. Not anymore.” She pulled faces with Redford for a few seconds and then laughed and went to get back in her car.
The roar of a motorcycle had her looking up the street. Her heart gave one of those painful little jerks that always preceded disappointment. The sun was in her eyes, but that couldn’t possibly be who she wanted it to be even though the breadth of his shoulders and lean frame were exactly right. Then the bike stopped at the bottom of the driveway, and the rider lifted the visor of his helmet, revealing a pair of gorgeous blue eyes.
Her heart threatened to burst out of her chest, but she forced herself to remain where she was.
He carefully removed the black helmet and scrubbed a hand over his head. His short hair still shocked her, made his face look leaner, harder, until he smiled up at her with that trademark grin.
He held up another helmet that she hadn’t noticed was hooked over his right arm. He swung his leg over the saddle and started walking toward her. “Thought we might go for a ride?”
She forgot to breathe.
“Do you know this man, Audrey?” her mother asked, coming forward. “Isn’t he the man whose photo was on the news for breaking into Gabriel’s house?”
“Yes, Mom, the same news that had me wanted for a double homicide.” She tried to keep the bite out of her tone. “This is Patrick Killion.” She turned back to him and found his hungry eyes locked on her face. “He saved my life more times than I remember.”
Her father introduced himself, as did her mother, although she looked a lot less certain of the disreputable-looking rogue on the motorbike. Probably because of the disreputable leather jacket, disreputable boots, and disreputable-looking grin.
“We’ll leave you to your business,” her father insisted, and Audrey was grateful when everyone else went inside. Everything about Killion was precious and painful, and she ached to touch him, but she didn’t know why he was here. She didn’t think she could glue all the pieces of her heart back together if he broke it again.
“Where’d you get the bike?” she asked. It wasn’t the one they’d ridden on before. It was a great big Harley with a cherry-red tank.
“Of all the questions you could ask, you’re going with that one?” He raised a brow.
She didn’t say anything.
He glanced at the bike. Rubbed his chin. For the first time since she’d met him, he seemed nervous. “Thought we might go on a road trip.”
Her heart was so tied up in knots she didn’t think it was working anymore. Maybe that’s why she felt faint.
“A road trip?”
She watched him swallow.
“They offered me a new job.”
“Is this your undercover persona?” she asked.
He shook his head. “I turned them down.”
“Why?”
His lips firmed. “Decided to take some time off.”
“Why?”
He moved closer until he was standing right in front of her, his toes lined up against hers. She stared at the stitching on his black jacket. He tipped her chin, forcing her to meet his gaze. She was furious because tears were blurring her vision, even more than normal. She hated crying.
“I never had a real relationship until I met you. I never fell for a woman until I met you. The only thing I had in my life was my job. And I couldn’t do that because all I kept
thinking about was you.”
“So nothing’s changed.” She went to turn away but he stopped her by planting both hands on her shoulders.
He leaned down until he was eye-level to her. “Everything’s changed, and you know it.” He lowered his lips, kissing her slowly. Her arms rose to clasp his nape, and he took the kiss deeper, wrapping his arms tight around her as if he’d never let go. But he’d done that before. And he’d let her go anyway.
She jerked away from him.
He blew out an audible breath and turned away. “I screwed up. I know I did. If I could go back and fix it, say all the right words at the right time, I’d do it. But it isn’t possible, and I don’t know how else to get you to forgive me.”
She looked at him, aghast. Was he really this clueless? “You haven’t told me the one thing I need to hear.”
He frowned, then his expression cleared. “That I love you?” His lips curled into a confused smile. “How can you not know that I love you?”
Her heart finally figured out a way to start beating again and was making up for lost time. He’d told her exactly what she needed to hear, but he still didn’t get it. “I’m not an operative, Patrick. I’m not spending the rest of my days guessing your secrets. You have to talk to me. You have to communicate.”
She drew in a deep rattling breath. Then he did something that confounded her. He got down on his knees.
“Audrey Lockhart. This is me begging you on my knees to give me another chance. I love you.” He pointed his hands at himself almost angrily. “If this isn’t obvious enough, how about the fact that one day I’d like to get down on my knees and ask you to marry me.” She couldn’t breathe. “One day, I’d like to think about settling in a home someplace where we can both go to work in the morning and both come home at night, and sleep in each other’s arms. I’m hoping I’ll get lucky and you’ll want kids. Otherwise we can get a dog.”
She opened her mouth to say something, but he shut her down.
“I’m hoping you’ll forgive me, but I’m not expecting it. I nearly got you killed on a gazillion different occasions.”
“Gazillion isn’t a real number,” she got out finally.
He narrowed his eyes and then climbed to his feet. “I love you. I fell in love the moment you started lecturing me about frogs while wearing those sexy specs. I did not expect you to tear down my world so that I had to rebuild it from scratch, but that’s what you did.”
He went to say more but she stopped him with a raised hand. “Okay.”
He tilted his head to one side. “Okay? That’s all you got?”
She smiled, and he must have seen the truth in her eyes. “You already have everything I have to give. You’ve had it since you rescued me in Colombia even if you were too blind to see it.”
His nostrils flared. He took a step toward her, then he changed his mind and walked down to the bike and picked up both helmets. “So you wanna go on a road trip with me?”
She walked toward him and took the helmet from his hand. “Where are we going?”
“Figured we’d start in Arizona.” He climbed onto the bike. “Hop on.” His eyes crinkled with humor as he started the engine.
She shook her hair back and pulled on the helmet. More frog jokes. Something told her he’d never get tired of frog jokes. She slid her leg over the saddle and found her balance.
“You ready?” His voice came through a headset inside the helmet.
Wrapping her arms around his middle, she pressed her chest against his back and held on tight. She was giving herself to this man, and even though it was scary, it was a lot less scary than never seeing him again. “I’m ready.”
She took a final look at her parents who were staring at them from the living room window. She waved as he peeled gently away from the curb. “So, what’s in Arizona?”
“My gene pool.” Amusement laced his tone, but something else too. Something richer, warmer. “Figured you guys might want to get acquainted.”
Dear Reader
Thank you for reading Cold In The Shadows. I hope you enjoyed it. If you did, please help other readers find this book:
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Keep reading for more information on the Cold Justice Series and, as a special treat, the first chapter of Carolyn Crane’s latest book, Behind the Mask.
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Cold Justice Series Overview
A Cold Dark Place (Book #1)
Cold Pursuit (Book #2)
Cold Light of Day (Book #3)
Cold Fear (Book #4)
Cold in the Shadows (Book #5)
&
Cold Hearted (Book #6) Coming 2016
Free Sampler
Want to try the books without buying? Or send to friends who might also enjoy the stories? The first three chapters of each book are available online in a free ebook sampler.
Box Set
Cold Justice Series Books 1-3 are available in a convenient digital box set format.
Cold Justice Series Box Set, Volume 1 (Books 1-3)
Audiobooks
Cold Justice Series Books 1-5 are available as audiobooks narrated by Eric Dove. From Amazon and Audible.
Read the first chapter of RITA® Award-winning and USA Today bestselling author, Carolyn Crane’s latest Associates book, Behind the Mask.
Behind the Mask (Undercover Associates)
by Carolyn Crane
Copyright © 2015
ISBN: 9780988313163
BEHIND THE MASK
TO SAVE HER TWIN SISTER SHE MUST SWITCH PLACES WITH HER…
When her long lost sister—a prostitute—is won in a card game by a brutal drug cartel, Zelda knows what she has to do: take her place. Save her. Focus on infiltrating the shadowy group on behalf of the Associates, and try not to think about why she left the spying game years ago. She’s slept with dangerous criminals before; she can do it again.
Hugo Martinez is one of South America’s most lethal and wanted men, a legendary mercenary living on a windswept mountain. Even at the height of the war he wasn’t in the habit of taking women captive, but the American whore has seen his face. And he and the orphan boy need a cook. He shouldn’t want this woman, but there’s something so unusual about her…
Little by little, Zelda finds herself falling for her captor…but is he the killer she’s been hunting all these years?
Chapter One
Miami
ZELDA ROOTED THROUGH her twin sister Liza’s suitcase; the thing was pink and orange and studded with rhinestones in true Liza style. It squeezed Zelda’s heart.
Zelda would carry it now. She’d do whatever it took to save her sister, including taking her place. Won in a card game by a brutal drug cartel. Liza could never survive that.
But Zelda could.
Liza brought over a pair of fuck-me heels, looking apologetic. Liza had looked apologetic a lot over the past twelve hours. “They’re a little crazy, but it’s what I’d wear,” Liza said.
Zelda took them and ran her finger over one spiked heel, thankful for the closed toes. She didn’t want Liza to see her toes. The men she needed to fool definitely couldn’t see them.
“Mikos knows they’re my favorites, though,” Liza continued. “It’s what I’d wear on a day like this. To make myself feel better…you know.” This last in an angry whisper.
Zelda nodded, glad Mikos would recognize the shoes. A strong visual cue went a long way toward fooling people, and she’d need all the help she could get during the twenty-minute l
imo ride to the airport. Even an active field agent would have a hard time fooling a shrewd and paranoid drug dealer like Mikos, and Zelda was six years retired.
Liza insisted that Mikos had no idea she had a twin, but you had to expect the worst.
“You probably can’t walk in them.”
“Oh, I can walk in them.” Zelda had walked in plenty of shoes like that. She put them aside and grabbed the bottle of red nail polish and shook it, feeling like she might actually throw up. When she looked up next, she found her twin watching her, pretty lips parted, eyes sparkling. The look brought her straight back to their childhood.
They hadn’t spoken for years, but in some ways, it was as if she’d seen Liza just yesterday. “When you were a spy, you mean? You would wear shoes like this when you were a fucking spy? Because, fuck, Zelda!”
“Field agent,” Zelda corrected for the umpteenth time.
“Fuck,” Liza said. “You were out chasing bad guys in different countries and wearing disguises and stuff, so I’m going with spy. All this time I thought you were a botanist, and instead you’re this spy?”
“I was still doing some botany as an agent.” Plants could tell you a lot, like whether a body had been moved and how long it had been there. Forensic botany was how she got into the CIA.
“So wild.” Liza was impressed. She shouldn’t be; a lot of spying, especially for the female agents, was done on your back. She and Liza hadn’t turned out so differently after all.
“I’m best behind a desk,” Zelda mumbled, although the truth was that she’d loved being in the field, loved being out there making a difference. Until a good agent had been killed because of her.
“You used to say the CIA did bad things. When we were in high school? Remember? You always had so many opinions on everything.”
“All the more reason to get involved. If you don’t like something, change it, right?” She was shaking the nail polish again, way too vigorously. She forced herself to put it down. “Tell me the limo ride like a movie. How you see it going in your mind.”
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