Excerpt from SEARCH AND DETECT by Terri Reed
A bomber with an agenda…and a K-9 team determined to catch him.
Chase gathered her hands in his. His were warm and comforting against the flood of ice in her veins. She curled her fingers over his. Wanting, no needing, his strength and steady presence, even though relying on him wasn’t a smart move. “I’d been so gullible. I mean, I suspected at times that he might be…” She swallowed back the recriminations that laid shame and blame on her doorstep. She would not own his bad behavior. His betrayal. “He told me I was being paranoid.”
“Are you okay?”
Chase’s soft voice grabbed her focus. The concern and compassion on his face made her want to fling herself into his arms. She squeezed his fingers. “I will be. It’s a lot to process.”
She needed time on her own to sort through the quagmire of her emotions. She couldn’t do that with Chase so close and the temptation to lean on him for comfort and support so strong. She tugged her hands from his and stood. She had to get out of there. She needed to go someplace where she could think and pray and rage.
Chase rose to his full height, eating up the distance between them.
There was nowhere for her to go. Literally and figuratively. Her home had been blown up. Her parents lived far away. She was trapped by her isolation. And by the chair behind her, the stroller on one side and the table on the other.
And Chase stood in front of her. A handsome warrior, yet a gentle man.
Her heart battered against her rib cage. A yearning swelled within her. She met his gaze and saw the same yearning in his eyes.
His hand came up to cup her cheek, and she didn’t flinch or shy away, despite her earlier need to escape. Her feet felt glued to the floor and her heart calmed. His touch was tender and light against her skin, melting the ice in her veins.
“You deserve so much better,” he said, in a near whisper.
Was he talking about Garrett? Or himself?
Either way, she would decide what she deserved. Never again would she let someone else dictate her life.
And at this moment, she wanted, needed, the affirmation that she would be okay. That she was a beautiful woman who could attract a man like Chase.
She swayed toward him, the distance between them reduced to a millimeter. Questions and curiosity shone brightly in his eyes for a moment before he dipped his head and captured her lips.
The kiss was soft, probing and so welcome.
She entwined her arms around his neck, going up on tiptoe to better match him. All the hurt crowding her chest was pushed aside by a flood of warmth and affection for this man.
The soft snick of the door opening and the clearing of a throat jerked them apart.
Zoe stumbled, nearly falling back into the chair but managing to push it out of the way with the back of her knees. She skirted around the edge of the stroller and gripped the handle before she lifted her gaze to the person standing at the conference room entrance.
A woman she’d never seen before smiled hesitantly. A blonde with bright blue eyes. She wore a jacket with the MCK9 logo on the front.
Desperate to escape as embarrassment flushed through her system, Zoe asked Chase, “Your father? Where is he?”
“The break room,” Chase said, his voice husky. “Down the hall to your right. You can’t miss it.”
Without looking at him, she gave a quick nod then pushed the stroller past the woman standing in the doorway and headed in the direction Chase had mentioned. Her cheeks flamed. What was she doing? How could she let that kiss happen?
Oh no, her conscience chided. You made this happen.
And as much as she should regret kissing Chase, and probably would tomorrow, right now, she didn’t regret it. At all.
*
Chase stood frozen in place. His whole body felt on fire. He slowly turned to see who had interrupted the moment of insanity.
CSI Ophelia Clarke.
The embarrassment crowding his chest reflected in her pretty face. Man, was he losing it to kiss Zoe in the police station. Had the parallels to his wife’s death made him more invested in this case than he should have been? And now that he’d come to know and care for Zoe, he was getting in too deep. Allowing such unprofessional behavior wasn’t like him. He needed to do better at keeping his emotions in check.
“Sorry,” Ophelia said. “I didn’t realize until I’d already—”
He held up a hand. “Not your fault. Just keep this between us, shall we?”
“Mum’s the word,” Ophelia said, coming all the way into the room. “I thought you’d want to know right away that the remnants of the bomb used to blow up Zoe Jenkins’s home was homemade. Rudimentary.”
He blew out an aggravated breath. “So basically, anyone with the understanding of engineering—?”
Ophelia made a face. “Anyone with access to the internet can watch videos of how to build an explosive device like the one used,” she said.
Acid bore a hole through his gut. “We’re back to square one. We still don’t know who could have planted the bomb.”
Copyright © Terri Reed 2024
Mountain Country K-9 Unit #8
A bomber with a deadly agenda…
and a K-9 team determined to catch him.
When single mother Zoe Jenkins and her baby are caught in an explosion that destroys her home, she’s saved by FBI special agent Chase Rawlston and his K-9, Dash. But who set the bomb? Fearing that the notorious Rocky Mountain Killer he’s been investigating has the mother and daughter in his sights, Chase takes them under his protection. But can he uncover the killer’s identity before more innocent lives are caught in the crossfire?
Romance Suspense | Romance [Harlequin Love Inspired Suspense, On Sale: October 22, 2024, Mass Market Paperback / e-Book, ISBN: 9781335980199 / eISBN: 9780369756060]
Lose Yourself In Heart Warming Romance, Heart-Pounding Suspense
Growing up in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains, Terri Reed is a country girl at heart but loves exploring big cities as well as going on adventures around the world. An avid reader, she dreamed of writing her own romance and romantic suspense novels and set out to learn the craft and business of writing.
Now she has numerous published books that have been Fresh Picks on Fresh Fiction, have made the Publishers Weekly Mass Market Paperback Bestseller list, Nielsen’s Bookscan top hundred, Amazon Bestseller list, and have been featured in USA Today. Her books have been finalists in the Romance Writers of America RITA contest, National Readers’ Choice Award, Inspirational Readers’ Choice Award, and American Christian Fiction Writers The Carol Award contests.
When not writing, she enjoys spending time with family, friends and doing agility with her dog.
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