Mary Alford - Framed For Murder

FALSELY ACCUSED

Framed for helping her partner smuggle guns—and then murdering him—CIA agent Liz Ramirez must find the evidence that will prove her innocence...before she’s caught or killed. So when her squad’s leader attempts to bring her in for questioning, she knows her future depends on convincing Aaron Foster to go rogue and help her. On the run from the rest of her team and the gun dealers who are convinced she knows the location of their missing weapons, Liz risks losing the proof that would clear her name. But will eluding her pursuers—and trying not to fall for the handsome commander—prove to be fatal?

“Drop the weapon, Liz.”

Aaron’s normally smooth-as-caramel Southern drawl held a steely edge Liz had never heard before. He’d found her. Anticipated her next move.

He stepped closer, the look in his eyes matching his tone. Just for a second she lost what little bit of hope she still clung to. Did he think she was capable of killing her partner?

“Aaron, you scared me.” Her voice shook slightly, her nerves wrecked.

“You need to come with me, Liz,” he said quietly.

She swallowed back the betrayal she felt at those words. She wouldn’t blame Aaron. He was just doing the job he’d been tasked to do.

“I—I can’t do that. I didn’t kill my partner, but someone wants you to think that I did.”

His face twisted with gut-wrenching pain. “I know you didn’t kill him, but running makes you look guilty. I promise we’ll figure it out together.”

Could she trust him? She was close enough to witness the battle raging in him as they faced each other in a silent standoff.

Dear Reader,

Where do you turn when your back is against the wall? When life is going our way, it’s an easy question to answer. But what if you were being blamed for something you didn’t do? In times of crisis, that’s when our faith is tested.

This is the story behind my latest Love Inspired Suspense. For Agent Liz Ramirez, her faith in God has always proved unshakable, even after the death of her husband. Yet her faith in man is challenged when Liz is blamed for her partner’s death. Facing prison time, she turns to the one person who has never once let her down. Agent Aaron Foster.

Liz is forced to go against the principles she’s believed in since joining the Scorpions to find the evidence her deceased partner left behind in a remote cabin in Alaska. Evidence that will hopefully clear her name.

When everything points to Liz’s guilt, Aaron willingly lays his life on the line to save hers.

And when everything is going against us, like it was for Liz, it would be so easy to give up. But it is in our darkest moments that God’s light shines the brightest. And if we let Him, He’ll be there beside us, no matter what. Just like Aaron was for Liz.

All the best...

Mary Alford

MARY ALFORD was inspired to become a writer after reading romantic suspense greats Victoria Holt and Phyllis Whitney. Soon, creating characters and throwing them into dangerous situations that test their faith came naturally for Mary. In 2012 Mary entered the Speed Dating contest hosted by Love Inspired Suspense and later received “the call.” Writing for Love Inspired Suspense has been a dream come true for Mary.

Framed for Murder

Mary Alford

www.millsandboon.co.uk

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And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen.

—John 21:25

To my sweet angels, Ava, Kinze and Baylee.

I love you so much.

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

Introduction

Dear Reader

About the Author

Title Page

Bible Verse

Dedication

ONE

TWO

THREE

FOUR

FIVE

SIX

SEVEN

EIGHT

NINE

TEN

ELEVEN

TWELVE

THIRTEEN

FOURTEEN

FIFTEEN

SIXTEEN

SEVENTEEN

EIGHTEEN

Extract

Copyright

ONE

You’re being set up... The moment Agent Liz Ramirez switched on the burner phone and read the text message, her stomach turned to ice.

The number attached had been blocked. The sender wanted to remain anonymous. That it had come through on her burner phone was disturbing enough. No one knew the number except...Michael.

Her fear for his well-being spiraled. It had been growing most of the day.

She thought about her partner, Michael Harris’ earlier depression. When she’d dropped him off at his home after he’d been released from the hospital, she’d sensed something was bothering him even though he refused to talk about it.

Now, standing on his front porch, the same feeling of unease that had followed throughout the day resurfaced.

Liz rang the doorbell. “Michael, are you in there?” she called out when nothing stirred inside.

His car was in the drive. The house looked the same as when she’d left Michael to get some rest, yet the hair standing at full attention on her arms warned her the feeling was neither a figment of her imagination nor a remnant of recent events creeping in.

With the Scorpion team’s latest capture of their top terrorist threat known as the Fox, and the weapons he’d supposedly smuggled into the US still missing, the implication hinted at by his second-in-command still troubled Liz. Was someone else involved in the operation? Someone closer than any of them wanted to believe?

She tried his phone once more. She could hear it ringing inside.

Liz reached for the door handle. It opened freely in her hand. As a member of the CIA’s elite Scorpion team, Michael would know security was critical. The team had been tasked with bringing down some of the most deadly terrorists operating around the world and because of it, they had enemies everywhere. Michael wouldn’t deliberately leave the door unlocked.

With her heart hammering in her chest, she reached for her weapon, eased through the door and into the house.

“Michael, where are you?” The quiet of the house settled around her without answer.

Liz forced herself to breathe as she glanced around the living room. Nothing appeared out of place. His phone lay on the end table as if he’d tossed it there.

“Michael,” she called out as she eased to the bedroom. She touched the unmade bed. It was cold. He hadn’t been here in a while. A quick search of the closet and adjoining rooms proved fruitless.

That left just one more place. The kitchen. Her stomach chewed with tension. Something was wrong; her heartbeat drummed in warning. It felt as if she were walking through cement as she slowly entered the kitchen and saw it. In an instant, her world crumbled and her worst fear became a reality.

Michael lay sprawled facedown on the tile floor. A pool of drying blood framed part of his head.

Her hand flew to cover her mouth. “Michael,” she said in a broken voice then dropped to her knees next to him. He was cold to the touch. Rigor mortis hadn’t yet set in. A single gunshot wound to his right temple confirmed the method of death. But the murder weapon was nowhere in sight.