Carla Cassidy - Scene of the Crime - Baton Rouge

“Come in,” he called, his heart pounding a little faster.

His door opened and in the faint moonlight casting in through his windows he could see her silhouette in the doorway. “Did I wake you?” she asked.

“No, I’m not even close to being asleep,” he replied. “Did you need something?” His voice sounded slightly hoarse to his own ears as blood rushed through his body.

“I need you.”

Her voice sounded stark and his heart pressed painfully tight against his chest. “You’ve got me, Georgina. Whenever you need me, you’ve always had me.”

She remained standing, as if weighing her options. “It’s just for tonight, Alex. I’m using you. I’m only inviting myself into your bed for tonight, not back into your life in any meaningful way.”

“So, you just want to take advantage of me for a single night,” he said with a forced lightness.

“That’s about the size of it,” she replied.

“Then what are you waiting for?”

www.millsandboon.co.uk

New York Times bestselling author CARLA CASSIDYis an award-winning author who has written more than fifty novels for Mills & Boon. In 1995, she won an award from RT Book Reviews for Anything for Danny. In 1998, she also won a Career Achievement Award for Best Innovative Series from RT Book Reviews.

Carla believes the only thing better than curling up with a good book to read is sitting down at the computer with a good story to write. She’s looking forward to writing many more books and bringing hours of pleasure to readers.

Contents

Cover

Excerpt At first Alexander thought he’d only imagined the faint knock on his door because he wanted her to come to him. It was only when he heard a second, louder knock that he responded. “Come in,” he called, his heart pounding a little faster. His door opened and in the faint moonlight casting in through his windows he could see her silhouette in the doorway. “Did I wake you?” she asked. “No, I’m not even close to being asleep,” he replied. “Did you need something?” His voice sounded slightly hoarse to his own ears as blood rushed through his body. “I need you.” Her voice sounded stark and his heart pressed painfully tight against his chest. “You’ve got me, Georgina. Whenever you need me, you’ve always had me.” She remained standing, as if weighing her options. “It’s just for tonight, Alex. I’m using you. I’m only inviting myself into your bed for tonight, not back into your life in any meaningful way.” “So, you just want to take advantage of me for a single night,” he said with a forced lightness. “That’s about the size of it,” she replied. “Then what are you waiting for?”

Title Page Scene of the Crime: Baton Rouge Carla Cassidy www.millsandboon.co.uk

About the Author New York Times bestselling author CARLA CASSIDY is an award-winning author who has written more than fifty novels for Mills & Boon. In 1995, she won an award from RT Book Reviews for Anything for Danny. In 1998, she also won a Career Achievement Award for Best Innovative Series from RT Book Reviews. Carla believes the only thing better than curling up with a good book to read is sitting down at the computer with a good story to write. She’s looking forward to writing many more books and bringing hours of pleasure to readers.

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Epilogue

Extract

Copyright

Chapter One

His heart jumped just a little when he saw her. Alexander Harkins wasn’t really surprised. His heart had jumped the very first time that he’d met her, and now even two years after their divorce, it was as if it was an involuntary response that he had a feeling he would never be able to control.

Special Agent Georgina Beaumont might wear her rich dark hair boyishly short, but there was nothing remotely boyish about her large green eyes fringed with long dark lashes or her classically beautiful features.

There was definitely nothing faintly masculine about her full breasts, tiny waist and long slender legs. Even in a short-sleeved white blouse and neatly tailored black slacks, she managed to look effortlessly feminine and ridiculously hot.

He was seated on the other side of the large conference room when she entered and struck up a conversation with two other FBI agents who stood near the doorway.

Since their divorce, they’d worked out of this same building but hadn’t been assigned a case to work together and had only run into each other occasionally. The fact that they were both in this same room indicated that was about to change.

A knot tightened in Alexander’s chest as he speculated on what they were all about to be handed. It didn’t really take much thought on the matter. He knew the people in this room had been called together to form a task force to handle the issue of missing FBI agents and their loved ones.

He was more than happy to be part of the team because the last agent who had disappeared was a close friend of his.

Jackson Revannaugh had gone to Kansas City to work a case and had returned two weeks ago with a fellow FBI agent named Marjorie who had obviously won his heart. Three days ago Marjorie and Jackson had gone missing from Jackson’s lavish apartment... just like an agent and her husband in Kansas City and another agent and his wife from the nearby small town of Bachelor Moon.

Two nights before their disappearance, Alexander had met Jackson and Marjorie for dinner at a restaurant known for its creole cuisine. He’d been charmed by Marjorie, who talked as if she intended to transfer from the Kansas City bureau to Baton Rouge in order to continue the relationship with Jackson. He’d never seen his friend, famous for being an unashamed ladies’ man, so taken by a woman. Alexander had definitely heard the peal of wedding bells in the not-too-distant future for the two. And now they were gone, apparently taken from their bed in the middle of a Tuesday night.

There were eight agents in the room when Director Jason Miller entered. The tall, gray-haired man would be an imposing figure under any circumstances, but at the moment, with his strong jawline throbbing with tension and his blue eyes sharp and narrowed, he looked ready to breathe fire. The agents quickly found chairs at the long conference table and fell silent.

Alexander found himself seated across from Georgina. She cast him a quick smile and then directed her focus on her boss. That little smile of hers evoked old memories that he shouldn’t have retained, that should have been erased the minute he’d signed the divorce papers two years before.

He quickly turned his attention to Director Miller, already dreading the job he feared was ahead of them all. On the wall behind Miller was a whiteboard/bulletin board that at the moment was covered with a large sheet of blank white paper.

The silence in the room shattered as Miller turned to the board and ripped off that paper. The whiteboard side was pristine, ready for dry-erase markers to get to work, but the bulletin board was papered with perfectly aligned photos of the missing people.

Alexander’s heart squeezed tight as he looked at the photo of seven-year-old Macy Connelly and then moved to a picture of his dark-haired, handsome friend, Jackson. There were a total of seven pictures of people who had seemingly vanished from the face of the earth over the past couple of months.