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Colorado Crime Scene
Cindi Myers
An undercover agent falls for a beautiful target and could pay the ultimate price… From his first glimpse of her, Luke Renfro can't forget reporter Morgan Westfield…or anyone she came in contact with. The FBI agent's photographic memory for faces—and instant attraction to Morgan—creates trouble for all of them as his team searches for a terrorist in Colorado. And to make matters worse, Luke suspects Morgan’s estranged brother may be the target they’re looking for. Falling for a criminal’s sister could jeopardize his career. And both their lives. Still, resisting the beautiful journalist is almost as impossible as forgetting a face. With the clock ticking, Luke must focus on his assignment in order to protect the innocent—and have any chance of seeing more of the woman he’s falling for.
“I’m glad we met, in spite of the strange circumstances.”
“I’m glad, too.” Maybe from the moment he’d first seen her in that video, he’d known he’d seek her out. Something in her called to him.
She tilted her head up and rose on her toes to bring her face closer to his in silent invitation—an invitation he wouldn’t refuse. He’d been wanting to kiss her, hesitant only because of the tenuousness of their relationship. Her lips warmed beneath his, as soft and sensuous as he’d imagined they would be. He deepened the kiss.
A flash of light distracted him, and reluctantly he lifted his head to look around. He saw nothing but the array of news vans and reporters across the street, though he couldn’t shake the sense that something had happened that he should have paid attention to.
Colorado
Crime Scene
Cindi Myers
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
CINDI MYERS is an author of more than fifty novels. When she’s not crafting new romance plots, she enjoys skiing, gardening, cooking, crafting and daydreaming. A lover of small-town life, she lives with her husband and two spoiled dogs in the Colorado mountains.
For Vicki L.
Contents
Cover (#u91678d65-14e0-5f02-8e51-a18ef7c45d5c)
Introduction (#u9061e8ad-bb3a-529b-9630-b598bced5961)
Title Page (#ub1f1eeb0-952e-5771-9798-3487166d1745)
About the Author (#u3cfe7fb6-020d-5543-aa29-6e7932d5ebe4)
Dedication (#u3be5b812-6329-5497-9573-a846e3163c98)
Chapter One (#ua20b9b7c-3fe8-569a-9ca9-5aacc8ef6f65)
Chapter Two (#u08d4a72c-475c-5a58-aa37-5951add308a1)
Chapter Three (#ub1e923ac-46bd-57f7-a3e3-ff2974665201)
Chapter Four (#u93670e7d-c6ca-5922-a89a-814ce46a9988)
Chapter Five (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Six (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Seven (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Eight (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Nine (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Ten (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Eleven (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Twelve (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Thirteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Fourteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Fifteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Sixteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Seventeen (#litres_trial_promo)
Extract (#litres_trial_promo)
Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter One (#ulink_d8c2b8b5-36fe-5f53-b7a4-67523df833c3)
Luke Renfro never forgot a face. The blessing and the curse of this peculiar talent defined his days and haunted his nights. The faces of people he knew well and those he had merely passed on the street crowded his mind.
He sorted through this portrait gallery of strangers and friends as he studied the people who hurried past him on a warm, sunny morning on Denver’s 16th Street Mall, searching for anyone familiar, while at the very back of his mind whispered the question that plagued him most: What if he’d overlooked the one person he most needed to find?
He shoved aside that familiar anxiety and reviewed the details of his assignment today: young Caucasian male, probably early to midtwenties, slight, athletic build, five-eight or five-nine. He’d been clean shaven in the surveillance photos Scotland Yard had forwarded from London, his brown hair cropped very short. But even if he’d grown out his beard or dyed his hair, Luke would recognize him. It was what he did. It was why the FBI had recruited him and others like him, copying an idea implemented by the Brits—to assemble a group of “super-recognizers” to look for known criminals and stop crime before it happened.
Also on the list of people he hoped to spot was a fortysomething man with a swarthy complexion and iron-gray curls, and a stocky Asian man with a shaved head and a scar beside one eye. If he spotted any of these people, he was to bring them into headquarters for questioning.
He crossed the street and strolled past a row of restaurants starting to fill up with the early lunch crowd. A strong breeze made the banners strung overhead pop and snap. Welcome, Racers! declared one. Colorado Cycling Challenge! proclaimed another. The man Luke was searching for wouldn’t miss the race, though Luke hoped to find him before he ever had a chance to attend.
A flash of honey-blond hair in his peripheral vision sent a jolt of recognition through him, a physical shock, like finding something important he hadn’t even realized he’d lost. He whirled around in time to see the woman step onto one of the shuttle buses that ran up and down the length of the pedestrian mall. Heart pounding, he took off down the sidewalk after the bus, ignoring the annoyed looks from the hipster couple he jostled in his haste.
He hadn’t expected to see her here today, though logically he shouldn’t have been surprised. She’d been in some of those Scotland Yard videos also, and the image of her heart-shaped face framed by a stylish short haircut, her wide hazel eyes staring into the camera from beneath a fringe of honey-colored bangs, had stayed with him, standing out from the sea of anonymous faces filed away in his memory.
She stepped off the shuttle four blocks down, in front of a chain drugstore, the breeze blowing her swept-aside bangs into her eyes. She stopped and brushed the stray locks off her face, allowing him time to take in her skinny jeans, athletic shoes, pale green tank top, and a scarf of mingled blue and green knotted at her throat. Then she started walking again, long, confident strides covering ground quickly. Staying back half a block, he followed her as she headed to a boutique hotel and entered the lobby. Luke hurried to catch up, weaving his way through a family unloading luggage at the front door and two men consulting a street map just inside the entrance.
Soft classical music filled the lobby, which was decorated in Victorian red velvet and gold brocade. Luke scanned the crowd of tourists and businessmen, but the woman wasn’t among them. A check of the elevators showed both were stopped on upper floors. Had she opted for the stairs, or passed through to the hotel bar? He hesitated. Did he enter the bar and search for her, or return to the mall and his original quarry?
“Excuse me.”
He turned and stared into the angry eyes of the woman he’d been following. Hazel eyes of mingled green and gold, fringed with gold lashes. Eyes that had disturbed his dreams, though in those fantasies, they’d been considerably friendlier than they were right now. “Who are you, and why are you following me?” she demanded.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Bluffing was as important a skill for an agent as it was for a poker player.
“I’m not stupid. I saw you following me.” She folded her arms under her breasts; he wondered if she was aware how that emphasized her cleavage. If he pointed this out, she’d no doubt add “sexist pig” to whatever other unflattering descriptions she’d ascribed to him. “I want to know why.”
She was calling his bluff. Time to fold. But that would mean leaving and walking away, and he hadn’t gone to all this trouble to do that. Maybe a better answer was to show her his cards—or at least some of them. He reached into his jacket and pulled out the folder with his credentials. “Special Agent Luke Renfro. FBI.”
Her eyes widened, and some of the color left her cheeks. “What is this about?” The words came out as a whisper, and all her bravado vanished. In fact, she looked ready to faint, her breath coming in quick, shallow pants.
Her reaction—more fear and guilt than an innocent citizen ought to exhibit—had all his instincts sounding alarms, his senses on high alert. He touched her arm lightly, though he was prepared to hang on if she made a run for it. “Why don’t we go into the bar and talk?” He nodded toward the hotel bar, which at this time of day was almost deserted.
“All right.” She allowed him to usher her into the bar, to a red leatherette booth. The lighting was subdued, the music almost inaudible. Luke sat across from the blonde, and the waitress, who’d been seated at one end of the bar, hurried over to them. “I’ll have a glass of iced tea,” Luke told her. He looked to the woman across from him. “Would you like something stronger?”
“Just water.” She pushed her hair back out of her eyes and settled her hands flat on the table in front of her. Her nails were short, polished a deep blue. She wore silver earrings that glinted in the bar light when she turned her head to look at him. Her hair, thick and shiny and sexy, curled around her ears and the nape of her neck.
It bothered him that this woman had stuck in his head when so many others didn’t. Maybe that’s why he’d followed her, to see if up close he could identify the reason he’d become so fixated on her. But maybe it wasn’t simple attraction at work here. Maybe his cop instincts recognized some guilt in her he couldn’t yet put into words. He didn’t want to think of her as a suspect, but he had to if he was going to do his job correctly.
“Why is the FBI following me?” she asked, reminding him they were alone again.
“First, tell me your name, since you already know mine.”
She hesitated, then said, “Morgan Westfield.”
The name itself didn’t set off any alarm bells. Though his photographic memory for faces didn’t carry over to names or facts and figures, he’d learned the names of key suspects in his current investigation—at least, the names they knew. A series of terrorist bombings had rocked the cycling world in the past two years, with bombs killing and injuring racers and spectators alike at key races around the world. The Bureau hoped that by sending members of the team they’d code-named Search Team Seven to Denver they could prevent another attack. Was Morgan somehow involved and Luke hadn’t realized it?
“You were following me and you don’t know my name?” she asked. “I don’t understand.”
“You were at the Tour de France last month,” he said. “And the Tour of Britain before that.” But not at the Paris-Roubaix the year before. Or maybe she’d managed to stay out of range of the security cameras for that event.
“You’ve been following me all this time?” Her voice rose, and anger returned the color to her cheeks.
He hadn’t been following her, but maybe fate or instinct or blind luck had led him to her. The waitress brought their drinks and glanced at them curiously. “Will there be anything else?”
“No, thank you.” He handed her a ten. “Keep the change.”
She stuffed the bill into her apron and retreated to the bar once more. Morgan leaned over the table toward him. “Why is the FBI following me?” she demanded again, tension straining her face.
“I’m not following you,” he said. “I’m actually looking for someone else. But I remembered you and was curious.”
“You remembered me?” She sat back, frowning. “But we’ve never met.”
“No. But I’ve studied surveillance videos of both races.” And many others. “I remembered seeing your face.”
“That’s crazy,” she said. She didn’t seem as nervous now, but more annoyed, as she had been when she’d first challenged him in the lobby. “There were thousands of people at those races. Hundreds of thousands. Why would you remember me?”
“It’s what I do. It’s my job, actually. I’m paid to remember faces, and to recognize them when I see them again.”
She took a long drink of water, her eyes never leaving his. “I’m not sure that explanation makes sense.”
“You know how some people have photographic memories, right?”
“You mean they can read a phone book or encyclopedia and remember everything on the pages? I thought that was just something in movies.”
“No, it’s a real phenomenon. My brother is like that. Once he reads something, it’s committed to memory.” A familiar ache squeezed his chest at the mention of his twin brother. He’d give anything to know where Mark was now. To be assured he was safe.
“But it’s different for you?” Morgan prompted.
He nodded. “With me, it works a little differently. I never forget a face. Not if I’ve spent even a few seconds focusing on it.”
“I thought they had computers that could do that—scan video for familiar faces and stuff.”
“Facial-recognition software can’t compete with the human brain,” he said. “After riots in London in 2011, Scotland Yard’s team of super-recognizers identified 1200 suspects from video surveillance. Computer software identified only one person.”
“So I shouldn’t be flattered that you remembered me—it’s just something you do.”
“Some faces are more pleasant to remember than others.” He smiled, but she continued to regard him with suspicion.
Fine. He needed to be more suspicious of her, as well. “What were you doing at the races?” he asked.
“I’m a writer. I was covering the races for Road Bike Magazine.”
“So you work for the magazine?”
“No, I’m a freelancer. I write for a lot of different publications, though my specialty is bicycle racing.”
“Are you in Denver to cover the Colorado Cycling Challenge?”
“What if I am?”
And what if she was here to do more than write about the races? “I’m here for the race, too,” he said. “We’ll probably see each other again.”
“I never saw you at those other races.”
“I wasn’t there.” Before she could ask the obvious question, he said, “I saw you on surveillance video.”
She closed her eyes. Maybe she was counting to ten before she went off on him. When she opened them again, her voice was calm but chilly. “Why don’t we stop this game of twenty questions right now and you give me some straight answers. What is this about? Why were you looking at surveillance videos of me? Why were you following me just now?”
“You want the truth?”
“Of course I want the truth.”
“I wasn’t looking for you on those videos, but you stuck in my head. I remember a lot of people, but most of them don’t make any strong impression on me. But you did. I wanted to meet you and try to figure out why.” That was the truth in its simplest form. Basic attraction leads to impulsive action. His bosses would not approve.
“Seriously?” She stared at him.
He nodded. “You said you wanted the truth, and that’s it.”
“I can’t decide if that’s the worst pickup line I ever heard, or the best.” Some of the tension went out of her and she sat back, studying him.
“You have to give me points for originality,” he said.
This coaxed the beginnings of a smile from her. She had full lips, highlighted with a pink gloss. He wondered what it would feel like kissing those lips, then he pushed the thought away.
