Deep Cover Detective

Deep Cover Detective
Lena Diaz

A detective needed a mysterious woman's help–even if she had secrets to spare…In the heart of Everglade country, Detective Colton Graham lays his plans to catch a robbery kingpin. What he fails to plan for is Silver Westbrook. Proprietress of a local B&B, Silver is as sharp-witted as she is easy on the eyes. But Colton senses Silver is hiding something. Suspicious that she might be harboring the very criminals he's tracking, Colton keeps a watchful eye on her. It doesn't take long to learn her true motives and her involvement in the case. But unfortunately for both of them, attraction can be the deadliest distraction.

He straightened, looking like a nervous stallion scenting a mare, wanting to grab her and flee from her at the same time.

His eyes had darkened like a stormy night as his warring needs fought inside him. He didn’t bolt.

But he made no move toward her, either. Instead, he fisted his hands at his sides. A slight hitch in his breathing was all that she needed to know that she had a chance to win this battle.

She rose to her feet, keeping her eyes locked on his the whole time. Slowly, she padded across the thick carpet to stand in front of him, with only a few inches and the heat from both their bodies between them.

“Colton,” she whispered. “I want you.”

He swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing in his throat. “We’re working on a case. We don’t have time—”

“We do have time. Hours to kill.” She slid her hands up the front of his chest, delighting in the feel of his muscles bunching beneath the thin fabric of his T-shirt. “And I’ve got the perfect way to spend at least one of those hours.”

“Silver …” His voice came out a harsh rasp. He cleared his throat and tried again, still not touching her, hands at his sides. “I’m not what you’re looking for.”

“Now, that’s where you’re wrong, Colton.”

Deep Cover Detective

Lena Diaz

www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)

LENA DIAZ was born in Kentucky and has also lived in California, Louisiana and Florida, where she now resides with her husband and two children. Before becoming a romantic suspense author, she was a computer programmer. A former Romance Writers of America Golden Heart

Award finalist, she has won a prestigious Daphne du Maurier Award for Excellence in mystery and suspense. To get the latest news about Lena, please visit her website, www.lenadiaz.com (http://www.lenadiaz.com).

This story is dedicated to Sean and Jennifer Diaz. My greatest, most rewarding accomplishment in life is having amazing children like you. I’m so proud of you both.

Thank you, Amy, Diana, Gwen, Krista, Manda, Rachel, Sarah and Sharon. KaTs rule.

Thank you, Angi Morgan and Alison DeLaine, for daily laughs and the magic room.

And, as always, a sincere thank-you to my editor and agent, Allison Lyons and Nalini Akolekar, for their constant support.

Contents

Cover (#u32907f84-9715-5c02-b699-e850b1d6cfdb)

Introduction (#u67128139-b1e4-5313-83dd-d1c1e08830dd)

Title Page (#u501f1147-3242-5e99-9bcf-80cdb96c36ae)

About the Author (#ud5214f06-5f16-5f32-a5b8-8174c4a9e09b)

Dedication (#u5331c117-0889-50e6-891c-e5ef8e66e42d)

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

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Extract (#litres_trial_promo)

Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter One (#uba82c4ec-07f5-528b-9bc6-226d426de609)

Colton shook his head in disgust and thumped the nav screen on his Mustang’s dashboard. It had to be broken. Either that or the GPS tracker he’d tucked under Eddie Rafferty’s bumper in Naples was on the fritz. Because if the screen was to be believed, the budding young criminal had driven his car off the highway and directly into south Florida’s million-and-a-half-acre swamp known as the Everglades.

Driving a car into the saw grass marsh and twisted islands of mangrove and cypress trees was impossible unless the car was sitting on pontoons. And Eddie’s rusted-out vintage Cadillac boasted bald tires just aching for a blowout. Not a pontoon in sight.

Colton pulled to the shoulder of I-75 near mile marker eighty-four, just past a low bridge over a culvert. This was the last location where the navigation unit showed Eddie’s car before it had taken the turn toward the swamp. So much for using technology to follow the suspect. He should have stayed closer, keeping Eddie in sight instead of relying on the GPS tracker. But when the kid had taken the ramp onto the interstate, Colton had worried that Eddie might get spooked seeing the same black Mustang in his rearview mirror the whole time he was on the highway. So Colton had dropped back a few miles.

Where was the juvenile delinquent now? Certainly not on the highway, and not on the shoulder. Heck, even if the GPS was right and he had pulled off the road here, there was nowhere else to go. Eight-foot-high chain-link fencing bordered this east-west section of I-75 known as Alligator Alley. The fence kept the wildlife from running out onto the road and causing accidents. And yet the dot on the dashboard screen still showed Colton’s prey continuing south, past the fence.