VANISHED, A Romantic Suspense Novel (Edgars Family Novel)
Read VANISHED, A Romantic Suspense Novel (Edgars Family Novel) Online
Authors: Suzanne Ferrell
Tags: #Romantic Action/Adventure, #Romantic Suspense
Copyright
Copyright © 2014 by Suzanne Ferrell
Cover Art by
Lyndsey Lewellen
Formatting
Libris In CAPS
Release date: February 2014
Ferrell, Suzanne (2014), Vanished,
A Romantic Suspense Novel.
Suzanne Ferrell.
All rights reserved to the Author
This book and parts thereof may not be reproduced in any form, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means - electronic, mechanical, photocopying, or otherwise - without prior written permission of the author and publisher, except as provided by the United States of America copyright law. The only execption is by a reviewer who may quote short excerpts in a review.
Dedication
For Jim, the hero who has always been by my side. Thank you for the love, laughter and support throughout this long slow road to and through publication. Having you as my sounding board and cheerleader helps more than you can ever imagine. Your pride in everything I do or attempt to do keeps me going.
Acknowledgement
It takes a lot of people to make a book complete, especially so with independently published books.
I’d like to think my cover artist, Lyndsey of LLewellen Designs. The whole series is so cool, and this one is PURPLE!
My beta reader Melissa Kelley and critique partner, Sandy Blair who kept this story following the right path and my sanity on just this side of the narrow line into crazyville!
My formatters at Libris in CAPS. Mitch and Alison have done such a great job!
Author’s Note
Dear Reader,
Thank you so much for trying my Indie published book. I understand that there are many options for you to spend your money on and am honored that you chose one of my books. For that reason my team and I strive to put out the best product we can from the awesome cover design through the entire editing and formatting process. For my part, I hope to deliver an entertaining story that keeps you wondering what’s going to happen next.
If at the end of this book you find you simply loved the story and characters, please consider giving it a positive
rating or review
. In this brave new book world, the only way for a good story to find its way into the hands of other readers is if the people who loved it let others know about it. We authors appreciate any little bit of help you can give us.
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Now the important part: Here’s Luke and Abigail’s story. I hope you will love them as much as I did while I was writing
VANISHED
.
Table of Contents
The Edgars Family Novels
Other Suzanne Ferrell Books...
Vanished
A Romantic Suspense Novel
By
Suzanne Ferrell
CHAPTER ONE
Cleveland, Ohio
The acrid odor of liquid copper hit Abigail Whitson as she pushed open the condo’s unlocked door. The smell roused memories of pain and dread.
Her heartbeat leapt into double-time.
She dropped her overnight bag just inside the doorway, and pushed the condo’s door open farther. The parking lot’s light lit the entrance, casting shadows down the length of the long hallway in front of her. Reaching into her purse, she pulled out her 9mm Glock and gently clicked a bullet into the chamber. This was the first time she’d used the thing outside the firing range since she finished her training five years ago. She fought to control the trembling in her arms and hands as she held the weapon.
“Brianna?” She called from the foyer.
Silence
.
Where was she? Her oldest friend had called, asking her to fly from D.C. to Cleveland. Brianna wanted to meet with her here at her townhouse to talk about some irregularities she’d found at the company where she worked. As self-centered as most of Brianna’s faults were, tardiness wasn’t among them.
As Abigail’s eyes adjusted to the shadows, she glanced down to see a rusty trail smeared over the hallway’s expensive Italian-marble tiles. It led from the doorway farther back into the townhouse toward a dim light.
She inhaled deeply, sucking in the cool spring air. The sweet scent of hyacinth from the flowerbed just outside the door mixed with the lingering metal one in her nose. A wave of nausea washed over her. With a trembling hand, she covered her nose and mouth. She inhaled and exhaled slowly in an effort to stop the threat of revisiting her bad airline meal.
Don’t lose your lunch here, Abigail. You’re a Treasury agent, and it wouldn’t be good form.
Technically that was true. Even if she’d never spent one day in the field away from her accounting and support duties, at least her government-issued license said she was a trained agent for the United States Treasury Department.
Now she wished she’d followed protocol and waited until the lead investigator for the department’s Columbus division had contacted her before heading to Brianna’s home. At the time, however, she’d assumed her friend needed her expert skills in investigative accounting, but was in no physical danger. Seeing no need to wait at the airport for the field agent, she’d simply left the address on the cell number she’d been given and grabbed a taxi.
Now she had no choice but to proceed on her own. Carefully, she stepped farther into the condo’s hallway and along the side of it to avoid disturbing what she suspected was dried blood on the tiles.
As she moved past the darkened kitchen and great room in the condo’s front, she pressed herself against the hallway wall, pointed her gun into the darkened area and tried to see if anything moved. Nothing did. She moved to the other side and slid further down the hall, passing one bedroom, then another. Her arms ached from the effort to control their trembling.
She supposed she should check out every room, but for her first building search she might as well start with the already lit one.
Coward.
Not really. She might be inexperienced but she wasn’t stupid. It was a practical move. If nothing jumped out at her on the way to the living room, she’d just begin there and work her way back out.
“Brianna?” she called again, hoping to get an answer as she neared the room at the hall’s end.
None came.
The hum of a computer modem broke the eerie silence. Abigail stopped just inside the doorway.
The room lay in shambles. The stuffing erupted from the deep knife slashes in the couch cushions. Drawers of the desk and built-in entertainment center stood open, their contents strewn about like an indoor tornado had whipped through the room. The lamps lay in shattered pieces on the floor, except for the one in the corner, which lit the mayhem.
Abigail expected to find a body, either injured or dead among the mess. Thank God there wasn’t one. Her relief was short lived as she saw the large pool of congealed blood that had soaked into the room’s hand-woven Persian rug.
What on earth had Brianna gotten herself into this time?
A click sounded behind her.
Abigail froze in place. Her heartbeat pounded in her ear.
“So, Abby, what have you gotten yourself into this time?” said a distinctly familiar, taunting voice from behind her.
Abigail swallowed the scream she’d been fighting and stiffened her shoulders.
Great. Just what she needed. The last man on the planet she ever wanted to see again.
Her eyes narrowed as she slowly turned, pointing her weapon at the man behind her. The light from the parking lot cast an intimidating silhouette of him as he stepped farther into the room so she could see him, then he leaned casually against the wall. He hadn’t changed in the last five years. He still moved with the grace of an expensive sports car on a clogged freeway. Sleek and dangerous, just waiting for the opportunity to pounce on an opening and hit its top speed.
“Hello, Luke.” She fought to keep her voice neutral. “Let me guess.
You’re
the district field agent.”
* * * * *
Luke Edgars ground his teeth. Pissed didn’t even begin to describe his current mood. His mission to Southeast Asia had yielded no new information on his current military espionage case. The trip home had been long and boring, and the man seated beside him had smelled of five-day-old body odor and bad cologne, giving Luke a nagging headache just behind his eyes. Then, at his layover in St. Louis, his boss had ordered him to divert to Cleveland, instead of his home base of Columbus, to baby-sit a desk agent who
might’ve
stumbled onto a federal tax fraud case. And at the airport, instead of finding a nervous novice, he’d received a text message telling him to meet the agent at this address.
He hadn’t thought his week could get any worse. Boy, was he wrong.
Seeing this particular woman—looking very much like the accountant she was, dressed in her loose-fitting blue suit, white blouse, and sensible shoes—holding a gun pointed right at his chest didn’t do anything to improve his mood. “You want to put that thing away before someone gets hurt?”
“I do know how to handle a gun,” Abby said, pointing the gun at the floor.
He pushed himself away from the wall. No longer a target, he walked into the room, careful not to disturb any possible evidence, his own weapon pointed at the floor. “Whose place is this?”
“Brianna Mathews. My college roommate.”
A slight catch in Abby’s voice drew his attention away from the chaotic mess in the room and back to her. In the dim lamp light he saw the glistening tears in her green eyes.
Dammit
. He didn’t want to see her cry. Not again. Distraction. That’s what he needed. Distraction for both of them. “Did you secure the other rooms?”
The embarrassment that crossed her features, followed quickly by the firm set to her lips told him she hadn’t, even before the word no escaped her lips.
“Dammit, Abby. Did you forget all your training?”
“I was going to work my way back out.”
He gave her a skeptical look then edged back into the hall, signaling her to stop when she moved to follow him. “Stay there. And try not to touch anything. Remember it’s a real crime scene, not an exercise we played back in Georgia.”