LITMIR.BIZ

       www.millsandboon.co.uk

      ABOUT THE AUTHOR

      Texas native Kara Lennox has been an art director, typesetter, textbook editor and reporter. She’s worked in a boutique, a health club and an ad agency. She’s been an antiques dealer and even a blackjack dealer. But no work has made her happier than writing romance novels.

      When not writing, Kara indulges in an ever-changing array of weird hobbies. (Her latest passions are treasure hunting and creating mosaics.) She loves to hear from readers. You can visit her Web site and drop her a note at www.karalennox.com.

      CAST OF CHARACTERS

      Rex Bettencourt—One of the country’s top bounty hunters. But the ex-marine sniper has a terrible secret he’s never confessed to anyone—a secret that could potentially get someone killed.

      Nadia Penn—Granddaughter of a KGB defector, research scientist and inventor of the Petro-Nano, an exciting technology that could solve the world’s energy problems—or cause instantaneous global meltdown.

      Lily Penn—Nadia’s two-year-old daughter, kidnapped from her stroller right under Nadia’s nose.

      Peter Danilov—Nadia’s Russian ex-husband. Handsome, charismatic and very dangerous. He has Lily, and there is only one way Nadia can get her back—turn over the Petro-Nano.

      Denise Petrovski, alias “Rat Face”—Peter’s Russian girlfriend. She is blindly loyal to her mother country and crazily in love with Peter. But could she harm an innocent child?

      Detective Lyle Palmer—A cop whose incompetence is exceeded only by his ambition—and his resentment of the First Strike Agency bounty hunters.

      Detective Craig Cartwright—The only cop any of the bounty hunters trust.

      Lori Bettencourt—Rex’s sister and fellow bounty hunter, more clever and capable than anyone gives her credit for.

      Contents

      Prologue

      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

      Prologue

      Something was wrong. The certainty started as a prickling of unease at the back of Nadia’s neck. But it grew until it twisted in her gut. She glanced first over one shoulder, then the other. Nothing. Nobody.

      Then she looked down at the stroller, where her two-year-old daughter had been sleeping soundly while Nadia shopped for baby clothes.

      The stroller was empty.

      At first, she tamped down her panic and tried to find some logical explanation for Lily’s absence. Had another shopper at the mall found the baby irresistible and picked her up for a quick cuddle? Had Lily, getting more clever with her hands by the day, unfastened her safety strap and crawled out of the stroller herself?

      But a quick scan in all directions at the baby store produced no sign of Lily. Around Nadia, other women calmly sifted through tiny, pastel-hued dresses and booties, chatting among themselves. No one sensed the terrible rent in the fabric of Nadia’s reality. But her baby was gone, vanished like a mist.

      Abandoning the stroller, Nadia ran out into the mall, looking frantically for her child. Nothing. Everything looked deceptively calm, sickeningly normal. No sinister persons were hurrying off with Lily in their arms.

      The panic she’d kept at bay rose again in her chest, in her throat, a scream of horror threatening. No, she told herself sternly, she would not panic. Panic would not make Lily reappear. She would tell a store employee, who would make an announcement and contact security.

      A gloved hand around her arm stopped her as she was about to carry out her plan. She turned to find a blond woman with sharp, rodentlike features gazing malevolently at her. The woman was well turned out, in slim black pants and a fitted silk blouse, her hair expertly cut and highlighted, but nothing could have made her pretty given the sneer on her face.

      “Not a sound,” she said softly, her voice carrying the trace of cigarettes and a Russian accent. “If you ever want to see your daughter again, you won’t raise an alarm, you won’t call the police, you won’t tell anyone. Do you understand?”

      Frozen inside, all Nadia could do was nod. “Is this Peter’s doing?” But she already knew. After her divorce, she’d spent months watching her rearview mirror, screening phone calls, checking the locks on windows and doors. All that time, there’d been no word from her ex-husband. Just within the past couple of weeks, she’d finally begun to feel safe.

      She’d

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