She stared at him and wondered when he had gotten to know her so well that he knew exactly what she needed to hear at this moment in time. His words were like a balm on her wounded soul, and they silenced the critical voice that had momentarily whispered in her head.
He was right. She’d been forced to tell the harrowing tale of her past. She’d had to relive far too much of it, but she’d managed to survive and triumph in spite of all the odds against her.
She thought of that moment on the beach when she’d pulled her gun, and Moretti’s face had registered such shock. He hadn’t believed she was brave enough, fast enough to make that move. He hadn’t believed that she would take such a risk, but she had. She had been brave enough, and she’d managed to capture him for a second time.
She straightened in the seat and realized that maybe...just maybe she really was strong enough, smart enough to be whatever she wanted to be, and she wanted to continue to put bad guys behind bars.
A sense of peace filled her. “Thanks, Nick. I needed to hear that.”
“So, do you want to come to my place and celebrate our success?” he asked.
She held his gaze for several long moments. There was no question that she was as attracted to him now as she’d ever been, but she knew what she needed most right now, and he wasn’t it.
“Nick, you’re one hell of a partner, but I think what I need right now is some time to be on my own.” She ignored the flash of disappointment that momentarily darkened his eyes.
“Whatever you need, Lara,” he replied. “And just for the record, you’re one hell of a partner, too.”
He opened his car door, and she did the same. She straightened her shoulders despite the deep exhaustion that tugged at her.
“Lara, you know where I am if you need anything.”
She smiled at him. “Good night, Nick.” She turned on her heels and headed toward the nearest exit where she’d hail a cab to take her to her hotel.
She felt the weight of Nick’s gaze lingering on her as she walked away, but she knew in her heart that she’d made the right decision. She needed time to be by herself, to fully heal from this nightmarish case.
Still, a renewed sense of peace, of pride, walked with her as she left the parking garage. She was strong enough...she was smart enough...she was FBI Special Agent Lara Grant.
EPILOGUE
Lara breathed a sigh of relief as she stepped into 26 Federal Plaza and out of the frigid January air. The building was eerily silent at just after one in the morning on a wintry Tuesday night.
She’d been pulled from her sleep by a phone call from Victoria, indicating only that she was calling in the team for an urgent case.
A spike of adrenaline shot off in Lara as she punched the elevator button that would take her to her fellow teammates. For the past three months things had been relatively quiet as they had all mopped up after the Moretti case. They worked and solved cases like a well-oiled machine. On her free weekends Lara worked her mother’s cold case. Hopefully one day she’d solve that one, too.
As for the Morettis, thankfully Andrew and his brother, Mason, were now in separate federal maximum security prisons where they would spend the rest of their lives. Katya Auerman was nowhere to be found. She’d slipped the surveillance net the night they rescued Emily.
And Emily? Lara hoped that the Minnows were someplace where the sun shone and laughter lived, someplace where danger would never, ever find them again.
It was this thought that had gotten Lara through the worst of the past three months. She still spent too many nights pacing the floor and downing whiskey shots after suffering from a particularly horrible nightmare, but those nights were finally becoming the exception and not the rule.
Her past was her past, and it only counted for good if she embraced all of the mistakes she had made and learned from them. Slowly, with each day that passed, her self-confidence had returned, and the inner voice of self-doubts that had haunted her since the day that Sean Dunst had crawled out on that hotel window ledge had been silenced...at least for now.
The elevator doors whooshed open, and she stalked down the hallway toward the conference room, eager to learn the details of whatever new case had landed on Victoria’s desk.
She entered the room to find everyone there except Nick and Victoria. “Have you heard anything about what’s going on?” she asked Ty as she sank down in the chair next to his.
“Nothing,” he replied. “Victoria is still in her office, and as you can see, Nick hasn’t arrived yet.”
“It must be something good since we were all dragged out of our beds in the middle of the night,” Xander said.
Nick flew into the room. “Sorry I’m late,” he said as he took the chair opposite Lara.
Lara vaguely wondered if he’d crawled out of his own bed or the bed of some woman. She and Nick hadn’t revisited their former intimate relationship in the months since Moretti’s re-arrest on the beach, although he’d made it clear that he’d like to resume where they’d left off.
Any thoughts of Nick flew out of her head as Victoria entered the room and stood at the head of the table. “Good, you’re all here,” she said briskly. “A new, deadly strain of cocaine apparently hit the streets sometime earlier tonight. Word is that it’s called Inferno, and there’s a new gang moving it. The DEA has asked for our help. Right now there are six people dead and another four in critical condition at Bellevue Hospital. We need to get on top of this before more people die.”
Lara leaned forward in her chair, her heart beating the familiar rhythm of adrenaline as she waited for Victoria to give them their newest assignments.
Fidelity, Bravery and Integrity. It was the FBI motto and finally Lara embraced that it was her creed down to her very core.
* * * * *
Justice is worth every sacrifice.
A brand-new 8-part reading experience starting January 12, 2016!
FBI agent Lara Grant has finally put her life as an undercover operative behind her and started a new assignment in New York City. But her past and present collide and become ever more twisted as a spate of murders sends a message that is cruelly, chillingly personal...
Tough Justice: Exposed (Part 1 of 8) by New York Times bestselling author Carla Cassidy
Tough Justice: Watched (Part 2 of 8) by Tyler Anne Snell
Tough Justice: Burned (Part 3 of 8) by Carol Ericson
Tough Justice: Trapped (Part 4 of 8) by Gail Barrett
Tough Justice: Twisted (Part 5 of 8) by Gail Barrett
Tough Justice: Ambushed (Part 6 of 8) by Carol Ericson
Tough Justice: Betrayed (Part 7 of 8) by Tyler Anne Snell
Tough Justice: Hunted (Part 8 of 8) by New York Times bestselling author Carla Cassidy
Available January 12, 2016
www.ToughJusticeSeries.com
BLAMED: A BLOOD MONEY NOVEL
Blood Money, book one
“Cinematic and compelling, reading like a James Bond movie, complete with betrayals, double crosses, torture, and madness, as well as a heavy dose of romantic and sexual tension.”
—Library Journal, starred review
“One of the best romances I’ve read all year.”
—Smart Bitches, Trashy Books
Born into a long line of spies, sanctioned killers and covert weapons developers, Beth Faraday carried out her first hit-for-hire when she was still a teenager.
That part of her life—the American-spy-royalty part—ended one year ago, with a job gone wrong in Afghanistan. The collateral damage she caused with a single shot was unfathomable and, for Beth, unforgivable. She’s worked hard to build a new life for herself, far away from the family business.
But someone, somewhere, hasn’t forgotten what Beth did in Kabul. And that someone wants revenge.
As the Faraday clan bands together to defend Beth and protect their legacy, Beth is forced to flee her new home with the u
nlikeliest of allies—MI6 agent Raleigh Vick, the only man she’s ever loved. And the one she thought she’d killed in the desert.
Meet more of the Faraday clan in RIPPED: A BLOOD MONEY NOVEL and CRAZED: A BLOOD MONEY NOVEL—available now!
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Collect all 8!
Tough Justice: Exposed (Part 1 of 8) by New York Times bestselling author Carla Cassidy
Tough Justice: Watched (Part 2 of 8) by Tyler Anne Snell
Tough Justice: Burned (Part 3 of 8) by Carol Ericson
Tough Justice: Trapped (Part 4 of 8) by Gail Barrett
Tough Justice: Twisted (Part 5 of 8) by Gail Barrett
Tough Justice: Ambushed (Part 6 of 8) by Carol Ericson
Tough Justice: Betrayed (Part 7 of 8) by Tyler Anne Snell
Tough Justice: Hunted (Part 8 of 8) by New York Times bestselling author Carla Cassidy
ISBN-13: 9781460393697
Tough Justice: Hunted (Part 8 of 8)
Copyright © 2016 by Harlequin Books S.A.
Special thanks and acknowledgment are given to Carla Cassidy for her contribution to the Tough Justice series.
All rights reserved. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental. This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
® and ™ are trademarks of the publisher. Trademarks indicated with ® are registered are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the Canadian Intellectual Property Office and in other countries.
www.Harlequin.com
Carla Cassidy is an award-winning New York Times bestselling author who has written more than one hundred and twenty novels for Harlequin Books. In 1995, she won Best Silhouette Romance 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.
Books by Carla Cassidy
Scene of the Crime: Who Killed Shelly Sinclair?
Scene of the Crime: The Deputy’s Proof
Scene of the Crime: Killer Cove
Scene of the Crime: Baton Rouge
Scene of the Crime: Return to Mystic Lake
Scene of the Crime: Return to Bachelor Moon
Scene of the Crime: Deadman’s Bluff
Scene of the Crime: Black Creek
Scene of the Crime: Mystic Lake
Scene of the Crime: Widow Creek
Cowboy Under Fire
Cowboy of Interest
A Real Cowboy
Confessing to the Cowboy
Cowboy with a Cause
The Colton Bodyguard
Her Colton Lawman
The Colton Bride
Lone Wolf Standing
Her Secret, His Duty
Lethal Lawman
Cold Case, Hot Accomplice
A Profiler’s Case for Seduction
Books by Carol Ericson
Secret Agent Santa
Navy SEAL Spy
The Pregnancy Plot
Under Fire
The Hill
The Wharf
The District
The Bridge
Catch, Release
Trap, Secure
Conceal, Protect
Run, Hide
Deception
Intuition
Eyewitness
Green Beret Bodyguard
Top Gun Guardian
Mountain Ranger Recon
Navy SEAL Security
A Silverhill Christmas
The McClintock Proposal
The Sheriff of Silverhill
Circumstantial Memories
A Doctor-Nurse Encounter
The Stranger and I
Toxic
Books by Gail Barrett
Seduced by His Target
A Kiss to Die For
Fatal Exposure
High-Stakes Affair
Where He Belongs
High-Risk Reunion
Cowboy Under Siege
Meltdown
The Royal Affair
His 7-Day Fiancee
To Protect a Princess
Heart of a Thief
Facing the Fire
Books by Tyler Anne Snell
Private Bodyguard
Manhunt
ISBN: 9781459295995
Tough Justice Box Set: Parts 1 - 8
Copyright © 2015 by Harlequin Books S.A.
The publisher acknowledges the copyright holder of the individual works as follows:
Tough Justice: Exposed (Part 1 of 8)
Copyright © 2016 by Harlequin Books S.A
Tough Justice: Watched (Part 2 of 8)
Copyright © 2016 by Harlequin Books S.A
Tough Justice: Burned (Part 3 of 8)
Copyright © 2016 by Harlequin Books S.A
Tough Justice: Trapped (Part 4 of 8)
Copyright © 2016 by Harlequin Books S.A
Tough Justice: Twisted (Part 5 of 8)
Copyright © 2016 by Harlequin Books S.A
Tough Justice: Ambushed (Part 6 of 8)
Copyright © 2016 by Harlequin Books S.A
Tough Justice: Betrayed (Part 7 of 8)
Copyright © 2016 by Harlequin Books S.A
Tough Justice: Hunted (Part 8 of 8)
Copyright © 2016 by Harlequin Books S.A
All rights reserved. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental. This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
® and ™ are trademarks of the publisher. Trademarks indicated with ® are registered are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the Canadian Intellectual Property Office and in other countries.
www.Harlequin.com
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