SEEKING
PAVAD: FBI ROMANTIC SUSPENSE 15
CALLE J.
BROOKES
LOST RIVER LIT PUBLISHING, LLC
SPRINGS VALLEY INDIANA
EST. 2011
SEEKING
Copyright © 2018 by Calle J. Brookes
All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations em- bodied in critical articles or reviews.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
For information contact :
www.callejbrookes.com
Book and Cover design by B.G. Lashbrooks
ISBN: 978-1948-328-89-0
First Edition: May 2018
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Seeking (PAVAD: FBI Romantic Suspense)
ONE
TWO
THREE
FOUR
FIVE
SIX
SEVEN
EIGHT
NINE
TEN
ELEVEN
TWELVE
THIRTEEN
FOURTEEN
FIFTEEN
SIXTEEN
SEVENTEEN
EIGHTEEN
NINETEEN
TWENTY
TWENTY-ONE
TWENTY-TWO
TWENTY-THREE
TWENTY-FOUR
TWENTY-FIVE
TWENTY-SIX
TWENTY-SEVEN
TWENTY-EIGHT
TWENTY-NINE
THIRTY
THIRTY-ONE
THIRTY-TWO
THIRTY-THREE
THIRTY-FOUR
THIRTY-FIVE
THIRTY-SIX
THIRTY-SEVEN
THIRTY-EIGHT
THIRTY-NINE
FORTY
FORTY-ONE
FORTY-TWO
FORTY-THREE
FORTY-FOUR
FORTY-FIVE
FORTY-SIX
FORTY-SEVEN
FORTY-EIGHT
FORTY-NINE
FIFTY
FIFTY-ONE
FIFTY-TWO
FIFTY-THREE
FIFTY-FOUR
FIFTY-FIVE
FIFTY-SIX
FIFTY-EIGHT
FIFTY-NINE
SIXTY
SIXTY-ONE
SIXTY-TWO
SIXTY-THREE
SIXTY-FOUR
SIXTY-FIVE
SIXTY-SIX
SIXTY-SEVEN
SIXTY-EIGHT
SIXTY-NINE
SEVENTY
SEVENTY-ONE
SEVENTY-TWO
SEVENTY-THREE
SEVENTY-FOUR
SEVENTY-FIVE
SEVENTY-SIX
SEVENTY-SEVEN
SEVENTY-EIGHT
SEVENTY-NINE
EIGHTY
EIGHTY-ONE
EIGHTY-TWO
EIGHTY-THREE
EIGHTY-FOUR
EIGHTY-FIVE
EIGHTY-SIX
EIGHTY-SEVEN
EIGHTY-EIGHT
EIGHTY-NINE
NINETY
NINETY-ONE
NINETY-TWO
NINETY-THREE
NINETY-FOUR
NINETY-FIVE
NINETY-SIX
NINETY-SEVEN
NINETY-EIGHT
NINETY-NINE
ONE HUNDRED
ONE HUNDRED ONE
ONE HUNDRED TWO
ONE HUNDRED THREE
ONE HUNDRED FOUR
ONE HUNDRED FIVE
ONE HUNDRED SIX
ONE HUNDRED SEVEN
ONE HUNDRED EIGHT
ONE HUNDRED NINE
ONE HUNDRED TEN
ONE HUNDRED ELEVEN
ONE HUNDRED TWELVE
ONE HUNDRED THIRTEEN
ONE HUNDRED FOURTEEN
ONE HUNDRED FIFTEEN
ONE HUNDRED SIXTEEN
ONE HUNDRED SEVENTEEN
ONE HUNDRED EIGHTEEN
ONE HUNDRED NINETEEN
ONE HUNDRED TWENTY
ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-ONE
ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-TWO
ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-THREE
ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-FOUR
ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-FIVE
ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-SIX
ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-SEVEN
ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-EIGHT
ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-NINE
ONE HUNDRED THIRTY
ONE HUNDRED THIRTY-ONE
ONE HUNDRED THIRTY-TWO
ONE HUNDRED THIRTY-THREE
ONE HUNDRED THIRTY-FOUR
ONE HUNDRED THIRTY-FIVE
ONE HUNDRED THIRTY-SIX
ONE HUNDRED THIRTY-SEVEN
ONE HUNDRED THIRTY-EIGHT
ONE HUNDRED THIRTY-NINE
ONE HUNDRED FORTY
ONE HUNDRED FORTY-ONE
EPILOGUE
Other books by
CALLE J.
BROOKES
PARANORMAL ROMANCE
DARDANOS Paranormal Romance
The Blood Hunter (formerly Live or Die)
The Blood Heir (formerly The Blood King)
The Blood Seer (formerly The Seer’s Strength)
The Blood Warrior (formerly The Warrior’s Woman)
The Blood Healer (formerly The Healer’s Heart)
The Wolf Bitten (formerly Once Wolf Bitten)
The Demon Queen (formerly Awakening the Demon’s Queen)
The Wolf Queen (formerly The Wolf’s Redemption)
The Wolf God (formerly The Wolf God & His Mate)
The Nightmare God (formerly God of Nightmares)
DARDANOS: THE LAQUAZZEANA
The Warrior Soul (formerly A Warrior’s Quest)
The Darkest Soul (formerly Out of the Darkness)
The Chosen Soul (formerly Warrior Blind)
The Reborned Soul (formerly The Witch)
The Goddess Soul (formerly Balance of the Worlds)
The Healer Soul (formerly The Healer’s Soul)
DARDANOS: THE ADRASTOS
The Outcast One (formerly The Outcast)
The Forlorn One (formerly The Forlorn)
The Beloved One (formerly The Beloved)
The Betrayed One (formerly The Betrayed)
ROMANTIC SUSPENSE
PAVAD: FBI ROMANTIC SUSPENSE
Beginning (Prequel 1)
Waiting (Prequel 2)
Watching
Wanting
Second Chances (contains novellas “Reuniting & Reckoning)
Hunting
Running
Redeeming
Revealing
Stalking
Ghosting
Burning
Gathering
Falling
Hiding
Seeking
FINLEY CREEK SERIES
TRILOGY ONE (TEXAS STATE POLICE)
Her Best Friend’s Keeper
Shelter from the Storm
The Price of Silence
TRILOGY TWO (FINLEY CREEK GENERAL)
If the Dark Wins
Wounds That Won’t Heal
Hope for Finley Creek (bonus novella)
As the Night Ends
MASTERSON COUNTY NOVELLA SERIES
Seeking the Sheriff
Discovering the Doctor
Ruining the Rancher
SUSPENSE/THRILLER
PAVAD: FBI CASE FILES
PAVAD: FBI Case Files #0001
“Knocked Out”
PAVAD: FBI Case Files #0002
“Knocked Down”
PAVAD: FBI Case Files #0003
“Knocked Around”
COMING SOON
Denying the Devil (Masterson County #4)
Calle has several free reads available at
www.CalleJBrookesReads.com
For my grandfather, the best man I have ever known.
You will be missed.
Oct. 2015
For my grandmother, who gave me the courage to try. Without you
and your love of romance, I never would have made it this far.
Feb. 2016
CALLE J. BROOKES is first and foremost a fiction writer. She enjoys crafting paranormal romance and romantic suspense. She reads almost every genre except horror. She spends most of her time juggling family life and writing while reminding herself that she can’t spend all of her time in the worlds found within books. CJ loves to be contacted by her readers via email and at www.CalleJBrookes.com. When not at home writing stories of adventure and wrangling with two border collies and a beagle puppy, CJ is off in her RV somewhere exploring the beautiful world we live in, along with her husband of she can’t remember how many years and their child.
ONE
THERE WERE FEW things Shannon Toliver knew with absolute certainty. She loved her job with the FBI, she adored her family, her friends were awesome—and she absolutely abhorred Ezra Jackson Hahn. “Let go of my arm, Hahn. Before I gnaw off your hand.”
“In a good mood tonight, aren’t we?”
“We aren’t in anything.” She had to admit, his hand wasn’t hurting her. She could easily pull herself away—and give half the people in Smokey’s a real good show. Shannon wasn’t about to do that. “So what do you want?”
“Bobby Pruitt—that cop you were dancing with...” Ezra glared down at her from eyes so dark, she was half-convinced they were alien. Fanciful, stupid, but the truth. If the eyes were the window to the soul, then Ezra’s was pitch black.
Where she was concerned. He had a lot of redeeming qualities. She’d seen them before.
He wasn’t nearly as big a jerk with the people he cared about.
With everyone but her.
Shannon didn’t have a clue what she had done to make him feel that way about her. She and Ezra grated on each other like rough-grit sandpaper. Shannon didn’t see that changing any time soon.
“What about him?”
“Married. Three kids. Wife is in Kansas City right now. Heard he likes to get around.” He kept pulling her toward the door. Shannon let him. The last thing she wanted to be was the latest Smokey Jo Spectacle.
“No kidding. Debbie is a friend of mine.” They had been dancing because the dance floor was the only quiet place for them to talk without being overheard. He was worried about his wife; she had been secretive lately. Like she was worried about something.
Shannon hoped she’d reassured him—and Debbie was worried about something. She’d been ill for three weeks and didn’t know how to tell Bobby the reason why. Shannon had been telling him to go home and talk to his wife for once. The playing around was just rumors, as far as she could tell.
“Then why the hell were you wrapped around him like plastic wrap?” Ezra’s voice took on that judgmental holier-than-thou tone he seemed to reserve just for her. The switch flipped.
Shannon stretched up to her full five-foot-three-and-two-thirds height. Not that stretching did any good—Ezra was at least thirteen inches taller than she was. Irritating.
And a fact he used against her whenever he could. “I wasn’t... I’m not going to explain how I deal with my friends, Hahn. It’s none of your flipping business.”
“Do you ever curse? Or are you always such a goody-two-shoes? Can you say ‘shit’, Toliver?”
“Only when you drive me to it. Let go. I didn’t make a scene inside because everyone was watching, but I don’t appreciate you getting grabby.” His hand felt hot on her arm, scorching her skin.
“Guiding a woman through the crowd isn’t grabby, it’s gentlemanly.”
She snorted. “Not from you. And I could make my own way through.” He hadn’t ever been a gentleman to her. Far from it. The man had gone out of his way on numerous occasions to needle her.
“Fine. Don’t be appreciative. I’ll find someone who is.”
“Good luck with that.” Not that he’d need it. Talk about unfair. Ezra was a very, very pretty man. He was tall, broad shouldered—though a bit gangly for her tastes—dark, and handsome. And well...just beautiful. Even his teeth were perfect. He looked like he should be modeling expensive underwear on a larger-than-life billboard somewhere for stupid women to drool over every time they drove by.
He made her feel like a grubby kid next to him. A kid who could never measure up to the local legend, at that.
Which was ridiculous.
Ezra Hahn was nothing to her but her sworn enemy. The bane of her work existence, her workplace anathema.
He drove her flat-out nuts.
Without even trying.
So why was she following him outside? Shannon didn’t have a clue. Maybe she was just a glutton for punishment where the man was concerned.
EZRA HAD taken one look at her tonight, her suit jacket missing and the little silk blouse she’d worn underneath it that day shimmering in the lights on the dance floor, and he’d wanted her away from that other idiot no matter what he had to do.
So, he’d gone with it. “Just didn’t think you would want people talking about you being the latest on the list of his conquests.”
“Thanks for your concern. I didn’t know you were the type to buy into stupid gossip, Hahn,” Shannon said, shooting him a look from eyes that were right smack in the middle of the brown spectrum. It wasn’t the color that stuck with him the most. It was the shape. The intensity. How she used them to express exactly what she was feeling. He loved putting fire into her eyes whenever he could.
He’d dreamed of her eyes many times before. Her eyes, her sharp slightly too-wide mouth, the trim little body that was just the right size for a man to hold on to... Shannon Toliver was in his dreams far too often for comfort. Exactly where she had been since the first time he’d ever been alone with her.
He couldn’t miss the sarcasm. It was her trademark response to ninety percent of what he said. “You’re welcome. You got a ride home? I’d be happy to give you a lift.”
“Sure you would. Straight down to hell, no doubt. I know how you think, Ezra Hahn.”
She snipped at him. Like she always did. If she wasn’t snarking in his direction, then he’d get concerned.
Ezra turned to her more fully. He’d accomplished what he’d wanted—he had her out of Smokey’s and away from that jackass inside. He wasn’t sure what he wanted to say next. Idiot. He was an idiot. He should have just left her inside—alone. He knew that. He’d decided his best bet in life was to stay far away from this little piece of trouble long ago. “Listen, Toliver—”
Fire shot through his neck.
Ezra hit the ground, entire body shaking as darkness threatened to consume him. Hard hands yanked him up. Shannon screamed out. Someone else, a woman, yelled from nearby.
Ezra gave one more good shot at fighting the darkness. He lost.
TWO
AGENT MADDOX JONES knew the instant his partner Jaclyn—also a Jones, though no relation—came barreling back into Smokey’s that something very wrong had happened.
Jac was the calm-in-every-storm type.
PAVAD usually had two dozen tables in the back room of Smokey’s, and Jac hopped up on a one and whistled. Loudly.
Jac never did that. Nor had she ever looked so frightened.
Max jumped to his feet and started toward her, every instinct flaring.
Something was wrong. Very, very wrong. The crowd quieted. Fin McLaughlin, the assistant director of the PAVAD divi
sion, stood. “Jones? What is it?”
“Agents Toliver and Hahn were attacked in the parking lot and abducted less than three minutes ago. I’ve called it in. I was too far away to stop them. Older model Nissan—Arkansas plates. First three letters of 413. Four men, mid-twenties to forties.”
Jack didn’t mess around with words—something Max had always liked about her. She was straight to the point.
He grabbed his half-eaten meal and shoved it toward the nearest administrative clerk that was attached to his unit. “You handle this for us?”
Joann nodded, waving a hand toward the rest of the table his team had been sharing to celebrate the birth of his team leader’s new baby. “Go! My people will deal with it.”
Max had some cash in his wallet, and he pulled it quickly. “Hundred might cover it. If not, I’m sure petty cash will.”
“Go!”
He went.
Max caught up with Jac near the door. He wrapped one hand around her elbow and pulled her closer. “What exactly did you see?”
He’d cut in front of several key PAVAD people, but— hell—, they’d gotten out of his way. Jac looked up at him. With Alessandra out with her new baby, Max was in charge of Team Five for the time being. And he had an almost fully intact team in front him. Decision made. “Jac?”
“They attacked Ezra first, but I’m thinking Shannon may have been the actual target. She and Ezra were arguing—again—and the men surrounded them. I think they used a stun gun on both of them. I couldn’t help them, Max. By the time I was a quarter of the way through the parking lot, they had them in the van. And I was too far away.”
“You’re helping them right now.” And now they had to find them.
THREE
HARSH HANDS SHOOK her awake. “Open your eyes, bitch.”
Shannon took exception to the insult but had no choice but to comply. When she opened her eyes, she was tied to a narrow wooden chair, there were three computers in front of her, and four men surrounded her. She half-felt she had warped back to Abraham Lincoln’s days. Talk about primitive. Except for the computers in the corner.
It was far too sophisticated for this hunter’s shack.
There was a long, lean male body dumped in the corner. His hands were bound and duct tape covered his mouth.
Ezra wasn’t moving.
She had no clue whether he was alive or dead. Shannon battled back the terror.
Until she saw his chest rising and falling as he breathed. Thank God, he was still breathing.