Disarming Detective
Read Disarming Detective Online
Authors: Elizabeth Heiter
The case that’s haunted one FBI profiler for years may have finally met its match in a sexy—and dedicated—detective…
When FBI profiler Isabella Cortez finds a stranger outside her office, she’s in trouble. Because even though Detective Logan Greer is one of the good guys, their instant attraction is a serious distraction. Ella’s got one mission: to find the criminal who hurt her friend and drove her to become a profiler. But Logan’s appeal isn’t just chemistry. He has a case that bears an eerie resemblance to the crime Ella’s been trying to solve for years. Together, they’re racing to stop a killer, but the closer they get, the more dangerous the search becomes. Falling in love could be deadly…or it could be the only way to survive.
She gave him a sassy smile. “I’m armed.”
“And,” she continued, “the Bureau believes pretty strongly in teaching its agents defensive training. Believe me, I got the bruises to prove it back at the Academy, but I learned. This guy won’t want to mess with me.”
Logan didn’t seem any less worried. “I’d still feel better if you were somewhere else. You can stay with me if you want. I have an extra bedroom.”
Her nerve endings tingled at the idea, but Ella forced herself to give him a look of disbelief. “Yeah, because that would really work.” If she stayed at his house, she’d end up in his bed, and they both knew it. Appealing as it might sound, that idea had
heartbreak
written all over it. And she didn’t have time to mess around.
She was here to catch a killer.
Dear Reader,
Thank you so much for picking up
Disarming Detective
, my first book in The Lawmen series. I hope you’ll enjoy getting to meet friends and FBI agents Ella, Scott and Maggie. Their stories will continue next month in
Seduced by the Sniper
, when Scott Delacorte meets the one woman who tempts him to think beyond a single date; too bad she’s also the only witness to a massacre and under his protective custody. The trilogy will continue in March when Maggie finally gets the chance to track down the Fishhook Rapist, with the help of a fellow SWAT agent who can’t resist her, in
SWAT Secret Admirer
.
If you enjoy Ella’s story, I hope you’ll also look for
Hunted
and
Vanished
, the first two books in my suspense series (The Profiler series) from MIRA Books, out now. They follow FBI profiler Evelyn Baine as she tracks down a serial killer and delves into her own past and the unsolved disappearance of her best friend eighteen years earlier.
If you’d like more information about upcoming releases, events and extras, please visit me at
elizabethheiter.com
. (You can also sign up for my newsletter for release reminders.)
Elizabeth Heiter
Acknowledgments
I’d like to thank my family and friends for supporting me while I get lost in novel writing and deadlines. Thank you for sharing my excitement about every sale and every book event and every bit of good news. And thank you for reminding me to come out of my writing cave every once in a while.
My own personal version of the usual suspects: Chris Heiter, Robbie Terman, Ann Forsaith, Nora Smith, Charles Shipps, Sasha Orr, Mark Nalbach, Caroline Heiter and Kathryn Merhar. You know why your names show up in every acknowledgment, and I hope you know how much I appreciate you!
Finally, to my agent, Kevan Lyon, and my editor, Paula Eykelhof. You are the kind of team every writer dreams of working with—thank you for making my dreams come true!
DISARMING
DETECTIVE
Elizabeth Heiter
Elizabeth Heiter
likes her suspense to feature strong heroines, chilling villains, psychological twists and a little romance. Her research has taken her into the minds of serial killers, through murder investigations and onto the FBI Academy’s shooting range. Elizabeth graduated from the University of Michigan with a degree in English literature. She’s a member of International Thriller Writers and Romance Writers of America. Visit Elizabeth at
elizabethheiter.com
.
Books by Elizabeth Heiter
Harlequin Intrigue
The Lawmen series
Disarming Detective
MIRA Books
The Profiler series
Visit the Author Profile page at
Harlequin.com
for more titles.
CAST OF CHARACTERS
Isabella “Ella” Cortez—
Confident FBI profiler who abandons her vacation plans when a case surfaces that could be connected to her friend’s never-solved assault. The detective handling the investigation is a distraction she can’t afford, because the deeper Ella digs, the more she discovers that nothing is as it seems.
Logan Greer—
Homicide detective in the oceanside town of Oakville, Florida. His theory that a serial killer is stalking the town is the joke of the department—until he shows up with a feisty profiler in tow. Now he just needs to resist her long enough to solve the case.
Maggie Delacorte—
One of Ella’s best friends. She and her brother Scott made a pact with Ella to join the FBI after Maggie’s abduction a decade ago. The Fishhook Rapist was never caught, but could Ella be on his trail in Florida?
Scott Delacorte—
Ella’s other best friend. After joining the FBI with Maggie and Ella, Scott wants to protect them both like little sisters, but he can’t do it from across the country. So he has to rely on Detective Logan Greer to keep Ella safe.
The Fishhook Rapist—
He targets one woman a year, then releases her, branded with a permanent reminder on the back of her neck. He started with Ella’s best friend and has been on the loose for a decade. Ella’s theory is that he’s begun killing victims in between abductions.
Hank O’Connor—
A police officer who thinks he lost a detective slot to Logan, he leads the charge on mocking Logan’s serial killer theory.
Lyla Evans—
Logan’s ex-fiancée, she’s now a reporter covering the recent murders in Oakville, and she’s decided she wants Logan back.
For Kathryn and Caroline.
I’m proud and lucky to call you sisters.
I love you!
Contents
Chapter One
The instant Isabella Cortez left the safety of the FBI building, goose bumps skittered across her skin and her senses went on high alert. Her instincts and training, like a sudden alarm shrieking inside her head, told her she wasn’t alone.
The door slammed shut behind her before she could dart back inside, and Ella cursed the heavy briefcase weighing down one hand and the stack of file folders clenched in the other. Just because she was taking her first real vacation in two years didn’t mean killers took time off, so her cases were coming with her. Assuming she made it to her vacation.
Tonight, she was the last one out of the bland office building in Aquia, Virginia. It was set back off the road, nestled deep in the woods, and manned by an armed guard. Entrance to the parking lot was supposed to be reserved for the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Analysts who worked there and no one else. If a visitor was arriving, the guard at the gate called ahead. Anyone who could make it past security was a threat.
Pushing back her fear, she blinked, trying to adjust to the darkness outside. Her arms tensed, but she didn’t drop the files and reach for her gun. Not yet. Not until she identified the threat. If she acted too soon, she’d probably get shot.
No, all the instincts honed by two years in the Behavioral Analysis Unit told her to let him think she was oblivious. Let him show himself before she brought him down.
Her heart thudded too fast, reminding Ella all too clearly of her first years in the FBI, in the gangs unit in Dallas, when she’d taken a bullet to the leg and her partner had taken two to the chest. At the memory, all the nerves in her leg burst to life, painful and fire-poker hot.
Lock it down, Cortez. Focus.
A tiny movement made her glance left, toward the only two cars in the lot. A bulky figure shifted beside her car, stepping into the dim glow of the overhead light.
He was big, taller than her by half a foot and outweighing her by a good fifty pounds and all of it muscle. But none of that mattered if she didn’t let him get close.
Her eyes darted to his hands. Empty. She let out a breath, but it caught when she spotted the telltale bulge at his hip. No way was she giving him a chance to go for the weapon. She dropped her briefcase and files fast, yanking her Glock pistol from its holster. “Hands up!”
“Whoa!” He lifted his hands near his head. “Look, I—”
“Higher. Get on your knees.”
“Hey, I didn’t—”
“Now!” Ella took a step closer, let him see the dead seriousness in her eyes, the solid, steady aim of her gun. “Pull your weapon out with your left hand. Toss it over here.”
“Crap.” He complied, getting on his knees and sending his own Glock skidding across the pavement toward her.
“You have any other weapons on you?”
“No. Look, I’m a homicide detective. I flew up here from Florida to talk to a profiler.”
She narrowed her eyes, noting the slight Southern drawl in his voice now that she wasn’t laser-focused on containing him. “How’d you get in here?”
“The guard let me in. My badge is in my pocket, okay?”
Ella frowned. With the regular guard on maternity leave, maybe the newbie had broken protocol. “Fine. Toss it to me with your wallet.”
He let out a breath through his nose, something like amusement in his voice. “Wow, you’re thorough.”
He was right about that. At the BAU, her job was to create criminal personality profiles of the country’s most depraved killers. Every day, her work told her what one inattentive moment, one second of blind trust, could cost.
It was a lesson she’d first learned nearly ten years ago, when her best friend had been violently attacked. It had introduced Ella to a kind of evil she’d never known existed, and completely altered the path of her life. Now, viewing everyone as a potential threat seemed almost normal.
He tossed his wallet and badge over, but even before she picked it up, she knew it was the real thing. Still keeping her weapon leveled on him—mostly for scaring the crap out of her and making her dump her case files all over the ground—she flipped open the wallet to his ID. The face staring back at her, with its hard lines and no-nonsense stare, looked every bit a homicide detective. “Logan Greer. Oakville, Florida.”
Reholstering her weapon underneath her blazer, she tossed the wallet back and tried to slow her heart rate to normal speed. “Way to make an impression, Greer.”
He gave her a smile full of self-deprecating humor that made her realize again that the bulky size that had unnerved her in the darkness was impressive muscle tone, that beneath the piercing stare were moss green eyes. She was a sucker for green eyes. Too bad she hadn’t run into him on the beach next week with a margarita in her hand instead of on her last day before vacation, toting a gun.
As he gathered his badge and weapon, Logan asked, “And you are...?”
Ella brushed her bangs out of her eyes and extended her hand. “Special Agent Ella Cortez, BAU.”