Her Dying Breath Read Online Free

the black sedan the FBI had issued him, wishing to hell he had a Jeep or Range Rover. The downside of the federal bureau—the conservative clothes and vehicle.
    The upside—the resources he needed to track down notorious criminals. He’d just never expected the first case to center around his own family.
    His military training kicking in, he scanned the streets and area for anything suspicious. For all he knew, the Commander had ordered hits on both him and Jake. After all, he’d killed others who tried to expose the truth about him.
    But the streets looked clear. Except for Brenda. She still hadn’t left.
    Good God. She was standing by that fancy Bimmer, watching him like a hawk. He paused to meet her gaze, irritated at the heat building inside him. She wore a skintight little blue suit, the skirt hugging her curves in all the right places, the jacket barely covering her breasts, which strained against the buttons. Jesus, she had turned from that skinny teenage cheerleader into a voluptuous woman. But she had never had eyes on him. She’d fallen for Jake in high school. Back when
he
had had a crush on her.
    He’d always been second best to his brother.
    As his father had pounded into him over and over during his incessant drills and beatings.
    His insecurities had created a wedge between him and Jake. As an adult, he realized that wasn’t Jake’s fault, and he was trying to mend fences. But the lessons that had been imprinted in his brain haunted him.
    Another reason he had to steer clear of Brenda. She’d grown sexier with age.
    And he was too tainted and broken to tangle with her.
    Those coffee-colored eyes of hers drew him in, the fiery heat sizzling in them when she pushed to get what she wanted only lighting the flames of desire inside him.
    Desires that hadn’t been lit in forever.
    Desires that made him vulnerable.
    Nick did not do vulnerable.
    He snapped his sunglasses back into place, started the engine, and sped away from the prison and from Brenda.
    The seductive vulture would have to dig her claws into some other man.
    After all, all she wanted was a story. Any flirtatious gleam in her eyes was simply predatory. And he knew from experience that you had to either attack the enemy head-on or steer clear entirely, before you got in so deep they could destroy you.

    Brenda watched Nick drive away with a mixture of emotions. She needed to focus on the investigation; this was her one chance to prove to her new boss that she could handle the job.
    And Nick might be the key to helping her.
    She had to find a way to convince him to give her the scoop.
    As she drove away from the prison, she decided to visit Amelia Nettleton. According to Sadie, her sister was making great strides in merging her three personalities. Maybe she was ready to talk.
    God knows the poor girl had been through hell and back.
    Brenda didn’t want to add to her pain, only offer her a way to vindicate herself by publicly naming the man who’d destroyed her life.
    Brenda already had her angle, her way in, she hoped, so that Amelia would confide in her. She would divulge her own secret to Amelia, confess the truth that she’d never told anyone: that she had no idea who she was, either.
    On her sixteenth birthday, she’d found documents from her father’s safe on his desk. An adoption file—Brenda Banks had not been born the daughter of William and Agnes Banks. She had been thrown away by some other woman.
    Only there had been no birth mother’s or father’s name listed in the file, and when she confronted the man who’d raised her, he exploded and ordered her never to speak of it again.
    For months, she’d tried to find out on her own, had even suffered a meltdown and spent a couple of short weeks in that horrid sanitarium.
    Of course, no one knew about that either. William Banks, prominent citizen in town and now the mayor, had covered it up well.
    Did Amelia remember seeing her there?
    If so, that would be a start in forging a