Her Forgotten Betrayal Read Online Free Page A

him each time that he’d have the mountain entirely to himself.
    Now his first—hell, his only —dream, the only woman he’d ever loved, was back on High Lake Mountain to torment him. And it was his job to keep track of her every move.
    Six months ago, he’d pushed as hard as he’d dared to take part in this investigation—in an advisory capacity, consulting from afar as an expert on the principal suspect. Because he’d flat-out refused to believe Shaw was guilty of the charges being drawn up against her. That day at the hospital, when Federal Marshals Service Chief Inspector Rick Dawson had proposed this new assignment, Cole could have declined. Instead, a glutton for punishment, he was a newly minted special deputy marshal, responsible for being Shaw’s High Lake watchdog. He’d accepted the detail, because any other agent would have considered ensuring her security here less of a priority than collecting additional evidence that she was guilty of treason. Alleged treason.
    In the Bureau’s eyes, this was a light babysitting detail. One that was going nowhere. But regardless, Cole had been farmed out to Dawson. He was to monitor the isolated environment Shaw had been restricted to in her house, with orders to intervene only if someone other than the marshal who delivered her groceries every five days approached from the surrounding acreage. Cole’s own network of electronic sensors, installed on the property years ago to ensure his personal safety, gave him a leg up. He could detect anything that moved beyond the house’s perimeter. But just as important to the U.S. government, Cole could be certain that Shaw herself didn’t leave the premises or contact anyone the task force hadn’t vetted.
    Being certain was Cole’s forte. So was cutting emotional ties, once a place or person had ceased to be useful to him. He was an ace at it, thanks to Shaw.
    After losing her and the future they’d promised each other, he’d ruthlessly hammered away at an uncompromising world until he’d put himself through college and been recruited into the Bureau. He’d built a career out of becoming whomever he had to be next in order to get away clean from whatever he was leaving behind.
    Except now, he was once again playing the part of himself . And being back in the heart of Rabun County and Shaw’s messed-up life wasn’t sitting any better now than it had when he’d bolted from the mountain fifteen years ago.
    Curvy, leggy, drop-dead-gorgeous Shaw Cassidy.
    His shared childhood with her had helped land him a spot on Dawson’s team and this assignment, which he would carry out as flawlessly as he had all the others he’d taken on in his career. He certainly wasn’t going to let what he and Shaw had once been to each other get in his way. He’d convinced everyone who mattered that he felt no lingering attachment to the Cassidy family. He’d come damn close to convincing himself. Which had been easier to do months ago, when he’d thought this would remain a long-distance, hands-off exercise. That had all changed the moment he’d been ordered to Atlanta.
    Sure, he couldn’t stop staring at the mansion, but he was simply being thorough. No way was he angling for a reason to slip closer to a woman who was officially off-limits. She wasn’t supposed to know she was being watched or that a federal task force team had Cassidy Global under investigation. He might nap during the day so he could track Shaw’s slow progression through the Victorian each night. But only because it was his job to report if her routine or behavior patterns changed significantly, possibly indicating that she was remembering more than she was letting on. The task force and the U.S. Attorney needed to know who was selling top-secret government research developed at Cassidy Global, and Shaw’s shooting was the closest they’d come yet to a breakthrough in the case.
    Meanwhile, she continued to behave exactly as she had since regaining