Colorado Abduction Read Online Free PDF

your secrets to a stranger.”
    Unexpectedly, he reached toward her and brushed a loosestrand of hair behind her ear. The stroke of his fingertips on her cheek set off an electric reaction that sizzled down her throat and into her chest. “You don’t seem all that strange. Actually, you’re kind of all right.”
    “High praise,” he said wryly. “Don’t make me more than I am, Carolyn. I’m just doing my job.”
    She didn’t quite believe him. Burke tried to stay detached, but the hard-nosed attitude didn’t come naturally. “You’re not as tough as you pretend to be. You care about what happens to Nicole. And to Dylan.”
    “Caring is human. But I don’t let empathy get in the way of my work.”
    “I don’t mean to put you on the spot. It’s just—”
    “And I care about you,” he said.
    Her heart thumped against her rib cage. Her gaze dropped from his face to his broad chest. Just for a moment, she wished she could rest her head against him. “Thank you.”
    “You’re trying to carry your brother, run the corporate business and manage the ranch.” He rested one hand on her shoulder. With the other, he lifted her chin so she was looking into his dark eyes. “Who takes care of you, Carolyn?”
    No one . She had no one to share her burdens. No one who really cared for her. “I talk to Elvis.”
    His lips parted in a grin. “First the Hollies. Now Elvis. Are we on a tour of the golden oldies?”
    “Elvis is my horse. I tell him my secrets and he listens.”
    Burke leaned down and kissed her forehead. He stepped back so quickly that she wasn’t sure what happened. But her forehead tingled. She felt suddenly warm. Hot even.
    One of the other agents—either Silverman or Smith—came into the hallway. “Burke, you need to hear this.”
    “What is it?”
    “The sheriff says the most likely suspects live on a ranch near here. The Circle M.”
    Burke turned to Carolyn. “What do you know about the Circle M?”
    “The ranch belongs to Nate Miller, but he’s renting the entire property and all the outbuildings to Sam Logan and a group of his followers.”
    “Followers?”
    “They call themselves the sons of something or other. They’re survivalists.”
    Burke looked back toward the other agent. He said just one word. “Waco.”
    In a flash she remembered television images of burning buildings and reporters talking about the women and children who had died in the confrontation between the FBI and the Waco cult.
    “It’s not the same thing,” she said quickly. “Sam Logan isn’t that kind of guy.”
    “How do you know?” Burke asked.
    She swallowed hard. “He used to be my boyfriend.”

Chapter Four
    Sam Logan hadn’t been the love of Carolyn’s life. He’d been two years ahead of her in high school, and they went out on exactly three dates before he told her that she wasn’t “sophisticated” enough for him. In his dictionary, “sophisticated” meant having sex, which wasn’t something she wanted to try at age sixteen.
    Several years later, after she’d graduated from college, she and Logan hooked up again. Their relationship had been far more complicated the second time around.
    “Well?” Burke glared at her as if she were a suspect. “Are you going to tell us about your survivalist boyfriend?”
    “I need coffee for this.”
    She pivoted and went down the hall toward the kitchen where the family’s housekeeper, Polly Sanchez, was taking a batch of her famous raisin rolls out of the oven. The heat from her baking steamed up the north-facing windows. A mouthwatering aroma filled the huge kitchen.
    “Can I help?” Carolyn asked.
    “Good heavens, no. I’m in a hurry, and I don’t have time to clean up after you.” With an expert flourish, Polly spread gooey icing on top of the rolls. “Soon as I’m done here, I’m heading home to catch a couple of winks before morning.”
    As Carolyn watched the icing melt into rich swirls she realized that she hadn’t eaten for over