Special Forces: Operation Alpha: Redemption for Avery (Kindle Worlds Novella) (Ryker Townsend FBI Profiler Book 2) Read Online Free PDF

together out of necessity. Someone on his team had to cover for him as back up without questioning his motives, but their private pact had made them closer than she’d ever dreamed possible.
    There were nights after he’d awaken, screaming in a cold sweat from a nightmare, that she would hold him until he knew where he was. Or times he trusted her with everything and shared his worst fears in quiet conversation by the fireplace in his loft. Most days he broke her heart with how he became the voice for the dead, when no one else could. He’d sacrificed a great deal to become an extraordinary man.
    Every day her love for him had grown. Lucinda craved his mind and body. She ached to feel him inside her and to give in to his insatiable needs. For a guy so clueless with women, his sexual nature had surprised her—something she never complained about.
    “I don’t know about you, but I’ve got enough adrenaline pumping through me that I could use a good workout to let it go.”
    Ryker glanced at his watch with an endearing look of confusion on his handsome face.
    “I saw a bike path down by the lake. We could get in a nice run before—”
    “That’s not the kind of workout I had in mind, Townsend.” She raised an eyebrow and grinned. “Your room. Fifteen minutes.”
    Lucinda headed for her door, but not before glancing over her shoulder to see him staring at her. His crooked smile told her that he’d completely understood her meaning all along. She fought a grin as she slipped into her room to brush her teeth and pack an overnight bag.
    She always loved yanking Ryker’s chain. The guy seriously didn’t know his effect on the opposite sex. Women flirted with him all the time and he would be oblivious. She’d had a crush on him, ever since the first day she met him as her boss. It wasn’t until he nearly lost his life to a diabolical killer last year that he’d confided his secret, the reason he’d always lived his life alone.
    With overnight bag in hand, Lucinda returned to Ryker’s doorway and raised her hand to knock when she heard the distinct sound of a footstep on gravel. She turned and searched the shadows beyond the lights.
    “Hello? Who’s there?”
    No answer. When she heard a dog whine, she couldn’t tell where the sound came from. She took a step toward the shadows and peered into the darkness.
    “I’m a federal agent. Identify yourself.”
    Silence.
    But Lucinda knew she wasn’t alone.

Chapter 5
     
    Travelodge
    Big Bear Lake, California
    3:10 a.m .
     
    Lucinda sensed someone in the dark, watching her. Pure reaction, she reached for the weapon she normally carried in a holster, but she wasn’t armed. She had her handcuffs in her overnight bag, something she had planned for Ryker, but she hadn’t expected to need her gun—until now.
    She knocked on Ryker’s door and kept her eyes searching the darkness behind her. After Ryker opened his door, she pushed by him with her heart on red line and tossed her bag on his bed.
    “Maybe I’ve still got a case of the heebie-jeebies from witnessing you doing your ‘thing’ earlier, but I had the distinct impression someone was watching me out there, just now.”
    “Is this your idea of foreplay?”
    “No, I’m serious. Whoever it was, they had a dog with them.”
    Ryker reached for his Glock and chambered a round before he headed out the door as Lucinda stood at the threshold. Shadows swallowed him until he melded into the darkness, a vague shape moving in the gloom.
    “Anything?” she called out.
    “Nothing, but I smelled cigarette smoke,” he said after he returned and closed the door behind him. “Maybe it was only someone grabbing a cancer stick, or their dog had to go.”
    “Yeah, but why didn’t they answer me when I called out to them?”
    “This time of night, you might’ve scared them.”
    Lucinda latched the door and let it go, but next time she’d be armed.
     
    ***
     
    Ryker Townsend
    I craved the intimacy Lucinda and I