High Noon
Nora Roberts
Language: English
Pages: 480
ISBN: 0399154345
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
Police Lieutenant Phoebe MacNamara found her calling at an early age when an unstable man broke into her family's home, trapping and terrorizing them for hours. Now she's Savannah's top hostage negotiator, defusing powderkeg situations with a talent for knowing when to give in-and when to jump in and take action. It's satisfying work-and sometimes those skills come in handy at home dealing with her agoraphobic mother, still traumatized by the break-in after all these years, and her precocious seven-year-old, Carly.
It's exactly that heady combination of steely courage and sensitivity that first attracts Duncan Swift to Phoebe. After observing her coax one of his employees down from a roof ledge, he is committed to keeping this intriguing, take-charge woman in his life. She's used to working solo, but Phoebe's discovering that no amount of negotiation can keep Duncan at arm's length.
And when she's grabbed by a man who throws a hood over her head and brutally assaults her-in her own precinct house-Phoebe can't help but be deeply shaken. Then threatening messages show up on her doorstep, and she's not just alarmed but frustrated. How do you go face-to-face with an opponent who refuses to look you in the eye?
Now, with Duncan backing her up every step of the way, she must establish contact with the faceless tormentor who is determined to make her a hostage to fear . . . before she becomes the final showdown.
moved through the house as casually as he would his own, and spotted her out the kitchen window. She knelt in front of one of her flower beds, a big straw hat with a band of wildly colored flowers on her head and neon-pink gardening gloves on her wide and generous hands. Love was a quick, warm spurt right through the heart. She’d given him a mother when he’d already been a man, a family he’d never hoped to be a part of, and a home he’d never found anywhere else. He knew there’d be a pitcher
into Suicide Joe’s apartment that day. It’s…magnetic.” “You got the moon on for her, do you?” He smiled a little as he lifted his glass. “I guess I do. Bad timing, as it turns out. Hard to romance a woman under these particular circumstances.” He shrugged. “That can wait. Finding the son of a bitch who’s after her, that can’t.” “It’s her job to find him.” Fanning her face with her hat, she studied him. “Hard for you to sit back and let her do her job.” “Yeah. Okay, yeah. In this particular
night, after Carly was in bed. Work kept her away from home enough without adding gym time to it. She’d sprung for an elliptical machine, a few free weights, and even a small TV to play exercise tapes. Carly often practiced her gymnastics while she worked out, so that was the big benefit of more mother-daughter time. Her mother and Ava used the equipment, so it paid for itself. In the end it wasn’t only more convenient but more economical. At least that’s how she’d justified the expense.
single hard thump. Then she locked around him, those strong bare arms, and her teeth nipped and gnawed on his bottom lip. She moaned; she quivered. And her scent seemed to rise from light, teasing invitation to will-snapping opiate. He slid her dress up, up, up those gorgeous legs, ran his hand over warm flesh, over the thin lacy bit that covered her. Under it. Not warm here, but hot. Hot and wet and open. Her hips pumped, pressed, and she came on a low, feral groan that shot straight to his
her phone rang, she half-expected it would be Duncan, calling her minutes after he left to tell her something to make her laugh. The display on the Caller ID had her stomach sinking. “Hello, Roy.” Less than ten minutes later she was stalking downstairs and grabbing a half gallon of cookie dough ice cream from the freezer. Essie walked in as Phoebe scooped it straight out of the carton and into her mouth. “Oh! You had a fight with Duncan.” “I didn’t have a fight with Duncan. I didn’t have a