The Shark (The Forgotten Files, #1)

by Mary Burton

Now a Virginia State Police trooper, she and her five-year-old Labrador retriever, Cooper, enjoyed a solid reputation as a tracking team. They trained routinely in both rural and urban settings, reinforcing his skills and her ability to read his body language alerts when targets were close.

Like all the markers on the trail, the color and patterns of blood told a story. Dark-red blood implied a punctured vein. Light red meant blood diluted with gastric fluids from an abdominal wound. Pink and foamy signaled a possible chest wound.

Bowman had first met Riley five years ago. It had been six months after his wife died and he was training a group of police officers in search-and-rescue techniques at Quantico. Riley was one of his best students, and he noticed her the first day of class. He also caught her stealing glances at him. Several times she asked questions about the training, and it took effort for him to keep his gaze off the rise and swell of her breasts under the regulation T-shirt.

But one of her first memories was of finding five playing cards in her back pocket. Same deck as these, different spread. But there were no words scrawled on her cards.

“Don’t skip school,” Sharp cautioned. “The monsters love the girls that color outside the lines.”

“Real men don’t bruise the women they love.”