Karen Robards - Sleepwalker

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COPS AND ROBBERS DONT MIX

Its not that Micayla Lange is afraid of the clinking she hears coming from the first floor of the empty McMansion shes housesitting for her uncle Nicco. Shes a cop, after all. Its just that finding out her boyfriend was cheating on her was enough drama for one night. Now shes alone on New Years Eve, wearing flannel pajamas and wielding a Glock 22 as she zeroes in on the unmistakable source of the sound: Uncle Niccos private office.

Jason Davis steals things for a living, so unexpected developments are a natural part of the job. Getting caught red-handed by a hot, pigtail-sporting police officer in what is supposed to be a gangsters deserted house is just one more twist in the game. Kind of like finding incriminating photos in Nicco Marinos safe, only to discover the copand the security camerashave gotten a real good look at his face.

Unfortunately for Mick, she also got a good look at the damned pictures. Her uncle might love her like family, but if he knows shes seen evidence that implicates him in the murder of a city councilman, she doesnt like her chances. Which is why shes having a hard time reconciling her professional instincts with what she is rapidly concluding is an inescapable fact: Shes about to help a criminal get away with a suitcase full of stolen money. And shes going with him.

Mick and Jasons race for their lives hurtles them through the dangerous Michigan wilderness on speedboat and snowmobile. As their adventure heats up and their enemies close in, Mick is torn between her duty to the force and the combustible passion engulfing her and her unlikely partner in crime. Shell have to turn Jason in sooner or later if they survive. But will they ever get a second chance at love?

KAREN ROBARDS is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of forty-one books and one novella. The mother of three boys, she lives in Louisville, Kentucky.

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JACKET DESIGN BY LISA LITWACK
JACKET PHOTOGRAPH WOMAN ROBERT JONES/ARCANGEL IMAGES
AUTHOR PHOTOGRAPH BY BRIAN VELLENCHENKO
COPYRIGHT 2011 SIMON & SCHUSTER (CONTINUED ON BACK FLAP)

SLEEPWALKER

THE BANNING SISTERS TRILOGY

Shameless

Irresistible

Scandalous

OTHER TITLES BY KAREN ROBARDS

Justice

Shattered

Pursuit

Guilty

Obsession

Vanished

Superstition

Bait

Beachcomber

Whispers at Midnight

To Trust a Stranger

Paradise County

Ghost Moon

The Midnight Hour

The Senators Wife

Heartbreaker

Hunters Moon

Walking After Midnight

Maggys Child

One Summer

Nobodys Angel

This Side of Heaven

Dark of the Moon

Gallery Books
A Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
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New York, NY 10020
www.SimonandSchuster.com

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the authors imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Copyright 2011 by Karen Robards

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information address Gallery Books Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020

First Gallery Books hardcover edition December 2011

GALLERY BOOKS and colophon are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

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Designed by Level C, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file.

ISBN 978-1-4391-8372-4
ISBN 978-1-4391-8375-5 (ebook)

Christopher,
This book is dedicated to you, in honor of your twenty-first birthday.
Love you forever,
Mom

SLEEPWALKER

Sometimes terrible things happen in the middle of the night. Sometimes the monster under the bed is real. Sometimes there truly is a bogeyman hiding in the closet.

Sometimes people die.

Do you think they saw us? Jenny Lange gasped as she fled across the overgrown vacant lot in Detroits rough Eight Mile area. Moonlight silvered the bright banner of the fifteen-year-olds long blond hair, turned her face into a pale beacon as she glanced back over her shoulder. Dressed in a ski jacket, jeans and boots, she was little more than a slim shadow in the darkness. The night was black and cold. A biting wind whistled through the canyon made by the surrounding apartment buildings, whipping sparkling whirlwinds of snow from the crusty layer on the ground.

Dont know. Lori Penski snorted with laughter. Also fifteen, she ran a couple of steps behind her best friend, Jenny, her flight slowed by an intermittent attack of the giggles. Did you see what they were doing?

What? What were they doing? Micayla Langes heart pounded so hard that she could hear it thudding in her ears even over the rapid-fire crunch of their feet punching through the snow. Slip-sliding along behind, she almost begged for an answer, knowing even as the words left her mouth that she was probably going to be ignored just like always. Only eleven and undersized, she was having trouble keeping up. Having hurried so as not to have been left behind when her big sister and her sisters friend had sneaked out of the apartment where theyd been babysitting her and shed supposedly been asleep, shed grabbed her coat and stuck her bare feet in the sneakers shed worn to basketball practice earlier. The sneakers were proving no match for ten inches of snow: icy wet, they kept threatening to slide off with every step she took. Her feet and ankles burned from churning as fast as they could through the frozen slush, and her pajamas were wet almost to the knees. Even with her coat zipped clear to her throat, she was so cold that her skin stung.

And scared. She was so, so scared. She and Jenny were never, ever supposed to leave the apartment at night while their mother was at work. They werent even supposed to answer the door. This run-down section of Detroit was dangerous, riddled with crime even in broad daylight. Theyd only lived there for two months, since their parents had split up, and already theyd gotten used to the sound of gunfire at night and learned to rush straight in from the school bus so that they would spend as little time as possible on the street.