Colton Undercover Read online

  A federal agent falls for his target in the newest Coltons of Shadow Creek romance!

  On the hunt for escaped criminal mastermind Livia Colton, FBI agent Josh Howard knows just where to start: the fugitive’s family. Namely, Livia’s eldest daughter, Leonor Colton, who was very close to her criminal mother. Could the alluring museum curator be hiding the Colton matriarch? Maybe.

  Undercover as a billionaire art collector, Josh is invited into Leonor’s life. He’s surprised to find that the heiress, betrayed by an ex and at odds with her siblings, needs a strong shoulder, and there Josh is all ears. But when an attempt is made on Leonor’s life, Josh finds his cover is about to be blown—along with his unexpected true feelings for his Colton connection.

  “And just what is it that you really want to do—but don’t?” Leonor asked him in a voice that had mysteriously gone down to just above a whisper.

  As it was, her voice sounded very close to husky—and he found it hopelessly seductive.

  Standing just inside her suite, Leonor waited for him to answer while her heart continued to imitate the rhythm of a drum roll that only grew louder by the moment.

  Josh weighed his options for a moment. Damned if he did and damned if he didn’t, he couldn’t help thinking. And then he answered her.

  “Kiss you,” he told Leonor, saying the words softly, his breath caressing the skin on her face.

  She felt her stomach muscles quickening.

  “Maybe you should go ahead and do that,” she told him. “I promise I won’t stop you.”

  The Coltons of Shadow Creek:

  Only family can keep you safe...

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  Dear Reader,

  Meet Leonor Colton, eldest daughter of the crime queen-pin, Livia Colton, a woman who would have made Catherine de Medici and Joan Crawford stand up and cheer—for different reasons. Leonor and her siblings are bound together by one coldhearted mother and a need to survive. Despite this, Leonor turned out pretty well. She went to college, got her degree and worked really hard to make something of herself, namely as a curator in the Austin Museum of Art.

  When Special Agent Josh Howard enters her life, posing as a billionaire art collector, Leonor has her guard up. Handsome, charming and attentive, Josh soon gets past all the barriers that Leonor has constructed around herself. But their relationship is built on a lie, Josh’s lie.

  It’s only a matter of time before Leonor finds out that the man she has fallen for sought her out because he believed she’d helped Livia escape from prison and knew where she was. Added to this little time bomb is the fact that there’s someone out to kill Leonor. Can Josh find out who in time to save her? And once he does, can he get Leonor to forgive him for lying to her and love him? It’s a tall order, but then this is Texas...

  Thank you very much for taking the time to read my book, and from the bottom of my heart, I wish you someone to love who loves you back.

  All the best,

  COLTON

  UNDERCOVER

  Marie Ferrarella

  USA TODAY bestselling and RITA® Award–winning author Marie Ferrarella has written more than two hundred and fifty books for Harlequin, some under the name Marie Nicole. Her romances are beloved by fans worldwide. Visit her website, marieferrarella.com.

  Books by Marie Ferrarella

  Harlequin Romantic Suspense

  The Coltons of Shadow Creek

  Colton Undercover

  Cavanaugh Justice

  Mission: Cavanaugh Baby

  Cavanaugh on Duty

  A Widow’s Guilty Secret

  Cavanaugh’s Surrender

  Cavanaugh Rules

  Cavanaugh’s Bodyguard

  Cavanaugh Fortune

  How to Seduce a Cavanaugh

  Cavanaugh or Death

  Cavanaugh Cold Case

  Cavanaugh in the Rough

  Coltons of Texas

  Colton Copycat Killer

  The Pregnant Colton Bride

  Coltons of Oklahoma

  Second Chance Colton

  Visit the Author Profile page at

  Harlequin.com for more titles.

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  To

  Patience Bloom

  Who Seems To Have

  Enough Faith In Me

  To Believe I Can

  Pull Off Yet Another

  Continuity.

  Thank You!

  Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Epilogue

  Excerpt from The Texan’s Return by Karen Whiddon

  Prologue

  “You, lady, are a real piece of work.”

  At the moment, there was no one else in the FBI field office in San Antonio, Texas with Special Agent Joshua Howard. His words were addressed to the photograph of Livia Colton he had pulled from the file on his desk. A file he had gone over and reviewed countless times in the last few days.

  Livia, or rather, her untimely escape from prison, was the reason he was about to temporarily relocate to Shadow Creek, a place unofficially known as “the town that Livia built,” and with good reason.

  Josh shook his head as by now all too familiar details danced before his brown eyes. The life of the attractive, blond-haired, fifty-two-year-old illegitimate product of a one-night stand between one of the wealthier Coltons and a drug-addicted prostitute read like something out of a Hollywood movie, right down to the part where, by all indications, Livia’s once-unchecked sociopathic behavior rivaled that of a classic “bad seed.”

  While behaving lovingly toward her easily manipulated father, Livia was ruthless toward her half siblings. Rumor had it that, by his own admission, Livia was the only person whom Matthew Colton, her convicted serial killer half brother, truly feared. In Josh’s book, that was saying a great deal.

  Marrying and discarding husbands as if they were used tissues, Livia amassed a considerable fortune and six children along the way, all presumably with different fathers. Resorting to her natural cunning, she managed to quadruple her fortune through organized crime. She’d trafficked in drugs, women and whatever else might have been profitable at the moment.

  Her children, she barely tolerated unless there was a photographer within the vicinity to immortalize her with them. She had been a great one for photo ops. There had been one offspring, her oldest daughter, Leonor, whom people said she disliked less than the rest.

  Not exactly a glowing testimony, Josh thought.

  The living definition of a wild child Livia Colton had finally given, before her downfall, at least outwardly, all the signs of wanting to settle down. She’d gotten married again, this time to an
Argentine horse breeder who it was said treated her children far better than she did. She had had her last child, Jade, with him.

  Playing the part of a benevolent pillar of the community, Livia built the town she had adopted a much-needed hospital, funded most of their 4-H program, allowed other ranchers to use her water supply without charge and threw legendary parties. Shadow Creek’s society worshipfully revolved around her. No one questioned where her rather fabulous wealth came from, especially not those who benefited from it.

  But eventually, the law, steadily collecting evidence against her over the years, managed to bring charges against Livia. Ten years ago the onetime queen of Shadow Creek was convicted of numerous charges, including murder. She had just barely avoided the death penalty—bribing the judge no doubt, Josh thought—and was sentenced to serve five life sentences in Red Peak Maximum Security Prison in Gatesville, Texas. Her neighbors all turned their backs on her, her vast fortune was confiscated and her six children were left to fend for themselves the best way that they could.

  It sounded, Josh thought, like a perfect ending, with justice being served—except that, maximum security prison or not, Livia had managed to escape two weeks ago. The first thought that occurred to him was that one of her children must have been instrumental in bringing about her escape and was currently helping and sheltering her.

  But which one?

  He’d looked into all their backgrounds.

  Josh spread out the six assorted photographs, some candid, some professional, of Livia’s children.

  They were nothing if not an eclectic bunch, he thought. They only had one thing in common—well, two, if he counted that they all had the same mother—or at least that was what the birth certificates said. Claudia, her second youngest, had been born while she was traveling in Europe and there was only Livia’s word that she’d given birth to the girl.

  Each of her children was good-looking in his or her own way. It was always harder confronting attractive people and getting them to confess, Josh mused. Somehow, they thought that their looks would help shield them from the dire consequences of their actions: in essence, their “get-out-of-jail-for-free” cards.

  But he intended to confront them, because one—if not more—of them was responsible for Livia’s escape.

  Finding out who it was, how they had engineered it and where they—and Livia—currently were was the job he’d been assigned by the Bureau. And it was why he had his “go bag” stashed in the trunk of his silver sedan. He was leaving for Shadow Creek.

  Apparently all the siblings, except for River, Livia’s third born, were finding their way home after having scattered once Livia’s trial was over.

  Of the six, his gut was pointing him toward Leonor Colton. Out of all of Livia’s children, Leonor was the only one who visited Livia while she was in prison. He knew that Leonor certainly had the money to finance her mother’s escape. He’d just conducted a check on her accounts and saw that there had been a large withdrawal made a few months ago.

  Was that money used to bribe guards to look the other way?

  And there was more. Leonor had just recently returned “home” to Shadow Creek and Josh had to wonder why. Was it to reconnect with her roots, or just with her mother? Granted, by all accounts, Livia Colton made Joan Crawford come across like Mother of the Year in comparison, but desperate times meant desperate measures and if the woman was to turn to any of her six children, it would be Leonor.

  Livia had already been sighted once in these last two weeks, around the time when the man who had kidnapped her grandson, Cody, was killed. Josh had a strong feeling that the woman had been involved and was responsible, at least indirectly, for the man’s death.

  That meant that she was somewhere in the state. Maybe even close by.

  Working on this assumption, Josh got ready to go.

  “Next stop,” he murmured under his breath, his voice echoing about the empty office, “Shadow Creek. Hopefully to slap the cuffs on you, Livia—and whoever it is that’s been helping you. Playtime,” he informed the woman’s photograph just before closing the file and putting it into his folder, “is over. It’s time for you to pay the piper.”

  Smiling grimly, Josh left the office.

  Chapter 1

  Thanks to the special trust fund her late father had set up for her, unlike many people her age, thirty-one-year-old Leonor Colton didn’t need to work. She wanted to work. Wanted to put her art degree to use and do something that made her feel as if she was contributing in some small way to society. That was why she had initially taken that unpaid internship at the Austin Art Museum. While others might have floated along, especially since they weren’t getting paid, Leonor worked exceptionally hard. She put in long hours, coming in early and staying late, long after the museum had been closed to the public.

  All this hard work managed to impress Adam Sheffield, the director who was in charge of the museum, so much so that once her internship was over, he offered her the job of assistant curator. She took it gladly and worked her way up to her current position of curator.

  For a while, Leonor thought, looking back now, things had seemed as if they were going quite well for her. Better than well. She had managed to hold her head high, despite the devastating scandal that had all but ripped her family apart. Because of her mother’s arrest and subsequent conviction—something that neither she nor any of her siblings saw coming—they had gone from being at the pinnacle of Shadow Creek’s community to being objects of everyone else’s contempt.

  Leonor had risen above the gossip and mean-spirited talk, ignoring it and going on with her life. She’d gotten her education—a degree in the arts—and a job she loved in her chosen field. Even her love life had taken a much-needed turn for the better.

  Or so she had thought.

  Up until that point, the redheaded, green-eyed Leonor had only dated sporadically and she had never had a serious relationship—possibly because of the love ’em and leave ’em example that her mother had set for all of them.

  And then David Marshall had come along.

  Handsome, charming and oh-so-smooth, David had completely swept her off her feet in what amounted to record time. Looking back, Leonor couldn’t believe how quickly she’d surrendered to him, taking down her barriers and opening up her heart. She must have been crazy. But from the bottom of that isolated heart, she had honestly believed that David Marshall was the man she was meant to marry.

  Desperately needing to have someone to talk to and trust, in a short amount of time Leonor had completely opened herself up to him and told David not just who she was, but also made him privy to all of her family’s numerous and heretofore well-kept secrets.

  It felt so wonderful to finally open up to someone, to have someone she could really talk to without being afraid of any sort of censorship or being looked down upon judgmentally.

  She should have been afraid, Leonor thought ruefully now. Considering everything she had been through with her mother’s arrest, she should have been leery, not trusting.

  Water under the bridge, she thought regretfully.

  A few months ago, after things seemed to be going so well, she woke up one morning to find that David was not only gone from her bed, but gone, it soon became apparent, from her life, as well. And not long after that she found out that he had not only stolen her heart, but he’d taken a very large chunk of her money with him as well. No note, no explanation, not even an argument to serve as a foreshadowing of things to come.

  He had just vanished without any warning.

  It wasn’t the money she missed. Because of the way the trust fund had been set up, there was more than enough money left, money that David hadn’t been able to get his hands on. But she wasn’t angry about that. She was angry, hurt and confused because he had left her for no good reason.

  Or so she thought
.

  But everything fell into place when one day she’d opened up her computer, logged onto the internet and saw that her family’s story was splashed all over the home page of Everything’s Blogger in Texas, a local gossip site.

  Reading the first installment—she couldn’t pull her eyes away—Leonor felt like such a fool.

  She still felt that way. All those things David had said to her—he had just been playing her, lying to her so that she would trust him and learn to confide in him, telling him all of her family’s secrets. Secrets he then turned around and sold to the blog.

  Leonor felt incredibly stupid and used. And horribly crushed.

  In its own way, this was as devastating to her as her mother’s arrest had been that awful, awful day over ten years ago when the law enforcement officers had descended on the sprawling mansion that she and her brothers and sisters called home.

  At first, after David’s disappearance and bitter betrayal, she had sought refuge in her position at the museum. But it didn’t help her keep her mind off what a fool she had been. So she’d gone to her boss and asked Sheffield for a leave of absence in the hopes that if she went somewhere else, she’d be able to somehow pull herself together.

  “I’m not losing you, am I, Leonor?” Adam Sheffield had asked, concerned as he sat with her in his office, looking at her across his cluttered desk. “Because, I don’t mind telling you, in all my years here, you’re the best curator I’ve ever had.” He’d leaned forward, lowering his voice and creating an air of privacy. “If it’s a matter of more money—”

  She’d been quick to shoot that supposition down. “No, it’s not that, Mr. Sheffield. I don’t want more money.”

  “Shorter hours, then,” he proposed, guessing at the reason behind her unanticipated request. “I know I’ve been relying on you a great deal—maybe too much—but you’re so damn good at this that—”

  She’d stopped the director mid-sentence again. “Thank you, sir, but it’s not the hours, either, Mr. Sheffield.” Leonor went on to appeal to his kinder side. “I just need to get away for a while, pull myself together. I haven’t seen my family for a long time and I think it might be time to go back home for a little while.”