Chapter 1
A gust of wind hailing straight from the Pacific Ocean, fragrant with fresh seaweed and new hope, hit Special Agent Lynn Rivers square in the face as she dismounted the train, dragging her large yellow suitcase behind her. She stopped dead, hoping for another whiff. She loved the sea. Loved being near it. It was one of the reasons she chose New York City as her home. But out here in Monterey, California, she was neither home nor Lynn Rivers.
Here she was Gwen Morrison, a sweet, fun-loving twenty-seven-year-old woman fleeing an abusive ex on the east coast and looking to start a new life out west by the ocean. It was an undercover persona that had been meticulously crafted by the top forensic psychologists and profilers back at the FBI headquarters building in the Bronx. Fitting into the role involved getting blonde highlights in her long light brown hair, a whole new wardrobe of brightly colored dresses, shirts and pants—even though Lynn preferred to dress in simple blacks—and practicing at being a perky, yet vulnerable and innocent personality type, which also didn’t come naturally to her.
But she’d been one of the FBI’s top undercover operatives for the past four years and she’d proven—to herself and everyone else—that she could be anyone she needed to be to get the man, or woman, she was after.
It was a man this time. Julian Ames. A powerful CEO of a successful company called Ames Inc. that the FBI suspected was just a front for a much more sinister operation involving the trafficking of young women and children, along with drugs and weapons. Ames was also suspected of killing his wife eight months ago, leaving him alone with his two pre-school children.
Lynn was here to take care of those children, working undercover as a live-in child minder, or more precisely, a nanny. Ames was good at covering his tracks, so her mission was to get close to him and gather enough evidence to bring him down and put him behind bars forever so he couldn’t hurt anyone else.
She was the third nanny he’d hired since his wife’s death, but the other two were let go soon after starting. The FBI had tried to track them down for an interview, but unsuccessfully, so the reasons for their termination were unclear. But the hope was that the persona Lynn had assumed for this mission would gel with Ames better.
The sea breeze, though welcome, didn’t do much to cool her as she lugged her heavy suitcase from the train to the bus station under the rising summer sun.
Her cover involved being broke. That’s why she’d come here on a train all the way from Chicago, which was her fake hometown. It wasn’t even a sleeper train and now she faced another hour on the bus to get to her destination.
But at least the ride would be along the beach, and she could watch the frothing waters of the Pacific Ocean crash against the black cliffs like they did in all the pictures and promo videos of this place she studied to prepare for this mission.
Lynn had spent the last two months living alone in Chicago, prepping for the mission and establishing herself as a real person with a real past. Ames’ people had checked her out when she applied for the nanny job and so far, it seemed that her cover was holding. If all continued going according to plan, she would be spending tomorrow night in a mansion atop a section of those picturesque cliffs. Hunting a killer.
