Free Shiver of Fear by Roxanne St. Claire

jacket. No Sharon.
    Disappointment coiled through her, and she let out a half sigh, half cry of frustration. “She’s gone.”
    A few cars pulled out of the lot back onto the highway, but they’d be long gone even if Devyn ran down the hill at full speed.
    “You want to tell me who could make you try to mow down perfectly nice strangers like that? When half an hour ago you needed
     to be begged to get across? Who is that important?”
    She turned, focused on him again. Why would she tell anyone why she was here, let alone a complete and utter stranger?
    Because she wanted to trust him, and she just didn’t want to do this alone anymore. “My mother.”
    He drew back. “Well, she was right when she called you impulsive.”
    No,
she thought.
The
other
mother. The one who never called me at all.

CHAPTER 5
    S haron dug deep for composure. She couldn’t lose it now. She couldn’t possibly let him know the thoughts exploding in her head.
     Maybe if she didn’t
think,
she wouldn’t give herself away or show any sign of weakness.
    That’s what they’d trained her to do—never show weakness—so she certainly couldn’t risk an emotional response. She was a scientist.
     She
had
no emotions.
    But the word rushed through her head, like the wind over that cliff, and with it came
feeling
. Ancient, buried, long-dead
feeling
.
    Rose
.
    No, not Rose, she chided herself. Devyn Sterling. That was her name now. The last picture she’d seen was recent enough for
     her to know exactly who that young woman was. Her daughter.
    How in God’s name had Devyn found her?
    “Well?” Next to her, Liam Baird shifted in the backseatof the sedan, his hazel, Irish eyes narrowed in question. “Did you see her?”
    “Yes,” she said, brushing back a wave of wind-whipped gray hair, a reminder that she was too old for this cloak-and-dagger
     stuff.
    “And?” the man prodded, his impatience palpable as always, making him seem younger than his forty-some years.
    “I just told you, I have no idea who she is. I’ve never seen her before in my life.” Not since handing her over, signing some
     papers, and moving on.
    Liam dropped back against the leather seat with a dramatic sigh, running a hand through thick, sandy locks. “Then you better
     have an explanation for why this woman is gallivantin’ around Belfast askin’ for you at every corner.”
    “No idea.” But she sure as hell better come up with one, and fast. She went with the story she’d been concocting ever since
     Baird hit her with this news. “My guess is she’s a former student who heard through the university that I’d taken leave over
     here, and she’s trying to find me. I just don’t recognize her from this far away.”
    “Then perhaps we should bring her closer.”
    Oh, God, no. She turned to him, skewering him with a look she knew from experience could buckle anyone. She’d perfected the
     power of her gray-eyed stare. “Are you as stupid as that?” she asked. “An American girl? Whoever she is, you don’t want that
     kind of publicity. Get her out of here, put her off my track rather than send her right into it like you did today.”
    “It worked,” he said with a shrug. “One suggestion where you might be, planted by one of my people,and—
wham—
she shows up. She should be quite easy to manipulate.”
    Would she be? What kind of woman had Rose grown up to be? Sharon only had an inkling. A fine family, a rich lifestyle, oblivious
     to her dirty roots. Except there was the nasty incident of her husband’s murder. Sharon had tried not to follow the news,
     but it had been impossible.
    “Then use your considerable powers to convince the young woman to leave,” she said. “Scare her off. Threaten her. Send a man
     to woo her away, whatever it takes, Mr. Baird. We have work to do and can’t afford a distraction like this.”
    Baird just eyed her. “You better not be lying. About anything.”
    She never even blinked. “Don’t suggest that again,