Shades of Gray Read online

  PRAISE FOR THE NOVELS

  OF KAY HOOPER

  BLOOD TIES

  “Hooper’s darkly riveting Blood trilogy comes to a terrifying climax.… The chilling intensity of this novel is sure to haunt your dreams!”

  —RT Book Reviews

  “Series fans and newcomers alike will appreciate the appendixes, which include bios of Special Crimes Unit agents and definitions of their various paranormal abilities.”

  —Publishers Weekly

  BLOOD SINS

  “Disturbing … Hooper pulls out all the stops.”

  —Publishers Weekly

  “Fans of Kay Hooper won’t be disappointed.”

  —The Romance Reader

  “Another solid entry.”

  —Booklist

  BLOOD DREAMS

  “You won’t want to turn the lights out after reading this book!”

  —Romantic Times

  “A good read for fans of other serial-killer books and the TV show Criminal Minds.”

  —Booklist

  “Spectacular … With its fast pace, high-adrenaline plot, cast of well-developed characters, and fluid dialogue, Blood Dreams fills every expectation a reader could have.… I highly recommend.”

  —Romance Reviews Today

  SLEEPING WITH FEAR

  “An entertaining book for any reader.”

  —Winston-Salem Journal

  “Hooper keeps the suspense dialed up.… Readers will be mesmerized by a plot that moves quickly to a chilling conclusion.”

  —Publishers Weekly

  CHILL OF FEAR

  “Hooper’s latest may offer her fans a few shivers on a hot beach.”

  —Publishers Weekly

  “Kay Hooper has conjured a fine thriller with appealing young ghosts and a suitably evil presence to provide a welcome chill on a hot summer’s day.”

  —Orlando Sentinel

  “The author draws the reader into the story line and, once there, they can’t leave because they want to see what happens next in this thrill-a-minute, chilling, fantastic reading experience.”

  —Midwest Book Review

  HUNTING FEAR

  “A well-told scary story.”

  —Toronto Sun

  “Hooper’s unerring story sense and ability to keep the pages flying can’t be denied.”

  —Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine

  “Hooper has created another original—Hunting Fear sets an intense pace.… Work your way through the terror to the triumph … and you’ll be looking for more Hooper tales to add to your bookshelf.”

  —Wichita Falls Times Record News

  “It’s vintage Hooper—a suspenseful page-turner.”

  —Brazosport Facts

  “Expect plenty of twists and surprises as Kay Hooper gets her series off to a crackerjack start!”

  —Aptos Times

  SENSE OF EVIL

  “A well-written, entertaining police procedural … loaded with suspense.”

  —Midwest Book Review

  “Filled with page-turning suspense.”

  —The Sunday Oklahoman

  “Sense of Evil will knock your socks off.”

  —Rendezvous

  “A master storyteller.”

  —TAMI HOAG

  STEALING SHADOWS

  “A fast-paced, suspenseful plot … The story’s complicated and intriguing twists and turns keep the reader guessing until the chilling end.”

  —Publishers Weekly

  “This definitely puts Ms. Hooper in a league with Tami Hoag and Iris Johansen and Sandra Brown. Gold 5-star rating.”

  —Heartland Critics

  HAUNTING RACHEL

  “A stirring and evocative thriller.”

  —Palo Alto Daily News

  “The pace flies, the suspense never lets up. It’s great reading.”

  —Baton Rouge Advocate

  “An intriguing book with plenty of strange twists that will please the reader.”

  —Rocky Mountain News

  “It passed the ‘stay up late to finish it in one night’ test.”

  —The Denver Post

  FINDING LAURA

  “You always know you are in for an outstanding read when you pick up a Kay Hooper novel, but in Finding Laura, she has created something really special! Simply superb!”

  —Romantic Times

  “Hooper keeps the intrigue pleasurably complicated, with gothic touches of suspense and satisfying resolution.”

  —Publishers Weekly

  “A first-class reading experience.”

  —Affaire de Coeur

  AFTER CAROLINE

  “Harrowing good fun. Readers will shiver and shudder.”

  —Publishers Weekly

  “Kay Hooper has crafted another solid story to keep readers enthralled until the last page is turned.”

  —Booklist

  “Kay Hooper comes through with thrills, chills, and plenty of romance, this time with an energetic murder mystery with a clever twist. The suspense is sustained admirably right up to the very end.”

  —Kirkus Reviews

  Shades of Gray is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  2012 Bantam Books eBook Edition

  Copyright © 1988 by Kay Hooper

  All rights reserved.

  Published in the United States by Bantam Books, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

  BANTAM BOOKS and the rooster colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

  Originally published in paperback in the United States by Bantam Books, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., in 1988.

  eISBN: 978-0-345-53961-8

  Cover deisgn: Carl Galian

  www.bantamdell.com

  v3.1

  Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Epilogue

  Other Books by This Author

  PROLOGUE

  HAGEN LOOKED UP, honestly surprised for one of the few times in his checkered career. Raven Long had just strolled into his office with the very large and very menacing Zach Steele behind her.

  “Hi,” she said casually.

  Glowering, Hagen responded by demanding, “How did you get into this building?”

  Raven shook her head in gentle pity as she settled a hip on the corner of Hagen’s desk. “You really should get out more, you know. It’s getting awfully easy to catch you off guard.”

  He ignored that. Splendidly. “I asked you a question.”

  Smiling, she jerked a thumb over her shoulder at her companion. “Zach’s very good at things like that. You said so yourself.”

  Hagen stared at the big man who was Chief of Security for Long Enterprises and also was quite possibly one of the top three security experts in the world. And since Zach Steele was such an expert, Hagen knew full well how capable he was at breaching other people’s security systems—especially when Josh Long or his wife, Raven, former agent, required such a breach.

  “Breaching the security of a federal building,” Hagen said rather mildly, “is a federal offense, Mr. Steele.”

  “So it is,” Zach agreed in his deep, soft voice, his gray eyes serene.

  Hagen sighed. “Well,
you’re here.” He looked at Raven with disfavor. “What do you want?”

  She looked over her shoulder at Zach. “He still has the power to amaze me. He ropes innocent citizens into his nefarious plots, unethically, if not illegally, swearing them in as temporary agents and using them shamefully, and he has the nerve, the absolute gall, to ask what we want. Amazing.”

  Hagen didn’t rise to the bait. “I’m waiting.”

  In a wistful tone Zach said to Raven, “One of these days he’s going to get what’s coming to him. And I want to be there.”

  Raven sighed an agreement, then returned her gaze to her former boss. Her merry violet eyes became abruptly hard. “Leave Sara Marsh alone,” she said gently.

  Hagen didn’t bat an eye. “I don’t know who you’re talking about.”

  “Oh, I think you do. Or has your memory slipped with the passing years? A couple of years ago Sara Marsh left Kadeira and Andres Sereno; a few months after that you sent Rafferty and Sarah Lewis down there to get Kelsey out of jail. Remember now?”

  Hagen smiled like a shark. “Now that you mention it, I do. But I fail to see—”

  “A few weeks ago,” Raven went on flatly, interrupting him without compunction, “there was an attempt to kidnap Sara Marsh. Luckily she has good instincts, and managed to slip out while her would-be abductors were slipping in. She was in touch with our Sarah for a while, but in losing your goons, she lost us too. Unfortunately she doesn’t know us well enough to trust that we’re entirely on her side. But you know that. And just as soon as we manage to locate her, we’ll help her to hide where you’ll never find her.”

  Hagen’s smile slipped a notch. “That’s a serious accusation, Raven,” he said sternly.

  “Isn’t it?” she agreed cordially. “And kidnapping is still, I believe, a federal offense. Even more of an offense in this case because Sara was to be snatched for the express purpose of transporting her to Kadeira, which is the last place on earth she would choose to be, as her past actions amply demonstrate. Now she’s being hunted. Since when have agents of the U.S. government decided to kidnap citizens on the orders of Andres Sereno? Or have you taken up pimping these days?”

  It was an uncharacteristically harsh question coming from Raven, and Hagen’s smile faded entirely. His pink Cupid’s face hardened, and his pouty lips firmed into a straight line. After a long moment he said irritably, “You’re being naïve. And while we’re on the subject, just what right did you and your colleagues have to help Derek Ross enrage an unstable Middle Eastern dictator a few weeks ago?”

  Without hesitation she said, “The right as citizens to fight traitors. Now let’s hear your answer.”

  He met her gaze solidly. “I, Mrs. Long, have the right and the duty as a government agent to exercise those powers granted to me by my commander in chief.”

  “Lot of that going around these days,” Zach murmured.

  Raven made a rude sound. “Let’s cut to the chase, shall we? Sereno couldn’t find Sara, so he called in a favor from you. And now you’re planning to send her to Kadeira, even though she doesn’t want to go.”

  “Someone else,” Hagen said, “owes President Sereno a favor, if I recall correctly.”

  Readily she said, “Josh does. But you’ll notice Sereno didn’t ask Josh to kidnap Sara—because he knew that favor would be refused. Instead he asked you. And we all know you’re capable of anything.”

  “You’re out of line,” Hagen said in a stony voice.

  “So are you! We fought for years, you and I, to break white slavery rings; what in the name of hell do you think this is? She doesn’t want to go back there, Hagen, and if that man really loved her, he wouldn’t try to force her.” Raven drew a deep breath. “So we’re here to warn you. If we find out Sara Marsh has been taken to Kadeira against her will, we’ll break the story to the press and get it worldwide coverage.”

  “I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Hagen said mildly enough. “A new extradition treaty with Kadeira is about to be announced. It is perfectly legal to extradite criminals.”

  Raven slid off the desk and straightened up slowly. Her face was still, her eyes cold. “You bastard.”

  He smiled.

  “That poor girl never broke a law in her life—not here, and not on Kadeira!” Raven snapped.

  “It’s on the record,” Hagen said. Or will be by the time anyone checks, he amended silently.

  Without another word Raven swung around and strode from the office with Zach. And Hagen barely caught her fierce statement to the big man.

  “We’ve got to find Sara before he does.”

  Hagen looked at the brass ashtray on his desk, which contained a tiny pile of ashes; he had burned a message slip just before his visitors had arrived. “Too late,” he murmured to himself. And then, to the empty office, he made a statement that none of his staff, past or present, would have believed.

  “I’ve made a mistake.”

  ONE

  SHE WAS TOO angry to be afraid. The injection they’d given her had acted quickly, and she was hardly surprised to awaken in the small cabin of a boat. She held her aching head with one hand and sat up on the bunk, gazing out the porthole at the open sea. That also didn’t surprise her. It was sometime around midafternoon, she guessed. The day after the afternoon they’d shanghaied her. She’d slept a long time.

  And she didn’t have to look at a map to know that she was somewhere off the northern coast of South America.

  They hadn’t hurt her. In fact, her kidnappers had sustained considerable damage themselves from her struggles, because they’d been taking great pains not to hurt her. And she understood why, of course.

  Andres would have them shot if they harmed her.

  The cabin was small, but there was enough room to stretch the kinks from her legs. On a small table near the bunk she discovered a tray covered with a linen napkin, under which reposed an appetizing meal of cold chicken and salad. She ignored the food but poured a glass of wine from the carafe and sipped it.

  Pacing the restricted floor space absently, she stretched aching muscles and automatically straightened her clothing—snug, faded blue jeans and a casual summer blouse the same color as her eyes.

  As the last of the cobwebs cleared from her mind, she sighed and opened the door, unsurprised to find that it wasn’t locked. Where, after all, could she escape to? She went up the steps and onto the deck, squinting into the bright sunlight.

  “Good afternoon, miss.”

  She looked at the man who had spoken. He was a lean, hard man somewhere in his thirties, with soulful eyes and a rather chillingly gentle smile. She didn’t know him.

  “Hello.” Somewhat mockingly she saluted him with her wineglass.

  “The food—”

  “I wasn’t hungry.”

  He half bowed, oddly graceful. “I am the captain, miss.”

  She nodded. “When will we arrive?”

  “In a few hours.”

  After a long silence she sighed. “I don’t suppose,” she said, “there’s a boat I could steal to make good my escape?”

  He blinked. “No, miss.”

  “And I also don’t suppose it would be at all wise of me to jump overboard and try swimming for it?”

  “No, miss.”

  “Then don’t bother to hover over me, Captain,” she said, and turned away to walk toward the bow.

  Siran grimaced faintly, half in admiration and half in doubt. An interesting woman, his passenger. The men who had brought her to the ship off Trinidad had borne ample proof of her ability to defend herself, yet she seemed perfectly calm now. He watched her critically for a moment.

  She was a tiny woman, barely five feet tall if that, dressed casually in jeans, a green blouse, and running shoes. And though another woman would have probably called her petite, no man worth his salt would have missed the surprisingly lush curves of breasts and hips, guaranteed to stop traffic and haunt dreams.

  Her hair was that rare, striking color b
etween red and gold, and it hung thick and shining to the middle of her back. It was styled simply in a layered cut from a center part, and that silky, burnished hair framed a face that was almost too delicately perfect to be real. She was like a painting; every feature was finely drawn with artistic excellence, from her straight nose to the sweet curve of her lips. And in that strikingly perfect face, her eyes were simply incredible: a clear, pale green; huge and shadowed by long, thick lashes.

  Siran remembered another woman on a yacht under his command, a woman so like this one that they could have been twins. From what he had seen and heard, that woman had found love on her trips to Kadeira. What would this woman find?

  She didn’t hear him leave over the noises of wind, ocean, and engine, yet she knew when the captain had finally left her alone. An unsettling man, she thought vaguely. She didn’t fear being alone with him on the small boat and felt a flicker of emotion that was a painful inner laugh when she came to this realization. There wasn’t much about Andres Sereno of which she could be certain—except the fact that anyone in his employ knew only too well that she had to be kept safe. So she was. A bird in a gilded cage. No, not that, not really. Kadeira was a beautiful island but war-torn. And Sereno, though a powerful man, had chosen to build his country rather than his own personal wealth. The “palace” was a large, comfortable house, but there was nothing gilded about it.

  She stood there at the bow, face into the wind, trying not to think. Trying not to remember.

  But when the island first came into view, she was surprised by the surge of emotion she felt, and unnerved by the flood of memories that came to mind. It was such a beautiful island, especially from a distance—before the underlying rot became visible.

  She flung the empty wineglass overboard with a stifled cry, then gripped the brass railing hard as she stiffened her shoulders and began dragging all the emotions into the dark room where she’d placed them more than two years ago. By the time the harbor came into view, she was calm again.

  Not much had changed in two years, she thought. Not, at least, at first glance. It was a good harbor with plenty of room for the score of vessels riding at anchor and tied up to the dock. Except for a few fishing boats, all were military vessels, and all were armed to the teeth.