The Tactical Crime Division—TCD—is a specialized unit of the FBI.
They handle the toughest cases.
A school invasion turned lockdown in North Carolina is just an average assignment for the TCD unit. But it becomes personal for hostage negotiator agent Evan Duran when he learns Annalise Taylor is the teacher holed up with the students. He’ll need every resource available at TCD and every ounce of his expertise to turn this disastrous situation into a rescue mission—and if he succeeds, maybe reunite with the woman he never stopped loving.
Stopping criminal activity wherever it happens. The agents at TCD are ready for anything.
More and more, federal law agencies have to mobilize to remote locations to address large-scale crime scenes and criminal activity—terror, hostage situations, kidnappings, shootings and the like. Because of the growing concerns and need for ever increasing response times to these criminal events, the Bureau created a specialized tech and tactical team, combining specialists from several active divisions—weapons, crime scene investigation, protection, negotiation, IT. Because they are a smaller unit, they are more nimble for rapid deployment and assistance to address various situations. This joint team of agents is known as the Tactical Crime Division.
48 HOUR LOCKDOWN
New York Times Bestselling Author
Carla Cassidy
Carla Cassidy is an award-winning, New York Times bestselling author who has written over 150 novels for Harlequin. In 1995, she won Best Silhouette Romance from RT Book Reviews for Anything for Danny. In 1998, she won a Career Achievement Award for Best Innovative Series from RT Book Reviews. Carla believes the only thing better than curling up with a good book to read is sitting down at the computer with a good story to write.
Books by Carla Cassidy
Harlequin Intrigue
48 Hour Lockdown
Desperate Strangers
Desperate Intentions
Desperate Measures
Scene of the Crime
Scene of the Crime: Bridgewater, Texas
Scene of the Crime: Bachelor Moon
Scene of the Crime: Widow Creek
Scene of the Crime: Mystic Lake
Scene of the Crime: Black Creek
Scene of the Crime: Deadman’s Bluff
Scene of the Crime: Return to Bachelor Moon
Scene of the Crime: Return to Mystic Lake
Scene of the Crime: Baton Rouge
Scene of the Crime: Killer Cove
Scene of the Crime: Who Killed Shelly Sinclair?
Scene of the Crime: Means and Motive
Visit the Author Profile page at Harlequin.com.
CAST OF CHARACTERS
Evan Duran—Special Agent Duran is a hostage negotiator for the Tactical Crime Division, a specialized branch of the FBI.
Annalise Taylor—A teacher held hostage at a private school. She’s also Evan’s ex-lover. She’d broken his heart several years before, and now he holds her life in his hands.
Jacob Noble—Is he the leader of a charitable church or the dangerous leader of a cult?
Gretchen Noble—Jacob’s wife, who is not afraid to abuse or kill. Will she kill Annalise before she can be freed?
Hendrick Maynard—Brilliant tech agent for the Tactical Crime Division. Will he be able to get the information Evan needs or will he be destroyed by old painful memories?
Walter Cummings—Chief of police in Asheville. Would his incompetence be the death of the hostages?
Special thanks and acknowledgment are given to Carla Cassidy for her contribution to the Tactical Crime Division miniseries.
Contents
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Excerpt from Left to Die by Rita Herron
Prologue
Sandhurst School for the Gifted and Talented,
Pearson, North Carolina.
“I’ve written a short essay on the board. Why don’t you all rewrite it using our secret code?” Annalise Taylor said, and watched as the three girls seated before her focused on the computers in front of them.
Tanya Walton was thirteen years old, Emily Clariton was ten and Sadie Brubaker was nine. All of them wore blue trousers and white blouses with the Sandhurst School emblem embroidered in blue and green on the breast pocket.
The girls came from different areas of the United States, but they all shared a background of abject poverty, some abuse and a lack of opportunities. Until their bright minds brought them to this unusual private school built specifically for children like them, this place where their intelligence was both celebrated and nurtured.
As the girls continued to work, Annalise walked over to the window next to her desk and gazed outside. The school was located on fifteen acres on the outskirts of the charming town of Pearson, North Carolina.
From this vantage point, the view was absolutely breathtaking. The Blue Ridge Mountains surrounded the city. With more than a million acres of protected wilderness, there were plenty of hiking trails, secluded back roads and streams and waterfalls to explore. Right now the leaves on the trees were beginning to display the reds and oranges of autumn.
Annalise turned away from the vista and sat at her desk. She released a deep, weary sigh. It had been a long day. This class was not officially part of the curriculum, rather it was a sort of after-school club to feed the passions of these particular girls, who always looked forward to a little extra time to work and play on their computers.
A loud boom jolted her out of her mental haze, followed by another and another one. Annalise straightened. Was that...was that gunfire? What was going on? Gunfire! For a moment her brain froze in horror as the three girls screamed.
Lock the door! Push desks against it! The orders sounded in her head. That’s what she was supposed to do. That’s what she’d been trained to do in a situation like this.
Heart pounding, she jumped up from her seat and ran toward her classroom door. But before she could reach it, the door exploded inward and a large, burly man with a long gun stood on the threshold.
“Get down, get down,” he screamed, and pointed to a wall with his automatic weapon. “All of you, sit down with your backs against the wall. Now.”
“What’s going on? What do you want?” Annalise asked the questions as she gathered her students close to her.
“Shut up and sit down,” he demanded.
Terror ripped through Annalise as she moved the girls to the wall where they all slid down to sit on the floor. The girls
