Contents

  Also by Barbara Freethy

  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

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  What to read next…

  Access MEMBERS ONLY Page!

  About the Author

  Also by Barbara Freethy

  Off the Grid: FBI Series

  PERILOUS TRUST

  RECKLESS WHISPER

  DESPERATE PLAY

  ELUSIVE PROMISE

  DANGEROUS CHOICE

  RUTHLESS CROSS

  CRITICAL DOUBT

  FEARLESS PURSUIT

  DARING DECEPTION

  RISKY BARGAIN

  PERFECT TARGET

  FATAL BETRAYAL

  * * *

  Mystery Thriller Standalones

  * * *

  ALL THE PRETTY PEOPLE

  LAST ONE TO KNOW

  * * *

  Suspense Duos

  SILENT RUN

  SILENT FALL

  * * *

  TAKEN

  PLAYED

  * * *

  Lightning Strikes Trilogy

  BEAUTIFUL STORM

  LIGHTNING LINGERS

  SUMMER RAIN

  For a complete list of books, visit Barbara’s Website!

  FATAL BETRAYAL

  Haunted by a youthful tragedy, FBI Agent Andi Hart specializes in finding missing children, but her latest case throws her off her game when she discovers her former childhood friend turned bitter enemy has been called in to consult.

  * * *

  Eighteen years ago, Cooper Bradford was with Andi the night a toddler disappeared from their neighborhood. He wanted to find the kid as much as Andi did, but her amateur sleuthing turned the focus on his older brother and destroyed his family. Since then, Cooper has made it his life mission to fight for the falsely accused and has become an enemy of law enforcement.

  * * *

  With a child's life on the line, Andi and Cooper must put aside the emotional fall-out from their once strong bond and work together. But the tension between them reaches a boiling point when they uncover something far more sinister than they ever imagined and a shocking connection to their past. Suddenly nothing is what they thought it was…

  * * *

  Can Andi trust Cooper to have her back, and can he trust her to have his? The answer to that question could mean the difference between life and death.

  FATAL BETRAYAL

  © Copyright 2023 Barbara Freethy

  All Rights Reserved

  * * *

  No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  * * *

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

  * * *

  For more information: http://www.barbarafreethy.com

  Prologue

  Eighteen years earlier….

  * * *

  Fourteen-year-old Andi Hart hopped off her bike as she and Cooper Bradford reached the top of the hill. Her heart was pumping, and she was sweating in her shorts and tank top. It was almost ten o'clock at night, and it was still seventy-five degrees in Beachwood Canyon, a hilly neighborhood just below the infamous Hollywood sign. The streets were steep and curvy, with single homes tucked in between thick trees.

  The moon was full tonight, giving them plenty of light, which should make their job easier. They walked their bikes behind the big oak tree across the street from where their principal, Donald Jenkins, lived. Mr. Jenkins was a married man whose wife and baby had gone to Texas for the week to visit his wife's mother.

  Andi probably shouldn't know that, but she'd made it her business to know everything about the man who had gotten her favorite teacher suspended two days ago. She couldn’t just stand by and do nothing when someone she liked was in trouble.

  "This is stupid," Cooper declared.

  She turned her head and frowned at his look of annoyance. She'd been seeing that look a lot on his face. In the past year, he'd grown three inches, his blond hair had gotten longer, and his teenage body was filling out in a way that made her feel a little uncomfortable around him. They'd been best friends since they were eight, but lately Cooper seemed to find her irritating and she sometimes felt that way about him, too.

  "It's not stupid," she said. "It's going to happen. We just have to wait."

  "You don't know if anything is going to happen, and even if you're right, even if Mr. Jenkins is banging his wife's best friend, what are we going to do about it?"

  "We're going to use it as leverage to get him to bring Ms. Taylor back. He only suspended her because she made us read a book he doesn't like."

  Cooper gave her a long-suffering look. "You are not going to blackmail our principal, Andi. You'll get thrown out of school. You'll get us both expelled. And I don't think our parents are going to be happy about that."

  "He won't know it's us. We'll just take some photos and send them to Mr. Jenkins anonymously. We don't have to do anything else. He won't want his wife to know. He'll cave," she said confidently. But Cooper's doubts were giving her some doubts as well. She didn't want to get expelled, although that might actually get her parents to pay some attention to her.

  Cooper sat down on the curb, stretching out his long legs. "You know you don't have to make up shit just to get out of the house, Andi. There doesn't have to be a big mystery to solve. You could have just said you wanted to go for a ride, so you didn't have to hear your parents fight."

  "I'm not making this up. I heard Ms. Taylor talking to her friend on the phone about how Mr. Jenkins had a lot of nerve trying to act like he was so ethical when it was clear he was cheating on his wife."

  "Then maybe she should be trying to blackmail him instead of us," Cooper said, always practical. "What are your parents fighting about tonight?"

  She hated that he knew her so well. "Who knows?" She sat down on the curb next to him. "I don't like listening to them. It makes me want to throw up."

  "Do you think they're going to get a divorce?"

  Her stomach churned at that thought. She didn't want her parents to split up, but a part of her thought they might all be happier if they did. "I don't know. I don't want to talk about it. Look, Mr. Jenkins turned a light on upstairs, and the curtains are open."

  "There aren't any cars around. I don't think anyone else is there," Cooper said. "This is a bad plan, Andi."

  "You don't have to stay."

  "Yes, I do," he said, meeting her gaze. "I always do."

  An odd little flutter ran through her. She didn't understand it. She didn't want anything to change between them, but it seemed to be happening anyway. Although, he did keep coming out with her, even if he spent a lot of time telling her how dumb her ideas were. Maybe they were stupid. Maybe she was just looking for a distraction, something else to think about, some problem she could actually fix.

  The lights in the house they were watching suddenly went out.

  "That's it," Cooper said. "Nothing is going to happen tonight. Nothing that we can see, anyway."

  "Maybe not," she said wearily. Now, she'd have to go home and hope that the fight was over. She reluctantly got to her feet and got on her bike.

  As they headed back down the windy hilly streets that led to their houses, which were directly across the street from each other, the wind blew her brown-haired ponytail back and she felt the coolest she'd been all day.

  She loved being out at night. In the dark shadows, she felt free. Of course, her parents didn't know she was out. They thought she was in her room, and they'd be too busy fighting to notice she was gone.

  She remembered when her mom and dad used to creep into her room after she'd gone to bed. They'd tuck her in, kiss her forehead, and whisper that they loved her. She'd always pretended to be asleep because she liked the feeling of their love. And when they were gone, she'd sneak her book out and read by flashlight until she couldn’t keep her eyes open. But they hadn't come into her room in a long time.

  Her anger and sadness sent her flying down the hill, even faster than she usually liked to ride. She was almost at the bottom of the hill when a car sped through the intersection, and she slammed on the brakes, stopping so fast she almost landed in the bushes of the house on the corner.

  Cooper caught up to her a second later. "What's wrong with you?" he asked. "Why are you riding so fast?"

  "It was a hill. Did you see that car that almost hit me? I think it was your brother's car."

  "I saw a car; it wasn't my brother's. He's at a concert with Will. He proba
bly won't be back until midnight. I can't wait until I'm eighteen and don't have to be back in the house by eleven on weekends."

  She thought he was lucky his parents cared enough to give him a curfew, but he wouldn't appreciate that. Instead, she said, "I'd like to go to a concert. My mom says I'm too young." She let out a sigh. "I'm so tired of being too young."

  He laughed. "You'll get there."

  "Hey, you're only six months older than me," she reminded him.

  "Yeah, and I've already been to a concert," he bragged.

  She rolled her eyes. "Only because you have an older brother. I had to be an only child."

  "Sometimes, I wouldn't mind being an only. Monica is a pest," he said, referring to his younger sister. "And Kyle—well, he's Kyle."

  She nodded. His older brother definitely had some issues, but he wasn't a bad kid, just a little weird. She was about to get back on her bike when sirens pierced the air. A moment later, two police cars raced past them, coming to a screeching halt at a house around the corner.

  "What's that about?" she asked. "Let's check it out."

  "Andi, wait," Cooper said.

  But she was already on her bike, riding around the corner and down the block. Five houses in, she saw the cars had stopped in front of the Montgomery's house. Mrs. Montgomery was in the yard. She was crying and the nanny, Gemma, had her arm around her while Mr. Montgomery talked to the police.

  Another police car pulled up as neighbors came out of their houses, including their friend TJ Lassiter, who lived next door to the Montgomery's home. The red-haired, freckle-faced kid saw them on the sidewalk and came over.

  "Do you know what's going on?" she asked.

  "I heard Mrs. Montgomery yelling that Hannah is missing," TJ said. "They were all running around the yard. Mr. Montgomery pounded on my door. Scared the shit out of me. I didn't know what was going on. I let him in our side gate and went in the yard with him to look for her, but I didn't see her. She's a baby. How could she have run away?"

  "She's not a baby; she's two," Andi said, her heart pounding against her chest at the thought of Hannah being missing. She'd babysat Hannah last weekend, and she was a sweet little girl with blonde hair, blue eyes, and a big smile. How could she be gone?

  "She must have gotten out of her crib," TJ said. He paused. "Hey, there's Will." He waved to his older brother, who was walking down the street.

  "What's happened?" Will asked.

  "Hannah is missing."

  "Like she's lost?" Will drawled. As he moved closer, Andi wrinkled her nose. He smelled like weed. Actually, both he and TJ smelled like that, which was becoming more and more the norm with those two.

  "Like someone took her," TJ said.

  "We don't know what happened," Cooper interjected. "I'm sure she's somewhere. She's just hiding."

  "Hannah loves to play hide-and-seek," she said, having firsthand knowledge of Hannah's love of the game on the times she'd babysat for her when the nanny had the night off. "That has to be it. They'll find her soon."

  As they all turned toward the scene, she reached for Cooper and grabbed his hand. For a second, she thought he might pull away, and then he tightened his fingers around hers.

  "It's going to be okay," he told her.

  She really wanted to believe him.

  Chapter One

  Present day…

  * * *

  Andi Hart woke up in a sweat, rolling over in bed as the morning light streamed through her window Tuesday morning. She hated when Cooper and Hannah invaded her dreams, because all their lives had changed forever on that summer night. She should have stopped reliving that horrific event by now, but the memories always came back. She knew why they had returned now, because today was her official first day back in Los Angeles after a very long absence.

  She drew in a breath and slowly blew it out, trying to calm her still-racing heart. As she glanced at the clock, she realized it was almost nine, and her never-ending nightmare had made her late for work. Scrambling out of bed, she hurried into the bathroom, taking the fastest shower of her life. She hated to be late under any circumstance, but today was especially bad. She was starting her new job as an agent on Flynn MacKenzie's FBI task force.

  It didn't matter that Flynn had told her not to come in early, knowing she was taking a late-night flight back from New York and hadn't even had a chance to fully move into her new apartment, but she hadn't wanted to take him up on that offer. At this point, she had no choice.

  After throwing on gray slacks, a blouse, and a black blazer, she pulled her brown hair into a ponytail and dashed down the stairs. While her apartment was still basically empty, awaiting a bigger furniture delivery, she had picked up a coffeemaker when she'd gotten the keys two weeks ago, knowing that a bed and coffee were the two things she couldn't live without.

  Thankfully, the coffeemaker had made her desperately needed morning dose of caffeine on schedule. Grabbing her keys, she raced out the door and headed to her new office. She'd been reading about Flynn and his team's exploits the past few years and was more than a little impressed, but not really surprised. She'd met Flynn on her first day at Quantico and many other members of his team had come from their class. It was difficult to believe that had been seven years ago.

  Back then, she'd been a twenty-five-year-old kid, one of the youngest trainees in the class. She'd been incredibly green, but her ambition and drive had gotten her through the academy and into some great jobs since then. She'd worked her way through field offices around the country, specializing in kidnappings, with a focus on children. Flynn had asked her several times to join his team, but when his kidnapping specialist Bree Adams had gone on an extended maternity leave, he'd become even more persuasive. Lured by the idea of having more autonomy on cases, she'd finally said yes.

  She was excited to work with Flynn again. He'd managed to not only climb the organizational ladder in record time but had also been able to break away and create his own unit, a team that worked fast and often away from the layers of bureaucracy that could slow down an investigation. She didn't know how he'd gotten all that power, but she was looking forward to working with a unit that could move fast and under the radar.

  Despite her excitement about the future, as she drove through the streets of the beachside city of Santa Monica in LA county, her thoughts turned to the past. She'd never lived in this city, but it was only about thirty minutes away from where she'd grown up in Beachwood Canyon, in the Hollywood Hills. She'd been to Santa Monica many times, usually on her way to the famous pier and adjacent beach. But this mid-March day was partly cloudy and cool, and there was no beach traffic, just people trying to get to work and a few tourists.

  She hadn't lived in LA since she was fourteen, and while she'd returned a few times over the years, it had been six years since her last very short visit, which had comprised a brief work meeting and a bittersweet reunion with her estranged father that had turned more bitter than sweet when she'd stumbled upon another one of his transgressions. That had been the last time they'd spoken. And she wasn't sure they'd ever talk again.

  Frowning, she dragged her thoughts ruthlessly back to the present. There might be some personal ghosts in this city, but it was the real monsters she needed to catch and put away. She could build a life for herself in the present. Santa Monica wasn't Beachwood Canyon, and she wasn't a kid anymore. She was a federal agent, one who was very good at her job. That's what she would focus on, what she always focused on, and she was eager to get to work and drive all the shadowy memories of the past out of her head.