I introduced Sophie and Robbie Whitaker in COLD CASE REOPENED as a way for you to meet some of the members of the South Beach Security family. In that book, Robbie and Sophie help their cousin Jackson solve the disappearance of a woman. I love not only bringing Sophie and Robbie back to Colorado for CLIFFSIDE KIDNAPPING, but to also let you meet their parents! The Whitakers are smart and strong, which explains the amazing children they raised. In this excerpt, you meet the Whitaker parents. You will see a lot of them and their love in CLIFFSIDE KIDNAPPING!
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Mercedes Gonzalez Whitaker relaxed in the passenger seat, appreciating the fresh pine scent wafting through the open window and the kaleidoscope of greens in the fields and mountains along the highway. The deep jewellike colors of the evergreens and lighter almost silvery gray of the aspens dotted the Colorado landscape. As dusk descended, the chill of night replaced the warmth of the day. So different from the heat and humidity of a Washington, D.C. June or the weather she’d experienced growing up in Miami.
It was why she loved coming out here for the annual gatherings with the Whitaker clan and why she and her husband, Robert, would sneak out in the fall to watch the changing of the foliage, especially the aspens, as large stands of the poplars painted the hillsides with streaks of gold. Robert had once told her how aspens grew via their roots, creating glades of clones that were all one living organism, sometimes acres in size.
Much like her Cuban Miami family had spread their roots and grown, the patriarchs standing tall in the center while their children and grandchildren became ever stronger and likewise prospered. She missed being around her sprawling and loving Gonzalez family. Robert loved spending time with them as well and maybe it was time to visit them soon.
Robert, she thought with a loving sigh and gazed at her husband as he drove.
The years have been kind to him. There were the barest hints of silver at his temples and the faintest smile lines at the corners of his bright hazel eyes. Handsome and he still stole her breath away.
Smiling, she reached over to brush the back of her hand across his cheek. It was sandpapery rough with the start of an evening beard.
He shot her a quick look from the corner of his eye. “Everything okay?”
“I was just thinking that when this is over, we should visit the family in Miami. Lately, I feel like we don’t spend enough time with them and with your family here in Colorado.”
Peering at her again, he said, “Maybe it’s time to consider retiring. It’ll give us more time with both families. We have enough years put in at the NSA, and those D.C. winters…”
He didn’t need to finish because they both hated the northeast cold and damp. Despite the fact they’d been living in the D.C. area and working for the National Security Agency for nearly thirty years, she often missed the warmth of Miami in wintertime and the palm trees decorated with Christmas lights.
“Maybe,” she said, closing her eyes and smiling as she imagined sitting poolside in December and, more importantly, spending time with her children and the rest of the Gonzalez family.
A hard jolt and the sudden swerve of their sedan jerked her from that pleasant daydream.
“What the—” Robert muttered and fought to keep the car under control as another more powerful blow threatened to drive them off the road.
Mercedes braced her hands on the dashboard and console as another shot against their rear bumper sent the nose of the vehicle toward a small ditch on the side of the highway.
Robert yanked the steering wheel hard, knuckles white with pressure. Miraculously, he kept the car from tumbling off the road.
She whirled in her seat to see a large black pickup behind them increase its speed and ram the back of their sedan again. Metal groaned and crunched as the pickup shoved the car toward the ditch.
“Rob?” she said. Fear gripped her as her husband frantically fought the wheel and accelerated away from the pickup.
The engine roared as he created a fragile distance, but then their assailant raced past them and clipped their front fender.
They said those last moments of your life passed in slow motion and Mercedes understood it now. Images of her children, husband and family slipped across her mind as the sedan flew off the edge of the road, seemingly floating in space for long minutes until the hood of the car smashed into the ditch.
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