What would you do if you discovered that everything you believed about yourself was a lie?  That's what happens to Lydia Smith when her father makes a deathbed confession.  The mild-mannered bookstore owner Lydia had always adored was in reality a notorious gold thief.  For twenty-four years, the bullion he stole has remained hidden... and everyone is convinced that Lydia knows where he stashed it. 

On the run from the police and from a group of ruthless criminals, Lydia teams up with former FBI profiler Derek Stone.  He has secrets of his own, and a debt to Tony Monaco's Payback organization he's desperate to pay off.  Derek's life depends on finding Lydia's gold, but once he begins to probe the mystery of her past, they both find far more than they were seeking. 

Dear Reader,

I've always enjoyed stories about buried treasure, and ROMANCING THE RENEGADE is a treasure hunt story with a twist.  It's not about riches or greed, it's about righting old wrongs.  It's also about a woman's journey of self-discovery as Lydia is forced to emerge from her shell to confront the past that shaped her.

And as you'll notice at the start of the book, I've dedicated this story to you, my readers, because you're the reason I write. 

Ingrid

     .....All things considered, she was taking it well, Derek Stone decided.  For someone who had lived as sheltered a life as Lydia Smith, what she'd gone through tonight could have sent another woman into hysterics.  But apart from the way her teeth were chattering, she was doing her best to hold herself together.
     Then again, she hadn't yet seen what they'd done to her hair.
     Damn, he'd never expected the Canyon Brotherhood to make a move on Zack's daughter so soon.  He'd assumed they would hold off the same way he'd been doing, at least until she led them closer to the bullion.  That attack was too sloppy to have been sanctioned by the Colonel--the team must have taken the initiative on their own.
     Still, Derek had planned to make contact with her at some point, and he'd managed to do just that, so he might as well play the hand he'd been dealt.  He put the Jeep into gear, spraying gravel from the wheels as he steered back onto the road.
     "My cell's in the glove compartment," he said.  "You can use it to call the cops."
     She rubbed her palms briskly over the legs of her jeans.  "If you don't mind," she said, "I'd rather not involve the police."
     Of course, he'd known she would say that, but he didn't want to let on that he did.  "Why not?"
     "They won't do any good."
     "I know it's none of my business, ma'am, but from where I stood, it didn't look as if you were handling things on your own all that well."
     "I wasn't.  I realize that.  Those men might have killed me if you hadn't come along."  She twisted her neck to peer out the back window, then looked at him.  "You saved my life.  Thank you.  Really, it does sound inadequate, but I can think of no other way to express my gratitude.  It must have taken tremendous courage to step in the way you did to rescue a complete stranger."
     Derek concentrated on keeping the Jeep on the slick pavement as it fishtailed around the next bend.  Lydia was wired from adrenaline, her speech coming out too fast, but she had good reasons for her anxiety:  the Brotherhood's usual policy was to leave no witnesses.
     "Thank you so much," she said.  "What you did was truly heroic."
     Hardly, but it suited his purpose to let her believe that.  Honesty wouldn't be the best approach right now.  She had resisted a month's worth of direct questioning from the authorities and had narrowly escaped a brutal interrogation, so odds were she wouldn't be in the mood to cooperate when it came to the gold.
     Worse, if she ran from him, she would be a sitting duck for another attack from the Brotherhood.
     Derek didn't know her well enough to predict how she would react to the truth, so he wasn't going to risk it at this stage.  She didn't need another interrogator; she needed a friend.
     He lifted his thumb to his forehead as if tipping an imaginary hat and stole a glance at his passenger.  "My pleasure, ma'am."
     She tried to give him a smile.
     Derek found himself staring.  Lydia's photographs didn't do her justice.  This wasn't the plain, bespectacled bookworm of a woman the media had dubbed the Million Dollar Mouse.....

ROMANCING THE RENEGADE, 
Ingrid Weaver, 
Silhouette IM, 
October 2005
ISBN 0373274599