Chloe Marin was lucky. She was just a teenager when a party at a Florida beachside mansion turned into a savage killing spree, and she was one of the few to survive. Bloody handwriting on the walls pointed to a cult whose rituals included human sacrifice. Chloe's sketch of one of the killers linked two dead cult members found in the Everglades to the massacre, closing the case as far as the cops were concerned. Ten years later Chloe works as a psychologist specializing in art therapy to help traumatized victims, and on the side she finds release in her passion for the martial arts. Police who hire her as a consultant know she's a literal kick-ass advocate for victims who can't always speak for themselves. The current disappearance of a young swimsuit model ranks low on the cops' priority list. Everyone assumes the girl has run off for some fun in the sun, instead of getting ready for a photo shoot. Everyone but Chloe, who suspects a killer is using the modeling agency to stalk his prey. When the ghost of the model appears, asking Chloe for help, she knows that she has to do everything she can. So does Luke Cane, a British ex-cop-turned-P.I. investigating the disappearance of the model on behalf of her father. Chloe and Luke have trouble trusting each other, but they can't help their strong attraction for one another. Luckily they agree on the important things: someone needs to find those missing girls, and if a few laws have to get bent so lives can be saved, too bad. When Chloe arrives late for an appointment at the modeling agency, she discovers a gruesome mass murder eerily similar to the one she witnessed a decade ago - and can't help thinking that if she hadn't run late, she would have been there when the killer arrived. Ten years ago she hadn't been convinced the police had identified the real killers, and now she's sure of it. The same evil mind is behind the current murders, and she's afraid she's the target - and terrified that she won't be able to cheat death a third time. She has no choice now but to trust Luke on every level, because with a killer closing in, he's the only one who's willing to do whatever it takes to keep her alive.
SOMEONE TO WATCH OVER ME
Working for Last Chance Rescue, Cole Mathison has been to hell and back. But being responsible for the death of an innocent man is a hell like no other. Longing for redemption, Cole finds himself embroiled in the mysterious disappearance of Keeley Fairchild's young children. Rescuing the children is his mission-but falling in love with the widow of the man he inadvertently killed was never in the plans. When Keeley's life is threatened, Cole's demons must take a backseat to the most important mission of his life. He might never know the heaven of Keeley's arms, but he'll never survive the hell of failing to save her.
From the Paperback edition.
Caitlin Prescott was only a baby when her parents disappeared. Adopted by a wealthy Texas oil family, she became Kate Montgomery, and grew up with no memory of her parents or her two older sisters and brother, who have been searching for her, hoping to right a terrible wrong that was committed twenty-two years ago in a small Texas town. Now an ambitious young news reporter, Kate realizes she is being stalked soon after landing her dream job at an Austin TV station. Why did a car try to run her down? Who would want to kill her? Turning her precarious situation into a story, she takes on a bodyguard and follows him on the job. But she didn't plan on the cool, blade-sharp strength of Teague Ramos or the attraction that sizzles between them. When Teague connects the death of an Austin socialite to unanswered questions about Kate's childhood, she finds herself unlocking dangerous doors to her past. Now, with only her mysterious bodyguard to protect her, Kate is on a high-stakes chase that may lead her to the family she has never known - or into the trap of a ruthless killer. "A fine stylist . . . one of those rare writers willing to take chances." -Publishers Weekly
Best-selling author Victoria Holt spins breath-taking tales glimmering with danger and romance. In this entrancing novel, set in late 1800s Europe, a beautiful English schoolgirl participates in an ancient celebration, only to discover she no longer knows the difference between truth and myth. As shadows lengthen, 17-year-old Helena Trant and her classmates must finish their picnic in the Black Forest. Tonight young men will be out to honor Loke, the god of mischief, with drinking and pranks-no woman will be safe. As Helena walks through the misty woods, she loses her friends, but her fear turns to joy when a broad-shouldered man on a horse rescues her. The bewitching time she spends dining and dancing with him seems a thrilling dream-until that fateful night alters her life forever-blurring the borders between reality and dreams. One of the world's most popular authors, Victoria Holt skillfully weaves intrigue, suspense, and rapture into impetuous Helena's exploits. Virginia Leishman's spellbinding narration will leave you alternately holding your breath with anticipation or sighing with bliss.
The past is never over. It just gets dusty.
Lisa Grant was a rising star in a prestigious law firm in Lexington, Kentucky, when the firm went bankrupt and she lost her job. With an ailing mother to care for, she takes the first job she can find: research assistant to District Attorney Scott Buchanan. Scott is as disagreeable as he is sexy, and Lisa suspects the only reason she got the job was Scott's fond feelings for her mother, who treated him well when he was just a farmhand on the Grants' large horse farm while Lisa was growing up.
After she misses an important court date, Lisa doesn't get any special treatment from Scott. As punishment, he sends her to organize cold-case files in the basement of the courthouse. What Lisa expects to be a mind-numbingly boring task turns into anything but that when a missing-persons case draws her attention. The details of the case are engrossing: an entire family-father, mother, and two children-disappeared without a trace more than twenty-eight years ago. Except that's not all: the mother in a photo Lisa finds could be her own twin.
Before Lisa can learn more, a series of catastrophes strikes close to home, and she realizes that finding the photo has put her in terrible danger. Determined to uncover the truth, she confides in Scott, and their relationship develops into something beyond that of employer and employee. Together they unravel a terrifying web of criminal connections that could shatter what Lisa knows of her past. And it's clear someone will go to shocking lengths to make sure certain secrets stay hidden.
Bart Minnock, founder of the computer gaming giant U-Play, enters his private room, and eagerly can't wait to lose himself in an imaginary world, to take on the role of a sword-wielding warrior king, in his company's latest top-secret project, Fantastical. The next morning, he is found in the same locked room, in a pool of blood, his head separated from his body. It is the most puzzling case Lieutenant Eve Dallas has ever faced, and it is not a game. . . . She is having as much trouble figuring out how Bart Minnock was murdered as determining who did the murdering. The victim's girlfriend seems sincerely grief-stricken, and his quirky but brilliant partners at U-Play appear shocked as well. No one seems to have had a problem with the enthusiastic, high-spirited millionaire. Of course, success can attract jealousy, and gaming, like any business, has its fierce rivalries and dirty tricks - as Eve's husband, Roarke, one of U-Play's competitors, knows well. But Minnock was not naive, and he knew how to fight back in the real world as well as the virtual one. Eve and her team are about to enter the next level of police work, in a world where fantasy is the ultimate seduction - and the price of defeat is death.
In New York City in 2059, someone is pursuing missing gems from a decades-old heist...someone who's willing to kill for them. Sharp-witted and sexy, NYPSD Lieutenant Eve Dallas is used to traveling in the shadowy corners outside the law. And in a future where crime meets cutting-edge technology, she will attempt to track down the diamonds once and for all-and stop the danger and death that have surrounded the jewels for years.
DO OR DIE
Skylar James told a lie to the man she married, and eight years later she still bitterly regrets the deception. Unknown to Skylar, her husband, Gabe Maddox, now lives in the dangerous shadows of elite operatives who rescue victims. When Skylar tries to save a naïve young beauty, kidnappers come after her. For Gabe, Skylar had been his last shot at trust and love. But news of her disappearance battens down his anger and launches him into action. Saving Skylar is Gabe's only chance for peace and his last chance for happiness.
Enjoy more Christy Reece thrills with these sizzling novels
From the Paperback edition.
This is how it starts. With a joke. Two brothers - Will and Jeff - and their friend Tom are out one night at their favorite South Beach bar, the Wild Zone, and decide to make a bet on who can be the first to seduce a mysterious-looking young woman drinking by herself. Pretty, dark-haired, blue-eyed Suzy has an innocent, almost ordinary girl-next-door way about her. "Just waiting for Prince Charming to hit on her," Jeff says. Little do they know the secrets she hides from the outside world, particularly those having to do with the daily horror she experiences under the watchful eye of her abusive husband. Little do they know she has an agenda of her own. Little do they know their harmless bet is about to take on a life of its own, a life full of deadly consequences for all concerned. Fielding is continually praised for her "heart-pounding" (Booklist) brand of storytelling, full of "chillingly satisfying twists" (People). There's certainly no going back once you've entered The Wild Zone.
Haunted by chilling memories of demonic possession and murder, Moira O'Donnell has spent seven years hunting down her mother, Fiona, whose command of black magic has granted her unprecedented control of the underworld. Now Moira's global search has led her to a small California town that's about to become hell on earth.
Tormented by his own terrifying past and driven by powers he can't explain, ex-seminarian Rafe Cooper joins Moira's dangerous quest. But Fiona is one devilish step ahead. Hungry for greater power, eternal youth, and stunning beauty, the sorceress is unleashing upon the mortal world the living incarnations of the Seven Deadly Sins.
Together with a demonologist, a tough female sheriff, and a pair of star-crossed teenagers, Moira and Rafe are humanity's last chance to snatch salvation from the howling jaws of damnation.
From the Paperback edition.
Caer is spending this Christmas among strangers. Brought to Newport, Rhode Island, from her native Ireland to nurse ailing millionaire Sean O'Riley, she's living a life few can imagine. But money can't hide the tension between O'Riley's trophy wife, his paranoid daughter, the eccentric aunt in the attic and the staff members who run the house. When O'Riley's business partner goes missing, family friend Zach Flynn arrives. Determined to help him solve the case, Caer becomes enmeshed in a mystery that weaves together the sins of the past with one family's destiny...and a spirit that watches the mansion, possessing a deadly gift.
When a young woman is found dead in a field, dressed up as a scarecrow with a slashed grin and a broken neck, the residents of Salem, Massachusetts, begin to fear that the infamous Harvest Man is more than just a rumor. But out-of-town cop Jeremy Flynn doesn't have time for ghost stories. He's in town on another investigation, looking for a friend's wife, who mysteriously vanished in a cemetery. Complicating his efforts is local occult expert Rowenna Cavanaugh, who launches her own investigation, convinced that a horror from the past has crept into the present and is seducing women to their deaths. Jeremy uses logic and solid police work. Rowenna depends on intuition. But they both have the same goal: to stop the abductions and locate the missing women before Rowenna herself falls prey to the Harvest Man's dark seduction.
