Publisher: Light Street Press
Cover Designer: Earthly Charms
Witnessing the murder of New York mobster, Johnny Denato, is only the beginning of the terror closing in on nightclub dancer Tory Robinson. Kidnapped and spirited off to an isolated upstate New York sanatorium, she’s held captive by a sadistic doctor who drugs her and insists she’s there for psychiatric treatment. But his focus is on getting information about Denato.
Enter werewolf Brand Marshall, out hunting in the deep woods when he discovers Tory’s dire predicament. Getting her out alive will take all of his courage and cunning, but Brand’s ultimate challenge is convincing Tory that she is his destined mate.
The last thing Tory Robinson expected to hear was the sound of gunshots.
She’d been sitting on the comfortable couch in Johnny Denato’s luxury Central Park South condo. When he’d excused himself to take a business call, she’d walked to the outsized living room windows to enjoy the ten million dollar view of the park.
Behind her, a door opened, and she heard Denato’s voice change abruptly. Someone must have come in, and he was demanding to know what they wanted. As the voices grew louder, she whirled around in time to hear a series of popping noises and catch a quick view of men with guns running past the living room door.
Fear threatened to turn her body to stone. But she knew that if she stayed where she was, she was a dead woman. Dropping to the floor behind the sofa, she crawled toward the heavy drapes that pooled at either side of the window and worked her way behind the nearest panel. Praying that the gunmen were still in the back of the apartment, she eased to a standing position and pressed against the wall, the cold plaster raising goose bumps on her arms.
Her mind’s eye flashed to the coffee table in front of the sofa where she and Denato had been sitting. He had left a glass of bourbon on the glass top, but she’d told him she didn’t want a drink. So an extra glass wouldn’t give her away. And thank God she’d taken her purse with her. The men wouldn’t see that two people had been in the room—unless they noticed two depressions in the back sofa cushions.
Voices conferred in low tones, the words like the roaring of surf in her ears. When heavy footsteps approached the window, the blood froze in her veins, and she braced to feel rough hands shove the drapes aside and yank her out like a rabbit plucked from its burrow.
An eternity ticked by before she heard a sarcastic voice say, “High class view.”
“It won’t do him no good now,” another man answered.
“We better get the hell out of here, in case somebody heard the action.”
“Right.”
As footsteps receded from the window, Tory closed her eyes and leaned her head against the wall, taking deep breaths as she ordered herself not to faint. For long seconds after the front door closed, she stayed where she was, imagining that the gunmen could be waiting to see if someone crept out of hiding.
But finally she knew she couldn’t stay where she was.
Cautiously, she eased one edge of the drapes aside and looked out. The apartment was just as she remembered it—until she saw a pair of black-trouser-clad legs lying on the marble floor of the foyer.
She recognized Johnny’s dress pants—and his Italian designer shoes.
“Johnny?” she whispered, hurrying toward him, stopping short when she saw the red circle in the middle of his forehead and the pool of blood that had spread around his head like an evil halo against the pale floor. There was nothing she could do for him now.
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The Decorah Security Series
A New York Times, USA Today, and Publishers Weekly best-selling and award-winning author, Rebecca has written over 145 books and novellas. In 2011 she became the dozenth author to receive the Romance Writers of America Centennial Award for having written 100 romantic novels. Her Killing Moon was a launch title for Berkley’s Sensation imprint in June 2003. Five more books in the series have followed.
Rebecca has authored or co-authored over 65 romantic thrillers, many for Harlequin Intrigue’s very popular 43 Light Street series, set in Baltimore, and many with paranormal elements.
Her many awards include two Rita finalist books. She has two Career Achievement awards from Romantic Times: for Series Romantic Suspense and for Series Romantic Mystery. And her Peregrine Connection series won a Lifetime Achievement Award for Romantic Suspense Series.
