Melba Bradley had not been out of Chattanooga, Tennessee in her life. But having just graduated from four years of nursing school, she decided to take a vacation before settling into a job and working herself to death for the rest of her life. And the place she was going to see on her first out—of-state trip ever was New York City, New York. After all, she had family there; her father Jack’s brother Cubon lived there with his wife Eileen and their daughters Verlanda and Trina. In all of Melba’s twenty two years, it had always been the New York Bradleys that had flown down to see them in Chattanooga, but because it had been five years since their last flight down, Melba thought she’d go against the grain and fly up to see them for once. And Verlanda had assured her that once there, she was going to show her all New York City had to offer. And that was Verlanda’s intention. Out of a vacation that is meant to last for two weeks, Melba enjoys three glorious days as Verlanda shows her all the New York City sights and introduces to her all her sophisticated friends. And one of those friends is a nail technician named Judy who works for Verlanda’s best friend Niecey’s Hair Salon, who’s a palmistry freak on the side and reads the palms of both Verlanda and Melba, telling them what to expect in their near futures. For Verlanda, she’s going on a trip, while Melba is going to meet a man-—although under very dangerous circumstances. Melba doesn’t believe that for a minute. But she wonders when they return home to find her Uncle Cubon distressed by a phone call from his mother in Philadelphia stating she had to go into the hospital for tests and needed to have someone at her home to receive a package she is expecting to arrive in a couple of days, and Cubon naturally asks Verlanda, who has no choice other than go to Philadelphia and housesit for her grandmother. Melba sees her to the bus station and returns to her cousin’s home with the promise to her to stay with her parents until Verlanda gets back in the couple of days, since the New York element can be dangerous for a tourist not schooled in its ways. Only problem is that Verlanda did not tell her that because of something she did a week before her arrival, her innocent hick cousin from the Tennessee sticks is about to walk into a trap that’s going to land her in some very dangerous circumstances. Will Napoleon be able to save her? Melba woke up hours later to find herself in a small room devoid of everything but a small table and a chair. She sat in her coat in the chair, her hands and feet tied, her mouth bound with strong cloth tape, wondering where she was and how long she had been bound there. Better yet, she wondered who had kidnapped her and in fact who would want to. The growling of her stomach came to remind her that it was time for a meal, Melba didn’t know whether breakfast, lunch or dinner. Thanks to her hands being tied behind her back and to the chair, she couldn’t see her watch to know what time it was and there was no clock in the small room to alert her otherwise. Which meant that she was going to have to wait for whoever had left her there to come for her and that could be another long hour’s wait, if it wasn’t the person’s intention for her to die there altogether. She wished she could rub her neck, where a sharp pain registered from too much uncomfortable sitting. She wondered if it was Monday or maybe Tuesday, Melba had no way of knowing just how long she had been tied in the chair. If only she could scream she might be able to claim someone’s attention, alert them to the fact that she had come to, but that was made impossible by the strong tape covering her mouth. Unless.... Taking a deep breath, Melba began to force shrill sounds from her throat as she were screaming with her mouth closed. Louder, until her throat ached from the strain and she was forced to stop. Thankfully for

Just when her life seems complicated by an unsatisfactory career and personal tragedy, model Leah Harper is taken hostage by a mysterious stranger and begins a dangerous trek across the Colorado Rockies

If only the gods cared about justice... In this Manga/Wuxia-inspired dark fantasy, an assassin stalks the alleyways, killing those who would bleed illegal magic from a people who once ruled. It’s the mystery of it that attracts Kamen Malik, and sends him on his own hunt. For the assassin he seeks is a Ghost in truth, an Untouchable whose kind once channeled the Voices of the Ancestors, one whose fate should be insanity and solitude. How can such a one survive?

Carl Houseman, the deputy sheriff of rural Nation County, Iowa, leaves home to enter the world of international intrigue in the sixth in Donald Harstad's critically acclaimed series. Houseman's daughter, Jane, has been studying abroad in the UK. When her best friend Emma Schiller has been kidnapped, Houseman, desperate to protect his daughter and help her friend, accepts Scotland Yard's invitation to take him on as a consultant. Emma's trail leads to the door of her former professor—and ex-lover—Dr. Robert Northwood, whose impassioned activism on behalf of a pair of Muslim political prisoners has landed him unwittingly in cahoots with a cadre of dangerous individuals. It seems like a simple hoax, except that if Houseman doesn't track down the professor's co-conspirators, the consequences will be anything but simple—and the harm that will result could be global in Harstad's gripping new installment in his outstanding series.

Montana trapper Luke Driscoll has returned home to Garrison, Texas, when he receives a letter from his estranged brother Nate who has become embroiled in a land dispute with cattle baron Robert McTavish - and it's about to turn deadly. But Luke also meets the lovely Miranda, McTavish's eldest daughter, and cannot help his feelings for her. Now Luke must balance family loyalty and his budding love for Miranda to fight the determined and resourceful rancher, McTavish, and his crew of hired killers.

Book two of Skybound Crux Ansata second-in-command Killian O'Neal has a plan. The governor's son, Neith, has been enslaved in a high-end brothel. Killian's going to break him out, take him home and collect a reward. It's a daring mercenary rescue. What could go wrong? A lot, as it turns out. The governor doesn't want his son back, the ship and crew are on the run from the slavers, and Neith is in withdrawal from a drug that instills in him a desperate lust. A passionate heat flares between Killian and Neith—but is it just the effects of the drugs still in Neith's system, or could it be something more permanent? They both need time to figure out if what they have is real—but Neith has taken a valuable item from his old masters and they're not going to let him go easily. When the slavers catch up with the Ansata, Killian will have to choose between the safety of his ship and its crew, or life with the man he's falling in love with. Take flight with the Crux Ansata in Sky Riders, available now! 51,000 words

Arkana Archaeology Thrillers: Volume 6 - Secrets of the Serpent's Heart In SECRETS OF THE SERPENT'S HEART, two Arkana agents search the length and breadth of China for an obscure relic that will name the hiding place of their most sought-after prize. At the same time, a third agent tackles the dangerous mission of discovering the Nephilim's end game. In the remote reaches of Yunnan province, the agents encounter an enigmatic stranger who holds the power to stop their quest dead in its tracks. Meanwhile, unthinkable catastrophes befall the Arkana's leadership, leaving the secret society one step away from collapse. The serpent's heart hides more than a clue to a lost artifact. It offers the only means to save the Arkana from total destruction.