As the CEO of a corporate conglomerate, Elle is used to fighting off challengers. However, this new threat comes at a time when she finally lets her guard down to meet Prince Charming. And it’s unlike anything she’s been up against before. Drake Charles’s work on mobile technology has made him a wealthy, powerful man. But he quickly sheds the fame and publicity for a more private life, which earns him the label as a man of mystery. Drake adds to that mystery every year when he hosts a masquerade ball for charity. It’s also his best chance to find the one thing he really wants . . . true love. Having met behind masks of anonymity, Elle and Drake enjoy a whirlwind night of romance that leaves them both wanting more. But Elle must question everything and everyone as she battles to save her life and career. Can Elle trust Drake to help get her life back or will she lose everything?

    But Lazar's latest plaything, Raine Cameron, is different. Beautiful. Vulnerable. And innocent. Just looking at her triggers a white-hot passion Seth can barely control as night after night, he watches her on a dozen different video screens. Raine is pure temptation, but Seth can't slip up: he's convinced Lazar had his half-brother murdered. His secret investigation--and his life--are on the line. But then he finds out that Raine may be Lazar's next victim... Ex-FBI agent Connor McCloud can never forget the day he was set up to die at the hands of trusted friend and fellow agent Ed Riggs. Hard justice and loyalty to his badge have cost Connor what he wants most--Ed's shy, studious daughter Erin. He can never have her now, but her beauty still haunts and torments his every waking hour and his most fevered erotic dreams. But now that his old enemy Kurt Novak has returned, Connor is prepared to do anything to protect the vulnerable young woman from a killer who hOne Taste Of DangerSkinny-dipping in a stranger's pool--it's as close to reckless as good girl Becca Cattrell has ever been. But the house Becca picked for her midnight swim just changed owners. And her harmless escapade has landed her at the mercy of a brutal, terrifying organization who'll make sure she doesn't live to tell a soul. Can Cost YouThe most gorgeous woman Nick Ward has ever laid eyes on is also the worst luck he's ever had. Becca's presence at this top-secret meeting place won't just destroy the undercover operation he's been working on, it's liable to get them both killed. But to his surprise, Becca isn't running away--from the danger or from him. . .as vowed a brutal payback...a killer with a predator's lethal patience. In "Behind Closed Doors" and "Standing in the Shadows, " Shannon McKenna introduced the McCloud Brothers: intense, rugged, and super-sexy. Now, Davy McCloud is about to meet a woman he can't trust--or live without. . . Disillusioned P.I. Davy McCloud has an ironclad rule: never follow blind impulse when it comes to women. But he breaks it the instant gorgeous Margo Vetter shows up to teach at the gym next door. The sexual hunger--and the instinctual protectiveness--that she awakens is much too strong to resist. On the very day an arsonist burns down Liv Endicott's bookstore in a small town in the Washington mountains, she finds fate has another shock in store for her. Amid the smoke, rubble, and tears, Sean McCloud appears, calling her name. He's every inch the man he always was--the man she kept on wanting. But wanting is not the same as trusting, and she doesn't dare let him get too close. Yet a ruthless killer is gunning for Liv, and she'll die unless they join forces to unearth a chilling truth--and come together in a blaze of searing passion. . .Enter the seductive world of Shannon McKenna, where passion and suspense are intertwined, and love is the riskiest venture of all. . . On The Edge Nobody's home at the millionaire's estate on remote Frakes Island. And nobody seems to be watching. Becca Cantrell dives in for an illicit midnight skinnydip--and gets hauled out by a towering, hard-muscled guy with burning dark eyes. He seems to be in charge. Good. The man is the embodiment of her most intense fantasies. And she's up for risky thrills... Nick Ward can't tell her that he's spying on a vicious Russian crime boss. Becca could be his worst enemy: an assassin sent to kill him, a call girl sent to distract him, or the worst scenario of all--a clueless innocent. Anyway he looks at it, she's trouble: beautiful, bare, dripping-wet trouble. The kind he can't resist. Tamara's a bad girl with a dangerous difference. Enter a terrifying, sexually charged world o

    When their paths collide three years later, will she find herself in the arms of the gorgeous CEO of Steele Security at last?Book #2: Wicked TiesColton “Bull” Lanier thought he had his life all figured out. His trust was hard-earned. He let no one see the man inside. He didn’t believe in love and he didn’t get involved. That is until she walked into his life.Book #3: Wicked NightsAn unknown danger lurked in the distance, and a family’s hope began to fade into despair. Just when everything in life appeared to be perfect, will the family of Steele Security be prepared for the approaching wicked nights?Book #4: Wicked IntentionsOne man’s breaking point is where another man finds his stride.Book #5: Wicked ShadowsMeet Devon "Shadow" Kane--the elusive assassin, the covert spy, the man in love.Dangerous. Deadly. Protective. Alpha. Sexy.And way past merely pissed off.He's on a mission, facing the highest stakes of his career.Bonus short: Wicked Weekend

    Now a news photographer in Miami, Alicia covers local stories by day and chases storms at night. In a flash of lightning, she sees what appears to be a murder, but when she gets to the scene, there is no body, only a military tag belonging to Liliana Valdez, a woman who has been missing for two months. While the police use the tag to jump-start their stalled investigation, Alicia sets off on her own to find the missing woman. Her search takes her into the heart of Miami's Cuban-American community, where she meets the attractive but brooding Michael Cordero, who has his own demons to vanquish. Soon Alicia and Michael are not just trying to save Liliana's life but also their own, as someone will do anything to protect a dark secret…

    And those knitting needles aren't just for craft projects. To most people, Gin Bombay is an ordinary single mom. Then again, they don't know she's from a family of top secret assassins. Somewhere between leading a Girl Scout troop for her kindergartner--would nooses count for a knot badge?--and keeping their puppy from destroying the furniture, Gin now has to take out a new target. BUT YOU CAN PICK THEM OFFExcept this target has an incredibly hot Australian bodyguard who knows just how to make her weak in the knees. But with a mole threatening to expose everything, Gin doesn't have much time to let her hormones do the happy dance. She's got to find the leak and clear her assignment...or she'll end up next on the Bombay family hit list.

    Ronan Murphy’s law is vengeance.Personal tragedy taught Ronan that he couldn’t count on the law. Now he and his brothers issue justice from behind the guise of a high-end security firm that steps in when the law has failed. A former Navy SEAL, Ronan lives by a set of ironclad rules: take care of business, look after his family and his dog, don’t get close enough to hurt — until he runs into Julia Berenger in a back alley.Julia Berenger will do anything to find her sister.Two weeks after her sister Elise’s disappearance, Julia has only one lead — the wealthy, powerful man Elise was seeing before she went missing. But when Julia takes matters into her own hands, she comes face to face with a man casing the same subject, a man who informs her that he’s been hired to find and punish the people who took her sister.As the pair find themselves inextricably tied to the same mystery, their bond deepens. Soon they’re breaking all the rules, tracing clues that lead from the wealthiest members of Boston society to the glitzy underbelly of Dubai as they search for Julia’s sister. But when a chance to save Elise endangers Julia’s life, Ronan is forced to accept that when it comes to love, pain is sometimes part of the bargain.

    Independent. Skeptical.Thirteen years ago her abusive husband stole her baby and gave it up for adoption.She comes to Atlanta to find her daughter.THE PIWade Parker.Ace detective.Wealthy owner of the Parker Investigative Agency.The most eligible forty-four-year-old bachelor in Atlanta.Still mourning the death of his socialite wife, he must solve a disturbing murder case.Before the killer strikes again.THE MURDERERA serial killer strangling young girls in a bizarre ritual.Why?She doesn't need a man.He needs to find a killer.Together, can they save a thirteen year old girl?

    Is it myth . . . or will their prediction become reality?Archaeologist Lina Taylor has devoted her life to studying ancient Maya artifacts, splitting her time between digs in South America and the classroom teaching college students. But the professor's structured, academic life is about to spin out of control. Some extremely valuable and important Maya artifacts have gone missing. Are the culprits fanatics determined to create chaos and usher in annihilation?Helping out a friend, former immigration and customs enforcement officer Hunter Johnston is determined to recover the missing pieces and he needs Lina's help. A man used to calling the shots and working alone, he isn't comfortable letting anyone get close, especially a beautiful and brainy woman like Lina. His gift for reading people tells him there's a lot going on below that professional exterior, and he's more than a little curious to probe her depths.Burying herself in her work, Lina's had little experience handling men, especially one as fascinating and exasperating as the secretive, headstrong Hunter. A devoted archaeologist, she has the skill to excavate those protective layers all the way to his core.But finding the missing artifacts is only the beginning of a mystery that will plunge these unlikely partners into adventure, romance, and danger more thrilling, sensual, and deadly than either of them knows. . . .

    It-s clear to her, and to Special Agent J.D. Cass, that the murders are the work of a deranged serial killer. At first, the only link is the victims- similar physical appearance. But then another connection emerges, tying them to a long-ago series of horrifying crimes Audrey hoped would never resurface - crimes that hit all too close to home.No Time To CryEach grisly new discovery proves the past has not been forgotten, and the worst is yet to come. Audrey went looking for the truth and she's about to find it-and it will be more twisted and more terrifying than she ever imagined...

    Two years later, she moves to Murray, Virginia to get a new lease on life. On her first day of substitute teaching, her new life is nearly cut short when she finds herself in the middle of a shooting that leaves a married couple dead. Luckily, she is saved by Sam Meadows, a cardiologist, but the shooter has disappeared by the time the police come around. When the shooter tries to kill Grace again, Sam and Grace realize that the killer won’t stop until she is dead. With a killer who has nothing to lose, the question isn’t if the killer will attack again, but when and who will be in the crosshairs. A romance/murder-mystery wrapped in the aspects of life: love, family, forgiveness, danger, and death.

    To help get his head straight, he takes off for the mountains where he meets the beautiful and compelling Mikayla O’Kane who's recently witnessed her ex-fiancé’s murder. Following a vicious attack, Linc vows to protect her, and will do whatever is necessary to keep her alive. Mikayla resists witness protection, and will fight anyone, especially the hunky marshal who wants to put her in a cage, even if it's for her own safety. With complications arising at every turn, Linc's past and future collide in a deadly confrontation he must survive so he can start his life with the woman who has stolen his heart.

     "Justice isn’t always black or white. Sometimes it’s cold and dark." A Cold Dark Place (Winner of the New England Readers' Choice Award in Romantic Suspense. 2015 Holt Medallion Finalist). Former CIA assassin Alex Parker works for The Gateway Project, a clandestine government organization hell-bent on taking out serial killers and pedophiles before they enter the justice system. Alex doesn’t enjoy killing, but he’s damn good at it. He’s good at dodging the law, too—until a beautiful rookie agent has him wondering what it might be like to get caught. FBI Special Agent Mallory Rooney has spent years hunting the lowlife who abducted her identical twin sister eighteen years ago. Now, during an on-going serial killer investigation, Mallory begins to suspect there’s a vigilante operating outside the law. She has no choice but to take him down, because murder isn’t justice. Is it? When Mallory starts asking questions, The Gateway Project management starts to sweat, and orders Alex to watch her. As soon as they meet, the two begin to fall in love. But the lies and betrayals that define Alex’s life threaten to destroy them both—especially when the man who stole her sister all those years ago makes Mallory his next target, and Alex must reveal his true identity to save the woman he loves. Cold Pursuit (2015 Winner of National Excellence in Romance Fiction Award ~ for Romantic Suspense). Single mom Vivi Vincent is thrust into her worst nightmare when she's trapped inside a mall during a terror attack along with her eight-year-old son. With the help of Jed Brennan, an FBI special agent on enforced leave, Vivi and her son survive the assault. But the danger is far from over. Vivi's son may have witnessed critical details of the terrorists' future plans and is targeted for death, but he's mute, and he's traumatized. Still someone launches a strike against the FBI's safe house, and Jed fears the bad guys have an inside man. No longer knowing who to trust, he hides mother and son in a log cabin deep in the heart of the Wisconsin Northwoods. There Jed and Vivi try to figure out how to unlock the information inside her son's head. What they don't bargain for is the red-hot attraction that flares between them, or the extent of the sinister plot that threatens to rip apart not only any chance of happiness they might have together, but also the very fabric of American society. Cold Light of Day (Winner 2015 Readers' Choice and Book Buyer's Best). Physicist Scarlett Stone is the daughter of the man considered to be the most notorious Russian agent in FBI history. With her father dying in prison she’s determined to prove he’s innocent, but time is running out. Using a false identity, she gains access to the Russian ambassador’s Christmas party, searching for evidence of a set-up. Former Navy SEAL, now FBI Special Agent, Matt Lazlo, is instantly attracted to Scarlett but life is too complicated to pursue a politician’s daughter. When he discovers she lied to him about her identity, he hunts her down with the ruthless efficiency he usually reserves for serial killers. Not only does Scarlett’s scheme fail, it puts her in the sights of powerful people who reward unwanted curiosity with brutality. The FBI—and Matt—aren’t thrilled with her, either.

    When she flees Texas for the Caribbean, Katie escapes professional humiliation, a broken heart, and a wicked Bloody Mary habit, but she trades one set of problems for another when she begins to investigate the suspicious deaths of her parents on the island of St. Marcos. She’s bewitched by the voodoo spirit of an abandoned house in the rainforest and discovers that she’s as much a danger to herself as the island’s bad guys are. As the worst of her worlds collide, Katie drags herself back to the courthouse to defend her new friend Ava, an island local accused of stabbing the senator she’s been sleeping with.

    After all, why give Dare the satisfaction of knowing he can push her buttons and push her to the edge?Three years ago, Dare returned home to rural western Montana and opened a hunting business to rival Angie’s. Complicating matters is the fact that Dare has asked Angie out (not once but twice) and has given her a gift of butterflies in the process. Angie has no patience for butterflies. They only lead to foolish decisions. And now the infuriatingly handsome Iraq war vet has siphoned away Angie’s livelihood, forcing her to close up shop. Before Angie is to leave town, she organizes one last trip into the wilderness with a client and his guest, who wants to bag a black bear. But the adrenaline-fueled adventure turns deadly when Angie witnesses a cold-blooded murder and finds herself on the wrong side of a loaded gun. Before the killer can tie up this attractive loose end, a bear comes crashing through the woods—changing the dark game completely.Luckily, Dare is camping nearby and hears the shots. Forced together for their very survival, Angie and Dare must confront hard feelings, a blinding storm, and a growing attraction—while being stalked by a desperate killer and a ferocious five-hundred-pound beast. And neither will stop until they reach their prey.From the Hardcover edition.

    Her enemy is her passion, her passion is her enemy.Lindsey Paxton was once the number one defense attorney in New York. She fought for those who were innocent, but charged. Her instincts were her lifeline, never failing her, as they guided her in her choices of who to defend. Or so she thought. Until she won a case she would forever wish to have lost. Her client, an accused rapist, kills and rapes a woman only a day after being set free. Destroyed by her role in the woman's death, Lindsey blames her father's controlling ways for what she has become, and runs from her career and life. Years later - the past becomes the present . . . Her father has cancer, and Lindsey is forced to leave her career with the Washington branch of the FBI. She finds herself facing the responsibility of running her father's law firm with the reluctant help of hotshot attorney Mark Reeves, a man who sparks her temper while also managing to tempt her body, her mind, maybe even her heart. With his help she finds herself fighting the emotional battles of the past, tempted to trust both him and her instincts. Now, faced with a case inherited from her father so similar to her career-ending one, she now must decide if her instincts will lead her down the path to saving an innocent man or setting free another killer. But while she fights her own battles, someone watches, wanting from the past what he had failed to get the first time . . . Lindsey.NOTE: Previously released as Hidden Instincts. Title change to indicate prelude to the new TALL, DARK, AND DEADLY trilogy coming in late 2011. I wrote this in 2004 and it was published by a library publisher and is in hardback in many libraries. You will meet the first Walker Brother-- Royce