Publisher: Harlequin
Date of publication: July 2016
Every family has its secrets…
As the first anniversary of her marriage to Vice President
Nick Cappuano approaches, Lieutenant Sam Holland is dreaming of Bora Bora—sun,
sand and a desperately needed break from the DC grind. But real life has a way
of intervening, and Sam soon finds herself taking on one of the most perplexing
cases of her career.
Government worker Josh Hamilton begs Sam to investigate his
shocking claim that his parents stole him from another family thirty years ago.
More complicated still, his “father” is none other than the FBI director. When
a member of Josh’s family is brutally murdered, Sam begins to question how deep
this cover-up goes. Is it possible the revered director was part of a
baby-napping ring and that others involved are also targets?
With a killer intent on deadly revenge and her team still
reeling from a devastating loss, Sam’s plate is full—and when Nick and their
son, Scotty, take ill, is her dream of a tropical anniversary celebration in
peril too?
Enjoy this excerpt!
Sam pushed through the double doors and into cool, crisp winter air that smelled like snow. She’d had a conversation yesterday with her son, Scotty, about how air can smell like snow. Scotty said it wasn’t possible to smell snow, even after she got him to take a few deep breaths to see what she meant. He remained skeptical, but she had a few more weeks of winter to prove her point.
“Mrs. Cappuano.”
Sam turned toward the man who’d called to her. He was in his late twenties or early thirties, handsome with dark blond hair and brown eyes. The panic she saw in his expression put her immediately on alert. “That’s me, although they don’t call me that around here. And you are?”
“Josh Hamilton.”
Sam shook his outstretched hand. “What can I do for you, Josh?”
“I need your help.”
“Okay.”
“Today I was bored at work, so I started surfing the web, you know, just clicking around aimlessly.”
As a technophobe of the highest order, Sam didn’t know because she’d never done that and certainly not at work, where she was usually too busy to pee, let alone surf.
Josh took a series of deep breaths, and Sam’s anxiety ramped up a notch. “I saw this story about a baby who was kidnapped thirty years ago. They had this age-progression photo showing what he’d look like now, and…” He gulped. “It was me.”
“Wait. What?”
With trembling hands, Josh retrieved his cell phone from his pocket and called up a web page, zeroing in on a digitally produced photo that did, in fact, bear a striking resemblance to him.
“Those photos are produced by computers. They’re not exact.”
“That’s me! And it explains why I’ve never felt at home or accepted in my family. What if they took me?”
“Hang on a minute. What evidence do you have to suspect that your parents participated in a criminal act to bring you into their family?”
He seemed to make an effort to calm down. “They’re extremely accomplished people and so are my siblings. My brother is a board-certified neurosurgeon. He went to Harvard for undergrad and medical school. My sister is an attorney, also Harvard educated, Law Review, the whole nine yards. And then there’s me. I barely made it out of state college after having spent most of my five years there on academic probation. After four years working for the federal government, I’m a GS-9 at Veterans Affairs, where I shuffle paper all day while counting the minutes until I can leave. The only reason I have that job is because my father, who has never approved of a thing I said or did, pulled strings to get me in. They’re all Republicans while I’m a liberal Democrat who fully supports your husband. I hope he runs in four years, by the way.”
“None of that proves your parents kidnapped you.”
“Will you take my case? Please? I need to know for sure. This would explain so much of why I’ve felt like a square peg in my own family my entire life.”
Sam held up a hand to stop him. “I’m a homicide cop, not a private investigator, but if you really believe a crime has been committed, I can refer you to someone within the department—”
“No.” He shook his head. “I want you. You’re the best. Everyone says so.”
“I’m honored you think so, but I’m on a leave of absence for the next few days, so I’m not able to take your case personally.”
“It has to be you. You’re the only one I’d trust to do it right.”
“The Metro PD has plenty of very qualified detectives who could look into this for you and help determine whether a crime has been committed, Mr. Hamilton.”
“You don’t understand. It can’t be any random detective. It can only be you.”
“Are you going to tell me why?”
He took another series of deep breaths, appearing to summon the courage he needed to tell her why. “It’s… He’s… Well, my dad, you see… He’s Troy Hamilton, the FBI director.”
Holy bombshell, Batman! Sam’s mind raced with implications and scenarios and flat-out disbelief. “You can’t honestly believe that your father, one of the top law enforcement officials in the country, kidnapped a child thirty years ago.”
“I wouldn’t put it past him,” Josh said.
“He’s one of the most respected men in our business. He’s revered.”
“Believe me, I know all about how revered he is. I hear about it on a regular basis.” He looked at her beseechingly. “You have to help me. I don’t know who else to turn to. Besides some of the people who work for my father, I don’t know any other cops, and you’re the best. And… I’m scared.” The last two words were said on a faint whisper.
Sam wanted nothing to do with the snake pit this case could turn out to be, but the detective in her was far too intrigued to walk away. “How’d you get here?”
“I took the Metro.”
She took a look around to see if anyone was watching, but the parking lot was deserted, and the usual band of reporters that stalked the MPD were taking the day off. They tended to do that when it was freezing. “Come with me.” She led him to her car and gestured for Josh to get in the passenger side.
Though she had no idea what she planned to do with him or the information he’d dropped in her lap, she couldn’t walk away from what he’d told her. “Tell me more about this website where you saw the photo.”
“It’s a blog run by parents of missing children.”
“How did you end up there?”
“I read a story about a baby who was kidnapped from a hospital in Tennessee the day after he was born and how his parents have never stopped looking for him. The thirtieth anniversary of the abduction is coming up, so they’ve gotten some regional publicity. There was a link in the story that led to the blog where the age-progression photo was.”
“So the photo hasn’t been picked up by the media?”
“Not that I could tell, but I was too freaked out by what I was seeing to dig deeper, especially since my thirtieth birthday is next week. I told my boss I had an emergency. I left the office and came right to you.”
“Why me?”
“Are you serious? After the inauguration, the whole country knows what an amazing cop you are. Who else would I go to with something like this?”
Blowing off the comment, she said, “You realize that accusing the FBI director of a capital felony is not something you do without stacks of proof that he was involved.”
“That’s where you come in. I need proof, and I need it fast before that picture gets picked up by the wires or social media and flung around the country. I need proof before he knows that I know.”
Sam had to agree that time was of the essence before this thing blew up into a sh*tstorm of epic proportions. With that in mind, she started the car, pulled out of the MPD parking lot and into weekday afternoon traffic that clogged the District on the way toward Capitol Hill.
“Where are we going?”
“My house.”
She glanced over at him and saw his eyes get big. “For real?”
“Yes, for real.” She paused before she continued. “Look, if you want me to dig into this, I have to do it at home. I’m…off duty right now. I’ve gotta stay below the radar on this or my bosses will be all over me.”
“No one will hear it from me.”
After a slow crawl across the District, Sam pulled up to the Secret Service checkpoint on Ninth Street. Normally they waved her through, but she had to stop to clear her guest. “They’ll need to see your ID.”
Josh pulled his license from his wallet and handed it to her.
She gave it to the agent, who took a close look before returning it to her. “Thank you, ma’am. Have a nice day.”
“You too.”
“What’s that like?” Josh asked. “Being surrounded by Secret Service all the time?”
“About as much fun as you’d expect it to be.”
“Why don’t you have a detail?”
“Because I don’t need one. I can take care of myself.” Thankfully, he didn’t mention the recent siege in Marissa Springer’s basement as an example of her inability to take care of herself. Sam liked to think that was a onetime lapse in judgment, never to be repeated.
Outside their home, her husband’s motorcade lined the street. What was he doing home so early?
She parked in her assigned spot—everyone who lived on Ninth Street now had assigned parking spaces—and headed up the ramp that led to their home.
“Why do you have a ramp?” Josh asked.
“My dad’s a quadriplegic. He lives down the street. My husband installed the ramp so he could come to visit.”
“Oh, that’s cool. Sorry about your dad, though.”
“Thanks.”
Nick’s lead agent, John Brantley Jr., met her at the door. “Lieutenant.”
“Brant. What’s he doing home so early?”
“The vice president isn’t feeling well.”
“Say what?”
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About Marie Force
Marie Force is the New York Times bestselling
author of 50 contemporary romances, including the Gansett Island Series, which
has sold more than 2.3 million books, and the Fatal Series from Harlequin
Books, which has sold more than 1.2 million books. In addition, she is the author
of the Green Mountain Series as well as the erotic romance Quantum Series,
written under the slightly modified name of M.S. Force. All together, her
books have sold more than 5 million copies worldwide!
Her
goals in life are simple—to finish raising two happy, healthy, productive young
adults, to keep writing books for as long as she possibly can and to never be
on a flight that makes the news.
Join
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Contact Marie at marie@marieforce.com.
Connect with Marie
Marie Force’s TLC Book Tours TOUR STOPS:
Monday, June 27th: Bewitched
Bookworms – Fatal Affair
Tuesday, July 5th: A
Splendid Messy Life – Fatal Affair
Wednesday, July 6th: Book
Binge – excerpt
Thursday, July 7th: Book Reviews
and More – excerpt
Monday, July 11th: Reading
Reality – Fatal Affair
Wednesday, July 13th: Mignon
Mykel Reviews – Fatal Affair
Thursday, July 14th: Stranded
in Chaos – Fatal Affair
Tuesday, July 19th: A
Bookaholic Swede – excerpt
Wednesday, July 20th: Dog-Eared
Daydreams – Fatal Affair
Thursday, July 21st: The
Romance Dish – excerpt
Friday, July 22nd: A
Holland Reads – excerpt
Monday, July 25th: Romancing the Book – review and
excerpt
Monday, July 25th: Becky
on Books – Fatal Flaw
Tuesday, July 26th: The
Sassy Bookster – Fatal Identity
Wednesday, July 27th: From the TBR Pile – excerpt
Thursday, July 28th: Books and Bindings – the entire
Fatal series
Friday, July 29th: Sharon’s Garden of Book Reviews
Monday, August 1st: Books a la Mode –
excerpt
Tuesday, August 2nd: Open Book Society – Fatal
Affair, Fatal Justice, Fatal Consequences
Wednesday, August 3rd: Dog-Eared Daydreams – Fatal Justice
Thursday, August 4th: Buried Under Romance – Fatal
Affair
Friday, August 5th: Dog-Eared Daydreams – Fatal Consequences
Thanks for featuring this excerpt for the tour!
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