Blurb for FORGIVING LIES:
A matter of secrets...
Undercover cop Logan "Kash" Ryan can't afford a distraction like his
new neighbor Rachel Masters, even if she's the most beautiful woman he's ever
seen. To catch a serial killer, he needs to stay focused, yet all he can think
about is the feisty, long-legged coed whose guarded nature intrigues him
A matter of lies...
Deceived and hurt before, Rachel would rather be a single, crazy cat lady than
trust another guy, especially a gorgeous, tattooed bad boy with a Harley, like
Kash. But when his liquid-steel eyes meet hers, it takes all of Rachel's
will-power to stop herself from exploring his hot body with her own.
A matter of love...
As much as they try to keep it platonic, the friction between them sparks an
irresistible heat that soon consumes them. Can Kash keep Rachel's heart and her
life safe even as he risks his own? Will she be able to forgive his lies ... or
will she run when she discovers the dangerous truth?
*SPOILER ALERT*
*Don’t read this if you
haven’t finished
FORGIVING LIES by Molly
McAdams yet*
“YOU GOOD?” I asked
Mason as we headed back toward the elevators.
He shrugged and punched
at the buttons on the wall. “There’s only so much you can do to get them to go
in a different direction. He wanted to follow his brother.”
The call from last night
ended up being a drive-by involving a newer gang that we’d come across
recently, and one of the two victims had been L’il Tay, a thirteen-year-old
Mason had been trying to get off the streets over the last few months. And
though Mason was acting like this was just another case, I knew this was harder
for him than the rest.
Knowing there was
nothing I could say, I clapped his shoulder and let him be alone with his
thoughts. Grabbing my phone, I smiled when I was finally able to open Rachel’s
text from last night.
Sour Patch: Just so you know … cleaning up from a whipped
cream war without you isn’t nearly as fun. See you when you get home. Love you.
We just finished up, be home soon babe. Love you too.
The doors to the
elevator opened and we stepped in. As they were closing, someone started yelling
my name from down the hall, and Mason caught the door just in time.
“Ryan! Gates!” Sergeant
Ramirez ran toward us, and as soon as he was in the elevator started pounding
on the CLOSE DOORS button.
I suppressed a groan.
All I wanted to do was get home to Rachel and Trip.
“We already have three
units at the scene, and I’ll be following you there.”
Ramirez was a K-9 unit,
why were they wanting his dog, Crush, there … and what scene?
“Wha—”
“I know you’re anxious
to get there, but you know we’re doing everything we can for this.” The
elevator was already moving, but Ramirez kept stabbing at the ground level
button.
“How are you holding up?
You look really calm, are you in shock? Maybe you should let Gates drive.”
That seemed to snap
Mason out of his thoughts. His hand jerked away from his mouth and his eyes
widened. “Why would I need to drive?”
“And why would I be in
shock?” My heart started racing as Ramirez started hitting the OPEN DOORS
button.
Ramirez shot us a
strained, sympathetic look before ushering us out to the underground parking
lot. “You weren’t informed?”
“Of what?” I was
supposed to be the one in shock. So it had something to do with me.
Everyone close to me
starting flipping through my mind until a sinking feeling hit my chest and stomach.
Oh God … Rachel. “What happened?”
“I’m sorry, I thought
someone already told you, you were supposed to be informed already,” he mumbled
to himself as he kept walking toward the lot. “Look, I’m sorry I’m the one that
has to tell you this.” He stopped walking abruptly and turned to look at me.
His expression was one I had seen so many times, and had even had to use
myself. It felt like time slowed as I waited for him to tell me one of fifty
scenarios that were speeding through my mind. “A call came in to dispatch about
an hour ago. It was your fiancée, Ryan. The only thing that came from her end
of the call was her saying her name, someone had broken in—”
I didn’t wait to hear
the rest, I took off running for my truck and had just gotten to the driver’s
door when Mason slammed me into the side and ripped the keys from my hand.
After barking at me to get in the passenger seat, he fired up the engine and
peeled out of the lot.
“This isn’t happening.
This isn’t happening, Mase, tell me this isn’t fucking happening!”
“Kash—”
“Damn it!” I roared and
punched at the dashboard. “I don’t even know if she’s okay, Mason! What was
Ramirez saying, did he say if she’s okay? Is she—oh God. Rach, baby, please be
alive,” I whispered and slumped into my seat, raking my hands over my face.
I heard Mason on the
phone calling into dispatch and asking questions about what happened, but I
couldn’t focus on his exact words or the muffled response coming from the dispatcher.
I just kept praying over and over again that she was okay. I could deal with
our place being broken into. I could replace all that. But I couldn’t replace
Rachel.
Mason nudged my arm and
I snapped my head to the left to look at him.
“Sorry, you weren’t
responding. They don’t know if she’s alive, but there’s no blood. So just focus
on that, Kash.”
“W-what? No … what do
you mean?”
He took a deep breath
and gripped the steering wheel. “From what units at the scene—uh, your
place—are saying, whoever broke in … they uh, they took Rachel.”
Mason was saying
something else, but I couldn’t hear anything past the blood rushing through my
ears. When we got to the house, the front door was hanging like it had been
kicked in, but the rest of the front looked completely normal. Save for the
dozens of officers and detectives that were walking in and out of it.
Remembering the faux-wall in the closet, I prayed
like hell that Rachel
was using it and took off for the large closet in the bathroom.
When I flipped on the
light in the closet, dread filled me when I saw the drag marks on the carpet. I
called one of the officers that had been taking pictures of the bedroom to get
a few pictures of the carpet before I walked in, and all hope left me when all
I found behind that wall was our puppy. I grabbed him and pulled him into my
chest as I fell back against the wall, and the tears that had been threatening,
started spilling over.
“Kash, you need to see
this,” Mason said softly from the doorway to the closet. I looked over at him,
rolled to my knees and stood. “Give me Trip. Go into the bedroom and look at
the wall. We’ll find her, okay? I swear to you we’ll find her.”
I handed him the golden
retriever and rushed into the bedroom that looked like a hurricane had hit it.
My eyes widened when they finally landed on the wall opposite our bed. A roar
filled the room, and before I could realize it came from me, two officers were
holding me back and trying to get me to sit down on the bed.
On the wall in red spray
paint were the words DID YOU THINK WE WOULD FORGET?
Underneath was a symbol.
One both Mason and I’d had tattooed on our left forearms during our last
undercover narcotics assignment with Juarez’s gang.
“How?” Mason was asking
a detective that was in the room with us. And that was a damn good question.
Juarez had put a hit on Mase and me before we could take down his gang, but it had
died when the guys hired were thrown in prison for another murder. And I knew
for a fact
Juarez and his boys were
all in prison. “Recruiting people from the inside who got out? Or just using
people he trusts? Set up questioning with each of them separately.”
I looked up when
Detective Byson’s cell rang. His mouth snapped shut from answering
Mason and he answered
the call. “Byson.” His eyes shot over to me and a grim look crossed his face as
he listened. “Mmhm … Yeah. Set up something with Juarez and his attorney immediately.
I’m on my way.” He turned to face me and slid his phone back in the holder on
his belt. “Rachel is alive.”
“Thank God,” I breathed
and tried to stand, but the officers were still holding me there.
“A call was placed about
fifteen minutes ago, demanding that every charge against Juarez’s gang be
dropped. Before the dispatcher could ask anything, the caller said they would
call back in two days and expected progress on the charges being dropped, and
would continue to call every two days until every member of the gang was
released. If there isn’t progress, there will be
consequences, and if
they aren’t released within the month … she dies.”
“Kash, Kash, Kash calm
down. Come on, man. Calm down. I know.”
Mason gripped my
shoulders and I tried to focus on him. The other two officers were now struggling
to keep me down as I thrashed against them. Where I was going to go when I got away
from them, I didn’t know, I just needed to go. They had my girl. I needed to
find out who they were, and I needed to get her back.
“I know this is hard.
But we’ll find her. I swear.” Mason looked just as panicked as I felt, and it
was then I noticed the wetness in his eyes he was trying to keep back.
When I finally stopped
struggling, the officers let me go at Mason’s request, but he kept me seated on
the bed. “I need to get her back, Mason. I have to.”
“We will.”
“I’ll do anything.”
A determined look
settled over his face and he whispered low enough that only I could hear him.
“Anything to bring the fuckers down, right?”
I slammed my fist
against his and swore, “Always.”
**
I WALKED INTO Mason’s
apartment that evening with a bag slung over one shoulder, and Trip in my arms.
Our bedroom was still being considered a crime scene, and I was asked to stay out
of it for the night as they processed more and continued to take fingerprints.
Not that I thought I would be able to stay there even after they were done
anyway, without Rachel … I didn’t know how I would handle being there.
After dropping the bag
in the room I’d occupied for years when Mason and I’d shared an apartment, I
fell heavily onto the bed and kept Trip secured tightly to my chest as I stared
at nothing.
A fear unlike anything
I’d ever known had coursed through my body the moment I’d realized Rachel was
at a murderer’s home last fall, and that I’d let her walk away with him.
When the call between us
had been dropped after I’d heard her scream, I hadn’t even let myself believe I
wouldn’t find her and bring her back alive.
But the fear I’d
experienced that early morning could never be compared to the fear that had
been crippling me all day. At least when she was with Blake, I’d had an
underlying knowledge of what Blake was capable of. Now, though, I didn’t know
who had her, what they were doing to her, and what they could do. I just knew
what they’d threatened to do.
For close to ten hours,
a handful of detectives had questioned every member of Juarez’s gang, the two
men hired to kill Mason and me last year, and family members as well. No one was
talking, and the only living extended family of Juarez and his boys that we
could track down had either turned their backs on the members of the gang, or
were afraid of them. I hadn’t been allowed in any of the interviews since I was
too close to the case—again—so I’d spent hours seeing if anyone on the street
had heard anything, and looking for Rachel’s cell phone which we’d later found
ten miles away from the house in a trash can at a gas station. A gas station
whose indoor and outdoor
cameras just happened to be down.
There’d been nothing to
go off from the anonymous call placed regarding their demands and threats for
Rachel’s safety, and although they said they’d call back every two days, I’d
hoped like hell they would’ve called back again. But there was nothing. We had
leads that weren’t talking, and didn’t have a reason to talk, and nothing else.
And my girl was gone.
Pain seared my chest and
I prayed to God that He would keep her safe. He could do whatever He wanted
with me … as long as she came back alive.
There was a shuffling
near the other side of the room, and I looked over to see Mason standing in the
doorway.
“How are you holding
up?”
I sucked hard on my lip
ring when my chin started shaking, and looked back to the wall.
How the hell does he
think I’m holding up? Rachel’s gone and probably being tortured, and I can’t do
anything!
“We’ll find her, Kash.”
Unable to speak yet
without breaking down, I nodded my head hard, once.
We have to find her, and
we have to do it tomorrow. I didn’t care if they’d given her a month to live or
not. They also said there would be consequences if there wasn’t progress in two
days, and I wasn’t willing to let her find out what those consequences were.
Seeing how the possibility of giving the takers what they wanted was slim,
finding her was the only other option.
“I love her too, I’ll do
anything to get her back.”
“Do you mean that?” I
choked out when he turned to leave.
He turned back and gave
me an odd look. “Of course I do.”
“They aren’t going to
release Juarez.”
“I know,” he said on a
sigh.
“Chief told me tonight
before I left that I was off this case.”
“Know that too. What are
you getting at, Kash?”
I swallowed past the
tightness in my throat and shook my head quickly.
“We had to do a lot of
things in the years that we were in undercover narcotics that I wish I could
erase from my memory. But you and I agreed before we ever started, we would do
anything to take the fuckers down.”
“Kash…”
“And I’ll do
anything—anything, Mase—to bring these fuckers down too.”
He stared at me for a
few tense moments before responding, “I know what we agreed on, and we’ll do
what we always do. But don’t do something stupid. There are a lot of people looking
for her. We’ll find her.”
Fear was quickly turning
to rage and determination. “Yeah, we will.”
***
Blurb for DECEIVING LIES by Molly McAdams:
The irresistible, blazing-hot sequel to New York Times bestselling
author Molly McAdams's Forgiving Lies.
Rachel is supposed to be planning her wedding to Kash, the love of her life.
After the crazy year they've had, she's ready to settle down and live a
completely normal life. Well, as normal as it can be. But there's something
else waiting—something threatening to tear them apart.
Kash is ready for it all with Rach. Especially if all includes having a
football team of babies with his future wife. With his line of work, he knows
how short life can be, and doesn't want to waste another minute of theirs. But
now his past as an undercover narcotics agent has come back to haunt him ...
and it's the girl he loves who's caught in the middle.
Trent Cruz's orders are clear: take the girl. But there's something about this
girl that has him changing the rules and playing a dangerous game to keep her
safe. When his time as Rachel's protector runs out, he will turn his back on
the only life he's known, and risk everything, if it means getting her out
alive.
Feel free to share what you
think is going to happen to Kash and Rachel on social media -- on Twitter use
#KashandRachel and/or #DeceivingLies and tag @MollySMcAdams
Or drop a comment for Molly
McAdams on Facebook.
Pre-order DECEIVING LIES
and receive a BONUS Kash and Rachel scene!
Just enter or upload
your proof of purchase HERE and your bonus scene will be emailed to you on
March 4th, 2014. DECEIVING
LIES by Molly McAdams will be available March 4th, 2014 in e-book and paperback
wherever books are sold!
