Book #1: 48 Hour Lockdown by Carla Cassidy
(on-sale March 17, 2020)
Book description:
The Tactical Crime Division—TCD—is a specialized unit of the FBI.They handle
the toughest cases in the most remote locations. When TCD learns of a school invasion turned lockdown, every agent
is ready to engage. With children in jeopardy, the stakes couldn’t be higher.
But it becomes personal for hostage negotiator agent Evan Duran when he learns
Annalise Taylor is one of the captives holed up with the students in a school
for the gifted. He’ll need every resource available at TCD and every ounce of
his expertise to turn this disastrous situation into a rescue mission—and if he
succeeds, maybe reunite with the woman he never stopped loving.
Amazon | B&N | Google | IndieBound | Harlequin
A new
miniseries from Harlequin Intrigue.
Stopping
criminal activity wherever it happens. The agents at the Tactical Crime
Division are ready for anything.
More and
more, federal law agencies have to mobilize to remote locations to address
large-scale crime scenes and criminal activity—terror, hostage situations,
kidnappings, shootings and the like. Because of the growing concerns and need
for ever increasing response times to these criminal events, the Bureau created
a specialized tech and tactical team, combining specialists from several active
divisions—weapons, crime scene investigation, protection, negotiation, IT.
Because they are a smaller unit, they are more nimble for rapid deployment and
assistance to address various situations. This joint team of agents is known as
the Tactical Crime Division (TCD).
CAST OF
CHARACTERS
Evan
Duran—Special Agent
Duran is a hostage negotiator for the Tactical Crime Division, a specialized
branch of the FBI.
Annalise
Taylor—A teacher
held hostage at a private school. She’s also Evan’s ex-lover. She’d broken his
heart several years before, and now he holds her life in his hands.
Jacob
Noble—Is he the
leader of a charitable church or the dangerous leader of a cult?
Gretchen
Noble—Jacob’s wife,
who is not afraid to abuse or kill. Will she kill Annalise before she can be
freed?
Hendrick
Maynard—Brilliant
tech agent for the Tactical Crime Division. Will he be able to get the information
Evan needs or will he be destroyed by old painful memories?
Walter
Cummings—Chief of
police in Asheville. Would his incompetence be the death of the hostages?
Excerpt
As he
drove he made a few phone calls, and he finally pulled up in front of the nondescript
brick building where TCD’s offices were located. He parked, got out of his car
and hurried inside. As he strode down the hallway toward the main meeting room,
he could hear Director Jill Pembrook apparently still conducting the morning
meeting.
The
main conference room was the heart of the office. It was where assignments were
handed out and situations were brainstormed. The agents sat at a long, highly
glossed wooden table. On one wall was an oversize FBI logo, and opposite that
was the TCD emblem. A large, digital flat screen was mounted on the far side of
the room, and a tablet lay at the head of the table.
Evan
burst through the door. Director Jill Pembrook looked at him in surprise.
“Agent Duran, how nice of you to join us on your day off.”
The
director was an attractive, stylish woman of substance with cropped steel gray
hair and a penchant for dark, custom-tailored suits.
She’d
been with the FBI for over forty years, and she was definitely a force to be
reckoned with. Her blue eyes could be warm and friendly or they could frost a
puddle of water into a sheet of ice.
“I
just saw the news out of Pearson,” he stated. “I need to get there… It’s
Annalise.”
There
was a collective groan from some of the other agents. Evan ignored it. “I’ll
need you to arrange a plane to be ready for takeoff. Also, I’ll need Hendrick’s
help on this. And I’m taking Agents Brennan and Lathrop with me.”
“Call
off the SEAL team, Duran is on the case, everyone,” “Agent at Large” Kane
Bradshaw murmured as the three men headed for the door.
Evan
ignored him. While he liked Kane okay, there were times in the past they had
butted heads when Kane could sometimes be a bit of an arrogant jerk. Director
Pembrook though tolerated his glib attitude. And while Kane had no official rank
as an agent with the bureau, he had an extensive background with deep black
ops.
Hendrick
Maynard, the tech guru nodded. “You got it,” he answered without hesitation.
“Heading to my desk now. I’ll send you any relevant info ASAP.”
The
director narrowed her eyes, and Evan felt the frost radiating from her. “Agent
Duran, you are way out of line.” She paused and continued to hold his gaze.
“Ten minutes ago North Carolina state officials called for federal help…” She
paused and he was wondering if he should offer to submit his resignation. “You
will also take Special Agent Rogers along with the others. This is an all hands
on deck situation. Rowan as usual will accompany you and provide team support.”
Rowan
Cooper, an attractive woman with long dark hair who worked as a liaison between
the local police departments and the TCD team members, also rose and followed
the men out the door. She accompanied any crew that deployed to a different
location. Her specialty was smoothing over any personality difference or turf
wars among different law enforcement units on scene. But her main
responsibility was arranging overnight accommodations and making sure the
agents had what they needed in order to remain focused on the task at hand.
“Yes,
ma’am,” he replied to the director. He knew he’d overstepped boundaries by
barging in, but he’d felt the need to act immediately when he’d heard about the
situation… About Annalise…
“Plane
leaves in twenty minutes. Now go,” Di-rector Pembrook said. To him she added,
“Duran…don’t pull this kind of stunt again.”
Evan
would have offered to quit after the assignment if he met any resistance from
the director to him heading up the detail due to his personal connection to
Annalise. Nothing was going to keep him from negotiating this hostage
situation.
“Never,”
Evan replied before turning to leave.
About Carla Cassidy:
Carla Cassidy is a New York Times bestselling
author who has written more than 125 novels for Harlequin Books. She is listed
on the Romance Writer's of America Honor Roll and has won numerous awards.
Carla believes the only thing better than curling up with a good book to read
is sitting down at the computer with a good story to write.
Book #2: Secret Investigation by Elizabeth Heiter
(on-sale April 21, 2020)
Book description:
In the wake of a tragedy, the Tactical Crime Division is the first call. When
ironclad body armor inexplicably fails and soldiers perish, the Tactical Crime
Division jumps into action. Agent and former ranger Davis Rogers asks to go
undercover to find the traitor responsible for the death of one of his friends,
and Petrov Armor CEO Leila Petrov is happy to provide access to her
company…especially once she discovers she’s being framed. But will their joint
efforts be enough to uncover the truth?
Amazon | B&N | Google | IndieBound | Harlequin
A new miniseries from
Harlequin Intrigue.
Welcome to the
Tactical Crime Division, a rapid-deployment joint team of FBI agents
specializing in hostage negotiation, missing persons, IT, profiling, shootings
and terrorism, with Director Jill Pembrook at the head.
CAST OF CHARACTERS
Leila Petrov—When
defective bulletproof vests cause the deaths of an army unit, Petrov Armor’s
CEO is determined to find the person responsible. But her search makes her a
liability to a killer, someone who’s closer than she ever expected.
Davis Rogers—The
former army ranger thinks going undercover in Petrov Armor is his chance
to prove himself in the FBI’s elite Tactical Crime Division
(TCD). But it’s also deeply personal. One of the soldiers killed was a friend,
and Davis won’t stop until he’s gotten justice.
Melinda Larsen—The deeper this profiler digs
into the Petrov Armor case, the more unexpected threats she uncovers—putting
her directly in the line of fire.
Kane Bradshaw—Ever
since his last partner died on the job, the TCD agent prefers to work alone.
But as he’s forced to work with Melinda, he fears history will repeat itself.
Eric Ross—Petrov
Armor’s head of sales was Leila’s first love. He’s jealous of Leila’s obvious
interest in her new “assistant,” Davis, but is there something more sinister
behind his constant appearances?
Joel Petrov—Leila’s
uncle has been an integral part of the company since Leila was a child. But is
his involvement too convenient?
Excerpt
As in the Bureau, dying in the field was a possibility
you accepted. You did whatever you could to prevent it, but if it happened, you
knew you’d be going out doing something you believed in. But not like this. Not
the way Jessica had died, trusting the military, trusting her training,
trusting her equipment.
“I want to take the lead on this case,” Davis blurted.
Gazes darted to him: from profiler Dr. Melinda Larsen, silently assessing,
suspicion in her eyes, as if she somehow knew he had a history with one of the
victims. Always buttoned-up Laura Smith was quiet and unreadable, but her Ivy
League brain was probably processing every nuance of his words. JC, staring at
him with understanding, even though he didn’t realize Davis knew Jessica
personally. No one on the team did. “Is your personal investment in this case
going to be a hindrance or a help?” Pembrook asked, voice and gaze steady.
Davis’s spine stiffened even more. She was talking
about his army background. She had to be. But if she thought he was going to
fidget, she underestimated the hell he’d gone through training to be a ranger
for the army. “A help. I’m familiar with how the army works. And I’m familiar
with the product. I’ve worn Petrov Armor vests.”
Petrov Armor had supplied the body armor Jessica and
her team had been wearing during the ambush. That armor—supposedly the newest
and best technology—had failed spectacularly, resulting in the deaths of all
but three of the soldiers and one of the locals. In his mind it wasn’t the
insurgents who had killed Jessica and her team. It was Petrov Armor.
He didn’t mention the rest. He’d more than just worn
the vests. He’d had a chance to be an early tester of their body armor, back
when he was an elite ranger and Petrov Armor was better known for the pistols
they made than their armor. He’d given the thumbs-up, raving about the vest’s
bullet-stopping power and comfort in his report. He’d given the army an
enthusiastic endorsement to start using Petrov Armor’s products more broadly.
And they had.
“I’m not talking about the armor,” Pembrook replied,
her gaze still laser-locked on his, even as agent-at-large Kane Bradshaw
slipped into the meeting late and leaned against the doorway. “I’m talking
about Jessica Carpenter.” Her voice softened. “I’m sorry for your loss.”
The gazes on him seemed to intensify, but Davis didn’t
shift his from Pembrook’s. “Thank you. And no, it won’t affect my judgment in
the case.”
Pembrook nodded, but he wasn’t sure if she believed
him as she looked back at the rest of the group and continued her briefing.
“Petrov Armor won a big contract with the military five years ago. The armor
this team was wearing is their latest and greatest. It’s not worn widely yet,
but their earlier version armor is commonly used. The military is doing a full
round of testing across all their branches. They’ve never had a problem with
Petrov Armor before, and they don’t intend to have another.
“Meanwhile, they’ve asked us to investigate at home.
We got lucky with the news coverage. We’re still not sure how it was leaked,
but not all of it got out. Or if it did, the news station only played a small
part. And somehow they don’t have the name of the body armor supplier. Not
yet,” she said emphatically. “Rowan, we don’t have to worry about PD this time.
I’m putting you on the media. Hendrick can lend computer support if you need
it.”
Rowan Cooper nodded, looking a little paler than
usual, but sitting straighter.
Book #3: Midnight Abduction by Nichole Severn
(on-sale May 19, 2020)
Book description:
For the Tactical Crime Division, no case is left cold. When Benning Reeves’s
twins are kidnapped, the frantic father knows who can help: the Tactical Crime
Division and Ana Ramirez. Even though Ana once shattered Benning’s heart, the
special agent is the only one he can trust. But Ana is still tormented by the
unresolved case that brought them together years before—a case somehow
entangled with Benning’s children. It’s up to the TCD and Ana to discover
why…before it’s too late.
Amazon | B&N | Google | IndieBound | Harlequin
Perfect for fans of Criminal Minds and Blacklist...
Uncover the lives and loves of the FBI elite as they take on
the toughest assignments. This is a new four-book miniseries featuring an
ensemble cast of characters spread across 4 books, featuring 4 urgent cases,
with one stellar team of crime solving experts.
The Tactical Crime Division—TCD—is a specialized unit of the
FBI. Because of the growing concerns and need for ever increasing response time
to criminal events, the FBI created a specialized tech and tactical team
combing specialists from several active divisions that include: weapons, crime
scene investigation, protection, negotiation and IT.
CAST OF CHARACTERS
Ana Sofia Ramirez—She’s out for
redemption. Recruited by the Tactical Crime Division’s director from the
Bureau’s missing-persons’ division after her last case ended with a dead
victim, she’s more determined than ever to recover Benning Reeves’s son.
Benning Reeves—Single father
and small-town building inspector who’s come across evidence of a murder hidden
on one of his construction sites; the cost of discovery has led to the
kidnapping of his six-year-old twins.
Olivia and Owen Reeves—Benning’s
six-year-old twins.
Evan Duran—Tactical
Crime Division’s hostage negotiator, who’s fully invested in recovering Benning
Reeves’s son due to his own dark past of losing his sister as a child.
JC Cantrell—Tactical
Crime Division’s tactical-operations specialist, who’s good at planting bugs,
leading surveillance ops or coming up with a ruse to distract someone.
Excerpt
“Well, maybe I can give her a tour of TCD
head-quarters in Knoxville one day. You know, give her a chance to see what
federal agents really do on the job.” Ana stilled, the weight of her attention
pressurizing the air in his chest, but he didn’t miss the assumption there
would be a one day for them. That she wouldn’t disappear from their lives after
Owen came home, and his blood pressure spiked. She cleared her throat as though
she’d caught herself making promises she might not be able to keep. Just as she
had with Samantha Perry’s family. “You must be proud. She’s going to make a
hell of an agent one day.”
“That’s her plan, and probably why she opened up to
you the way she did. I can tell she admires you, what you do.” Benning
straightened, echoes of their earlier conversation replaying in his head on a
nonstop loop. He tossed the paper towel he’d used to clean his foot in the
trash beside the island. “So do I, to be honest. The work you and your team do
saves lives. I know I already said thank you, but I meant it.”
“Like I said, you don’t have to thank me.” She dropped
that mesmerizing gaze to the counter, sweeping the spread of flour into the
sink set into the island with one hand, and swiped beneath her nose with the
other. Touching her face had always been a nervous habit. “All part of the job.”
“Is that what this is for you, Ana? Just another job?
Because this case is definitely a lot more personal to me.” Benning maneuvered
around the counter, his bare chest nearly pressed against the exposed skin of
her arm. He set his hand over hers on the granite, her quick gasp searing
through him. Her warmth penetrated past skin and muscle, deep into his bones.
“After what you told me about the Samantha Perry case, I realize now how hard
it must’ve been for you to come back here, and you’re standing there as if none
of it affects you. But is that how you really feel?”
He wanted—no, needed—to know. Was this going to play
out exactly as it had between them the last time? Had he made a mistake
requesting her to work this case?
Her mouth parted. “I…”
Skimming his fingers along the back of her hand, he
trailed a path up her arm to her jaw, and all of his thoughts burned away.
There was only the two of them. The softness of her flawless skin and hardness
in her invisible guard. After everything that’d happened, after everything
they’d already been through in the short span of time she’d walked back into
his life, he’d struggled to keep the uncertainty, the rage, the fear, at bay so
he could stay strong for Olivia. To prove that he could protect her from any
threat, be the father she and her brother deserved. But Ana…stripped him of all
of that. With her, Benning felt raw, exposed, bare. She was real. She was here.
Not a memory—a fantasy—anymore, and it took every-thing inside him to pull
himself away from her. “You had some cookie dough on your chin.”
She’d left because she believed her emotions clouded
her judgment on the Samantha Perry case, and he wasn’t about to complicate
anything else be- tween them. Not when it was his son’s life at risk this time.
Ana turned her gaze up to his, a small tremor crossing her shoulders, and an
invisible anchor set-tled inside his chest in the dark, watery landscape of
this case. No matter what happened, Ana would bring his son home alive. He had
to believe that. He had to believe in her. Otherwise, he’d have nothing left.
“Thanks.”
A soft trill broke the silence spreading between them,
but she didn’t move.
“I think your phone is ringing.” He cleared his
throat, trying to drown the surge of awareness burning through him, and stepped
away. It was for the best. Because anything that happened between them would
only take away from their focus on finding his son, and that wasn’t a risk he
was willing to take.
Book #4: Running Out of Time by Cindi Myers
(on-sale June 16, 2020)
Book description:
When a terrorist is on the loose, the Tactical Crime Division is on the case.
To find out who poisoned medications, two of TCD’s agents are tapped to go
undercover posing as a married couple and infiltrate the company. But as soon
as Jace Cantrell and Laura Smith arrive at Stroud Pharmaceuticals, someone ups
the ante by planting explosives in their midst. Turns out that the small-town
family business is hiding a million secrets. Could they unknowingly be
protecting a vengeful killer?
Amazon | B&N | Google | IndieBound | Harlequin
Love CSI and Criminal Minds? Meet the
Tactical Crime Division.
Get to know a team of dedicated crime solving experts as they fight for justice, safety, and one by one are rewarded by finding love.
Get to know a team of dedicated crime solving experts as they fight for justice, safety, and one by one are rewarded by finding love.
CAST OF CHARACTERS
Special Agent Laura “Smitty” Smith—A
disciplined agent who never breaks the rules, Laura must go undercover as a
newlywed to find the person responsible for a rash of poisonings and bombings
in a small West Virginia town.
Special Agent Jace Cantrell—The
military veteran and special ops expert has a reputation as a rebel and a rule
breaker—exactly the kind of man to clash with Laura, yet the two must pose as
husband and wife to solve a case that brings death to their very doorstep.
Donna Stroud—The head of
Stroud Pharmaceuticals intends to keep her company going and her family
together in the face of tragedy, but how far will she go to do so?
Parker Stroud—Donna’s son
chafes at his parents’ unwillingness to put him in charge of the family
business.
Merry Winger—Parker’s
girlfriend has big plans to marry Parker, despite his parents’ disapproval of
their relationship and Parker’s own reluctance to make their relationship
public.
Leo Elgin—His mother was poisoned by
tainted medication manufactured by Stroud. He holds a grudge against the Stroud
family.
Excerpt
“We’ve got another tough case on our hands.” Jill
Pembroke, director of the FBI’s tactical crime division, surveyed her team from
the head of the conference table in the Bureau’s Knoxville headquarters. “One
that re-quires a great deal of discretion.”
Something in the director’s tone made Agent Laura
Smith sharpen her focus. Pembroke, with her well-cut silver hair and feminine
suit, might be mistaken for a high society grandmother, but she was as
hard-nosed as they came, and not prone to exaggeration. That she reminded her
team of the need for discretion pointed to something out of the ordinary.
The door to the conference room opened and a man
slipped in. Tall and rangy, Agent Jace Cantrell moved with the grace of an
athlete. He nodded to the director and eased into the empty seat next to Laura.
No apology for being late. Typical. Laura slid her chair over a couple of
inches. Cantrell was one of those men who always seemed to take up more than
his share of the available space.
“We’re going to be investigating product tampering at
Stroud Pharmaceuticals in Mayville, West Virginia.”
Director Pembroke stepped aside to reveal a slide
showing a squat factory building set well back on landscaped grounds.
“The antacid poisonings.” Agent Ana Ramirez spoke from
her seat directly across from Laura. She tucked a strand of dark hair into the
twist at the nape of her neck, polished nails glinting in the overhead light.
“That story has been all over the news.”
“Do the locals not want the FBI horning in?” Agent
Davis Rogers—the only member of the team not wearing the regulation suit—sat
back in his chair beside Ramirez, looking every bit the army ranger he had once
been. “Is that why the extra discretion?”
“No, the local police are happy to turn this over to
us,” Pembroke said. She advanced to the next slide, a listing of the deaths—six
so far, with two additional people hospitalized—attributed to Stroud’s Stomach
Soothers, a natural, organic remedy that claimed a significant share of the
market as an alternative to traditional antacids. “This hasn’t been released to
the public, but the poison in the contaminated tablets was ricin.”
Laura would have sworn the temperature in the
air-conditioned room dropped five degrees. “Any suggestion of a link to
terrorism?” Hostage negotiator Evan Duran, bearded and brooding, spoke from the
end of the table. “Anybody claiming credit for the deaths?”
Pembroke shook her head. “At this point, we aren’t
assuming anything. Obviously, we want to avoid panicking the public.”
“The public is already panicked,” Rowan Cooper, the
team’s local liaison, said. “People have been organizing boycotts of all Stroud
products.” She absently twisted a lock of her jet-black hair, brow furrowed.
“We’ll need a strategy for managing the public’s response.”
“The facility where the Stomach Soothers were
manufactured has been closed for the time being and the product is being pulled
from store shelves,” Pembroke said. “But another facility in town, which manufactures
other items, remains open, and the company has reduced hours and reassigned as
many employees as possible to the single plant. The company, the town, even the
state officials, are very anxious to downplay this tragedy and get Stroud up
and running full-speed as soon as possible.”
“Why do that?” Kane Bradshaw, Agent-at-Large, said.
Laura hadn’t noticed him until now, seated as he was behind her and apart from
the rest, almost in the shadows. Kane always looked as if he’d just rushed in
from an overnight surveillance, all wind-blown hair and shadowed eyes. The fact
that he was here spoke to the gravity of this case. While always on hand when
the team needed him, he wasn’t much on office decorum.
“Jobs.” Cantrell’s voice, deep and a little rough, like
a man who smoked two packs a day, sent a shiver through Laura. He didn’t smoke,
but maybe he once had. “Stroud Pharmaceuticals is one of the biggest employers
in Boone County,” he continued. “The coal mines are shutting down, and there
isn’t a lot of other industry. Stroud has been a savior to the community.
They—and the officials they elected—are going to do everything in their power
to keep the company running and redeem its reputation.”
“Even covering up murder?” Laura asked.
Cantrell turned to her, his gaze cool. “I doubt they
want to cover it up, but they’ll definitely downplay it and keep it quiet.”
“They want us to help, but they don’t want us to be
obvious.” The youngest member of the team, computer specialist Hendrick
Maynard, jiggled his knee as he spoke. A genius who looked younger than his
twenty-six years, Maynard never sat still.
“Precisely.” Director Pembroke advanced to another
slide of a small town—tree-shaded streets lined with modest homes, some worse
for wear. A water tower in the distance displayed the word Mayville in faded
green paint. “Agents Smith and Cantrell, you are to pose as a married couple
and take jobs at the Stroud factory. Investigations so far point to the
poisonings having originated from within the plant itself, so your job is to
identify possible suspects and investigate. Agent Rogers, you’ll be in town as
well…”
Laura didn’t hear the rest of the director’s
assignments. She was focused on trying to breathe and holding back her cry of
protest. She and Cantrell? As a couple? The idea was ridiculous. He was rough,
undisciplined, arrogant, scornful…
“You look like you just ate a bug.” Cantrell leaned
to-ward her, bringing with him the disconcerting aroma of cinnamon. His
gravelly voice abraded her nerves. “Don’t think I’m any more excited about this
than you are.”
No comments:
Post a Comment