In just a few days (on February 22!), DEADLY LIES will be shipping from your favorite online book retailer or available in your local bookstore. (The e-version of the book will be available on the *official* release date of 3/1.)  So to get ready for the coming release, I thought I’d share the DEADLY LIES prologue with you. And,  yes, warning! There is adult language in this prologue.

Prologue

“I thought you’d be worth more.”  The voice came to him, low and taunting.  “After all of your blustering and bullshit, I really thought you’d be worth more.”

Jeremy Briar jerked in the chair, but there was nowhere for him to go. His hands were bound to the armrests, the duct tape was far too tight, cutting into his wrists, and his legs were taped to the legs of the chair.  A blindfold covered his eyes, casting him in darkness, and the scent of cigarettes burned his nose.

“L-let me go…” His voice rasped out. They hadn’t given him anything to drink or to eat, in Christ, how many hours?  “M-my family…th-they’ll pay any-anything…” Just to get me back.

Laughter. Dark and mean.  “No, they won’t pay a fucking dime.”

The ice in his chest froze his heart. “No!” The tape bit into him. “M-my father is—”

“An idiot.” The voice was still low, drifting through the darkness.  “I gave him instructions, but the thing is, Jeremy boy, the asshole just couldn’t follow them.”

Bile rose in his throat. “N-no…”

“Not like I asked for that much.  Just four million for you. Four damn million.” The shuffle of footsteps.  More than one set. Someone else was here. Wherever the hell here was.  He didn’t know. The last thing he remembered was drinking at The Court, then he’d woken up in hell.

“The bastard has that much in change.”  Anger simmered in that tense whisper.

Jeremy licked his lips and knew that the voice was right. His father owned half the city. He had that much money in the bank, easy.  What the fuck? Jeremy’s mouth was so dry. He’d screamed and he’d screamed before, but no one had come for him.

No one had helped him.

“Your father thinks it’s a joke.”  Jeremy jerked when he felt a touch on his shoulder.  Sharp. Light. Fingernail?

The point pressed into his flesh.

Jesus. A knife. A whimper broke from his lips. “L-Let me talk to him…I’ll make him see—”

No fucking joke.

“I told him what to do,” the whisper blew against his ear, and Jeremy shuddered. “Told him when to make the drop.  Told him where to put the money. Told him everything, and if he’d just followed my instructions, you would’ve been home by now.”

The blade sliced into his shoulder.

Jeremy pissed his pants.  “Pl-please…”

“Rich boy, is this the first time you’ve begged?”

His head jerked in a nod.  He knew tears streamed from beneath the blindfold. He couldn’t stop them.  Fear ate at his gut, and he knew, he knew that his father had left him to die.

Always disappointing me, boy. Not going to dig your ass out of another mess.  You’re on your own.

Those had been the last words that his father spoke to him. So he’d screwed up and gotten busted with pot.  Did he deserve this?

Don’t let me die.

“Beg some more.” The blade sank into his shoulder.

And Jeremy begged. Begged and pleaded and promised anything because he wanted the fire in his shoulder to ease. He wanted the pain to stop.  He wanted to go home.

Bad dream. Just a bad dream. I’ll wake up, I’ll—

The knife pulled from his flesh with a thick slush of sound.  Jeremy cried out, sagging back, but the blade followed him.  The tip grazed over his jaw, traveled up his cheek, and then slipped right under the edge of the blindfold.

“You’re going to send your old man a message for me.”

Hope shot through him.  Yes, yes! If he could just talk to his dad, he could make him understand. Not a joke. Hell, no. His dad would understand. The bastards would get their money, and Jeremy would be free. “I’ll tell him anything, I’ll say—”

The blade sliced the blindfold away.

He blinked against the flood of light.  So bright.

“You don’t have to say a damn thing.”

The voice, not a whisper anymore, stopped his heart.

The man crouched over him with the weapon. Jeremy could see the others, too, as they came forward into the light.

Jeremy shook his head, “Don’t—”

The knife sank into his upper arm. It sliced down, and the bastard jerked the blade, cutting through flesh and muscle in one long stroke as he opened the arm from shoulder to wrist.

Jeremy screamed.

“Let’s send him a message.” The figure moved around him and stared down with a smile that twisted his lips and never touched his eyes.  “Let’s see what the asshole has to say when he finds what’s left of you.”

Hi, everyone!  Today I will be going through all of the My Deadly Valentine posts–if any prizes have not been awarded, winners will be selected.  (I apologize for the delay–sickness hit my house this week–bah!)

Hope you have a great day!

Thank you all so much for participating in the My Deadly Valentine event. I hope you enjoyed the guest posts and author visits.  (I have now added so many books to my TBR pile!)

I also hope that you are getting ready to have a fabulous Valentine’s Day event.  May your sweetie bring you lots of delicious chocolates! Oh, that chocolate goodness…

And if you happen to be looking for more giveaway fun, well, I’ve got the scoop for you.  Forever Romance will be sponsoring a fun Valentine’s Day party on Twitter today. Giveaways, ahoy!

Happy Valentine’s Day to you.  Take some today to relax. Pamper yourself. Read a good book. Eat some good chocolate.

Update: Margaret’s winner is…Krystean!  Congrats!

My last Deadly Valentine guest (where has the time gone?!) is the fabulous Margaret Rowe. Margaret writes sexy historical romances that you don’t want to miss. Margaret, thank you for joining me and indulging in some Valentine’s fun!

***

Thanks so much to Cynthia for including me in her Deadly Valentine line-up! As Margaret Rowe, I don’t write romantic suspense, although I have had a few bodies turn up here and there in my erotic historicals that I carefully step over. My next release, Any Wicked Thing, has no dead people, but there was potential. You see, my hero and heroine like to fight each other. With swords. Yes, I’ve got a fencing heroine, Frederica Wells, who is fearsome and feisty. Smart, too, a medieval scholar. She writes history books and lives in a crumbling castle with a deliciously decadent duke and is one of my favorite heroines to date. And the hero Sebastian? Yum, if I do say so myself.

I worked in a library while I wrote the book. One of the things I found most difficult about the job was the yearly weeding process—we removed books from the collection that were outdated, years-untouched or sometimes downright disgusting with mold, mildew and other unsavory ingredients. But imagine my delight when Castello’s The Theory and Practice of Fencing was destined for the discard pile. I had an arrangement with the head librarian to take what interested me before it went to Book Heaven, so I’ve wound up with some great old volumes. While they make me sneeze and itch, they’ve been invaluable for research, and have shown me how much books have changed. I’ve got a copy of A School History of England, c. 1904 that I know would put school kids in a coma if they were reading it today.

I discovered lots of interesting things as I wrote AWT. The weirdest? During a siege in France, some enterprising fellows decided to enter the castle through the garderobe. That’s right, basically they climbed up a smelly sewer pipe. Yikes, talk about determination. Yes, I surrender. Now will you please take a bath?

For my last Margaret Rowe book, Tempting Eden (no relation to Cynthia, LOL), I discovered women shaved off their eyebrows and glued on mouse skin. Yikes again.

I’ve got a copy of Any Wicked Thing (Berkley Heat, March 2011) for one commenter who tells me the strangest fact they’ve come across in their reading. For excerpts, please visit my website and that of my alter ego Maggie Robinson. Thanks so much, and party on!

Update: The lucky winner of The Shadow Guard ARC is…Barb P! Congrats, Barb!

Today I’m thrilled to have author extraordinaire Diane Whiteside as my Deadly Valentine guest. I’m a huge fan of Diane’s work (and if you haven’t read her, you are totally missing out!). Diane was gracious enough to answer my interview questions AND to offer an ARC of THE SHADOW GUARD to one lucky commenter.

Hi, Diane!  Thanks so much for participating in “My Deadly Valentine.”  I’ve included some interview questions below, but if there is anything else you want to add, please do!

1.   Do you have a favorite romance novel?  If so, what is it and why is it your favorite?

If I could only pick one, it’d be TELL ME NO LIES by Elizabeth Lowell for fabulous characters and plot.  I love the heroine’s growth, from competent but socially shy to ferocious, all while remaining very ladylike.  The hero is one of my all-time favorites – he protects her at great cost from everything, even from himself.  (Who wouldn’t want a guy like that?)  Their love story is interwoven into an incredible story of antique Chinese bronzes, with dynasties and international spies competing with each other in high-style Washington, DC and San Francisco.  Gorgeous!

2.  You’ve written such an amazing variety of books – is there a particular sub-genre of romance that you enjoy writing the most?

I love writing historical fantasy, where I can find a magical reason for a true historical event.  (Call it perverse of me but some occurrences were so weird that you’ve almost got to start suspecting magic.  And no, I’m not talking about crop circles or building the pyramids!) .  “Caught by the Tides” in BEYOND THE DARK is the only historical fantasy I’ve ever written.

I indulged myself by sneaking historical fantasy into THE SHADOW GUARD, since Astrid, my heroine, is a “government” sorceress who was born in the 1880’s.

3.  In your upcoming release, THE SHADOW GUARD, you weave together both elements of suspense and the paranormal.  What was the biggest challenge for you in writing this book and blending those two aspects?

THE SHADOW GUARD is a mystery, where the problem is to figure out who killed the lady washed up by the river?  When you write a mystery, it’s like writing backwards and forwards at the same time: my hero and heroine move forward to solve the mystery, while I, the author, move backward to the mystery and figure out which clues to give them.  All of those clues had to work in THE SHADOW GUARD’s paranormal universe – crystal magic, anyone? – and also had to be good suspense.  Since this was my first mystery and paranormal with crystal magic, there were times when I thought I’d signed up to lose my mind.

4.  Now, in contrast…what was your favorite part about writing THE SHADOW GUARD?

I love my hero Jake.  He’s one of those characters whose voice an author can always hear and who can always throw in a plot twist.  Sometimes writing scenes with him – never for him!  LOL – felt like dancing the tango – hot, dark, and a surprise a minute.

5.  Give me two words to describe your hero, Jake.

Protective workaholic.  He puts a lot of energy into being protective, which leaves him no time for anything – except for a little video gaming.  It’s played havoc with his private life.

6.  Give me five words to describe your heroine, Astrid.

Widowed, brave, loyal, hot-tempered fashionista.  Jake’s over-protective workaholic side pisses her off.  He’s never been involved with a fashionista before – heck, he doesn’t really know how to date.

7.   What can readers expect to find in the pages of THE SHADOW GUARD?

A rockin’ paranormal mystery with a hot romance.

Thanks so much for answering my questions, Diane! I’m looking forward to reading THE SHADOW GUARD.  It certainly sounds like Jake will be one fantastic hero.  And speaking of heroes…readers, what qualities do you enjoy in romance novel heroes? One commenter will win that awesome ARC!