She had to tell a lieBut that still hadn't stopped Detective St. James from coming around and asking Laura questions about the murder of her ex-husband. He seemed to see right through her when she said she didn't know anything about the notorious madam, Anna Kolnikov, either. What good would it do to admit the dead woman had helped Laura turn her life around? It wouldn't help protect her daughter from the mob. In fact, ...

Family means everythingTo Leslie Meadows, the warm, close-knit D'Angelo family is everything a family should be. Everything her own family wasn't.But the D'Angelos are facing difficult times, and when Dr. Matt D'Angelo comes home for Christmas, Leslie hardly recognizes the troubled man who'd been her best friend since he'd defended her in the sixth grade. Suddenly Leslie feels like an outsider.Then Matt uncovers a secret about her that his father has kept for decades. Once ...

WANTEDHe hadn't needed some dossier to remember FBI agent J. J. Barnes. Killer looks. Killer body. Killer instincts. She could take care of herself.Officially, U.S. Marshal Cody Landry led a detail to ensure J.J. lived to deliver testimony against the Russian mob that had tried to assassinate her once already. Unofficially, he was to lure the assassins into the open...using J.J. as bait. Cody hated the idea. Because more primal than his urge to protect ...

Sometimes you have to tell a lie to find the truthHer sister had lived such a secret life, Whitney Sheffield didn't even know that Morgan had a three-year-old daughter. In a desperate phone call just before her death, Morga had begged Whitney to find the little girl, to rescue SaraJane from her dangerous father-a man called Rhys Gannon.When Whitney tracks Gannon down to a small place in Arizona, she lies about why she's there...and what ...

CAN YOU TAKE THE HEAT?From street-smart kid to respected cop, Killian "Chili Pepper" Cray had left her old life behind eight years ago and never looked back. But after an attempted murder left her foster father in a coma, Killian was forced to wade through the bitter memories back home in Syracuse and dig up evidence that would bring down the killer. Facing her past had never been easy, but it was reuniting with the ...

Ria Channing fled from her family six years ago, running away after committing a sin no parent could forgive-driving drunk in the crash that killed her younger brother.The golden child, gone. The demon child, walking away unharmed.Now Ria is back, hungry and exhausted, fighting for survival...with a son of her own. The loving home she left, though, no longer exists. Her parents, once so adoring, have divorced. And Ria regrets returning to the family she ...

Our July/August double issue appropriately features a number of special items--and combinations of items. Vincent Di Fate's cover illustrates "Nightfall on the Peak of Eternal Light," a novella by Richard A. Lovett and William Gleason, which in turn has a companion fact article by Lovett, "Fluffy Impact: What LCROSS Found When It Crashed on the Moon." LCROSS was the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, a NASA mission that deliberately crashed a satellite onto the ...

Paul Carlson has been attracting a good deal of attention here with his series of stories about robot truck drivers in the not too distant future, drawing extensively on his own experience (more with trucks than robots, I suspect) to create a really authentic feel of the road--and human reactions to a changing world. Robots are tools, but very special tools; and humans are notoriously good at turning even the finest tools to nefarious ends. ...

Our July issue features three powerful novelettes. Felicity Shoulders' exciting tale of peril and adventure on a distant planet will have you holding your breath wondering who will emerge with their sanity intact after a "Long Night on Redrock"; as technology becomes more complex, growing up won't get any easier, but Megan Lindholm's bittersweet "Old Paint" reveals why certain milestones on the road to adulthood will remain unchanged; and Allen M. Steele shows us that ...

Openly gay Honolulu homicide detective and surfer Kimo Kanapa'aka investigates the murder of a young lesbian mother at the same time he and his partner consider having children themselves. Zero break refers to the deep-water location where waves first begin, often far offshore. For Honolulu homicide detective and surfer Kimo Kanapa'aka, it means his most dangerous case yet. A young mother is murdered in what appears to be a home invasion robbery, leaving behind a ...

When the Earl of Rothwick mistakenly absconds with Miss Linnea Ashley, all he has to do is the honorable thing: marry her. But life is never as simple as that for a man as wrong-headed as Lord Rothwick, especially when his ex-fiancée Sophia becomes hell-bent on retribution. Regency Romance by Karen Harbaugh writing as Kathleen Elliott; originally published by Harper Monogram Regency

Andrew Sutter buried a few secrets alongside his brother Tyler that day; the disappearance of his first love, the possibility that he almost lost his current lover, Devon Forsythe. Like his secrets, Tyler won't stay buried. After fighting off Tyler, Andrew inadvertently wakens his own magical abilities. Now able to see magic in the world around him, he discovers that his lover has a few secrets of his own. This was previously released but the ...