Next of Kin

In search of her past, Holly leaves both her home and Bud Tate, the handsome ranch foreman she's afraid to love, horrified by the knowledge that the blood of a depraved killer might run through her veins. Haunted, driven, she searches for The Hunter and hopes her mother was wrong.

But her search leads to a terrible truth no one could have imagined, and even Bud's determination to follow and protect the woman he loves may not be enough to save Holly from the terrors of a past become present.

She had given him the most precious gift of all--the gift of life. But something more than a mere blood transfusion linked Wyatt Hatfield to the stranger who had saved him. Something that allowed her to call out to him for help in the stillness of the night--without ever speaking a word....

And now it was his turn to give. For the connection that linked Wyatt to Glory Dixon was the only hope he had of saving her from danger. And he had to try--because without ever trying, Glory had become more precious to him than his own life.

Maria remembers none of that. But now she's determined to flush her mother's killer out of hiding and discover the identity of her birth father. She heads to Tulsa, Oklahoma, where she meets Detective Bodie Scott.

Empathizing with this beautiful woman looking to find out who she really is, he opens the decades-old case file. Their investigation leads them down a dangerous path, where no one is what they seem. Where a father does not want to be found. And a murderer has "like mother, like daughter" in mind for Maria.

Savannah Slade is not the person she thought she was. The reading of her "father's" will has led her to a world-shattering revelation: her sisters are not her blood kin-and she may be the heiress to a massive fortune. Her not-quite-fiancé Judd doesn't care where she came from-he only wants her by his side. But the primal need to uncover her past wins out, and Savannah trades the Montana ranges for Miami's moneyed oceanside enclaves.

The wealthy and powerful Stoss family is less than overjoyed to find that Gerald Stoss's daughter has emerged from the past. But theirs is a clan seldom troubled by…inconveniences. They've always had the means to eradicate any blemish on their perfect lives. One more won't make a difference.

Samantha Carlyle knows someone is watching her—someone who wants her dead. So she runs to the safety of her tiny Texas hometown, and to the sweet, haunting memories of John Thomas Knight. A dedicated small-town sheriff as tender as he is tough, John Thomas was Samantha's best friend, her first love—and now he is her only chance. Fate has carried them down different roads, but the fire has never died—and the passion flares white-hot the moment their eyes meet again. But this time Samantha must trust the proud, strong, devastatingly handsome lawman with more than her heart—she must trust him with her life. Because there is another man who wants her, and he's waiting for the right time to strike. And the next sweet, sensuous kiss she and John Thomas share could well be Samantha's last.

Street artist Jade remembers little of her childhood except for the time she spent under the ruthless control of a cult leader, a time marked by terrible abuse and suffering. For the fifteen years since she escaped his grasp, she has survived by living on the streets and never putting down roots.

Ex-cop Luke Kelly knows his friend Sam Cochrane wants nothing more than to find his daughter, Jade, who was taken from him as a child. So Luke uses all his connections to make that happen, not knowing that by reuniting Jade with her father he is exposing her to a deadly peril.

In the healing embrace of her father's home, Jade-with Luke's loving help-begins to put fear behind her. But somewhere in the darkness, a man is prepared to kill rather than let Jade reveal the secrets of her childhood. And when her story makes the national news, that someone finally knows where to find her.

Wes Holden has witnessed the ravages of war firsthand as an army special ops, but nothing could have prepared him for the senseless deaths of his own wife and son-or the private nightmare that follows. An empty shell of a man, he is unable to do anything but survive. Until the day he walks into Ally Monroe's yard.

Born and raised in the isolated beauty of the mountains of West Virginia, Ally faces a bleak future spent caring for her stern widower father and two brothers. With few job skills, she knows her wish for something more is hopelessly naive. But that doesn't stop her from dreaming that a stranger might walk into her backyard and transform her lonely life.

Something in Wes's fathomless eyes tells Ally all she needs to know. And when he settles into the abandoned cabin nearby, a special bond begins to form between them. But as Wes slowly emerges from his haze of pain, his soldier's instincts soon kick in. He knows there's danger hidden in the mountains, a place carefully chosen to hide a thriving business in illegal drugs. Worse, it's a threat closing in on Ally….