Ultimate Weapon »

SHANNON MCKENNA is the author of the romantic thrillers Behind Closed Doors, Standing in the Shadows, Return to Me, Out of Control, Hot Night, All About Men, and Edge of Midnight. Her novellas were featured in the Brava anthologies All Through the Night, I Brake for Bad Boys, and Bad Boys Next Exit. After a bizarre assortment of jobs, from singing cocktail waitress to medical secretary to strolling madrigal singer, she decided that writing hot romance suits her best. She lives with her husband and family in a small seaside town in southern Italy.

Tamara's a bad girl with a dangerous difference. Enter a terrifying, sexually charged world of thrilling suspense, where love is the riskiest game of all.

THE FIRST CUT IS THE DEEPEST

Covert operations are what Val Janos is all about. The man is mysterious and sinister, and lethally hot. Only Tamara can understand the strange intensity that drives him to win at all costs-and only she can match it.

Val has one weak spot: Imre, the frail old man who befriended him when he was a scared, hungry kid abandoned on the streets of Budapest. But Daddy Novak knows about Imre, and Imre's head is on the block if Val doesn't deliver Tam up to Novak's tender mercies.

A white-hot passion explodes when Tam and Val get too close. They both have too much to be afraid of, too much to hide. And now, for the first time, too much to lose.

Praise for Shannon McKenna and Her Novels

"Wild boy Sean McCloud takes center stage in McKenna's romantic suspense series. Full of turbocharged sex scenes, this action-packed novel is sure to be a crowd pleaser."
-Publishers Weekly on EDGE OF MIDNIGHT

"Passionate, intense several intricate storylines give the book depth and power, tying in the edge-of-your-seat ending with flawless ease."
-Romantic Times on EDGE OF MIDNIGHT (4 -star review and a Top Pick!)

"Highly creative erotic sex and constant danger."
Romantic Times on HOT NIGHT (4 "-star review and a Top Pick)

Publishers Weekly

Bestseller McKenna (Extreme Danger) aims for the heart with scorching precision in this well-researched romantic thriller in which the erotic elements fit the action and the central relationship doesn't interfere with the plot. Glamorous Tamara Steele, a career criminal turned jewelry designer, is doing her best to be a good mother to her three-year-old adoptive daughter, Rachel, a Ukrainian orphan rescued from a black-market organ donor ring. Unfortunately, Tam's dark past is catching up with her: gangster Daddy Novak wants revenge for the murder of Kurt, his son and heir, with whom she was once involved; another crook, Georg Luksch, has hired Val Janos, a sexy covert operative, to deliver Tam to his bed so he can make her his love slave. Val and Tam emerge as fully fleshed-out characters as the smitten Val decides to help Tam rather than deliver her to the odious Luksch. McKenna fans will enjoy glimpses of her popular crime-fighting McCloud clan, whose members are also intent on protecting Tam and Rachel. (Nov.)

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