Please help us welcome Mallory Kane to the blog today. Mallory is here to share her Romantic Suspense, Juror No. 7. Welcome, Mallory! We are all very excited to hear more about Juror No. 7.
Guest Post by Mallory Kane:
I’m really excited to be a part of Maddy’s Romance Madness blog. I want to thank her for including me and I’d like to thank you for stopping by. I’ve been writing for a long time and have had lots of adventures along the way. I started my writing career in the 1990s, when electronic publishing meant mailing a floppy disk to readers so they could insert it into their computers and read it on a monitor. Wow, right? I was published electronically, and ironically, was told by traditional publishers that I was not considered really published. I was a part of the creation of EPIC, the Electronic Publishing Industry Coalition, a global organization of published authors and industry-related professionals who actively advocate continuing education and further enlightenment of electronic publications. I designed the original logo for EPIC.
A favorite saying of electronically published authors at that time was “If someone could invent a hand-held device to read electronic books, it would change the entire publishing world.” It took a few years, but… it happened.
Like so many authors back then and now, I wanted to be published by Harlequin, and in 2001, I achieved that dream. During the next 13+ years, I wrote 37 books for Intrigue, their romantic suspense imprint and thoroughly enjoyed being an Intrigue author. But writing 3 or 4 books a year took a toll on me, so I stopped writing for Harlequin in 2015. Since then I’ve written several titles for Tule Publishing and am now updating and rewriting some of my old Intrigues as new indie novels. The first of these is Juror No. 7. I’m really excited about this book and I hope you’ll want to read it. It’s available on all platforms and right now it’s only 99 cents. Grab it now.
About Juror No. 7:
Police detective Brand Gallagher is bent on revenge against mob boss Giovanni Castellano, the man who ordered his brother’s death. Now undercover within the mob, he’s getting closer to exacting his long-planned vengeance. But when he’s ordered to kill a juror who refused to hang a jury, Brand knows he can’t do it. He has to save Juror No. 7, the lovely Lily Raines, even though it will blow the cover on his three-year mission.
Lily is threatened by thugs to set a killer free, but her father taught her to do the right thing, so she votes to convict. Now her life is in danger and her only hope is a mob hit man named Brand. But Brand seems more like a hero than a thug.
Brand and Lily find themselves on the run, with no one to depend on except each other. Lily trusts Brand with her life, but can she trust him with her heart? By protecting Lily, Brand could lose everything he’s worked for, and gain all he’s ever wanted.
Juror No. 7 Buy Links:
Excerpt from Juror No. 7:
Brand knew she was right. It had to be Castellano. The police would have flashed their badges and identified themselves. His chest tightened with foreboding. Why hadn’t Lieutenant Pruitt picked up her father and put him in protective custody? He’d had plenty of time. What the hell was his problem? That made three times Pruitt had let him down. He vowed to call him as soon as he could manage it without Lily overhearing. He’d demand to know what was going on. There was no excuse for this much delay.
“I need you to listen to me, Lily. I can’t take you to your dad’s nursing home. It’s being watched.”
“They’re trying to kill my father.” Her voice was shrill. She was about to fall apart.
Brand nodded, working to keep his expression bland. Damn it. And it wouldn’t take Castellano long to get to Joe Raines. He’d managed it once already. That fire in the wastebasket hadn’t been an accident. It had been a clear message. We can get to your father. And Lily understood it.
“Please. Dear God, please take me to him.”
“No. That’s not going to happen.” Brand covered her hand where it rested on her knee. She tried to pull away, but he wrapped his fingers around hers and held on tight. “Listen to me. The police will pick up your father and place him in protective custody. They should do that any time now.”
“What? How do you know that?”
Her question jolted him. He’d been so intent on reassuring her that he’d spoken without thinking. He shrugged, thinking fast. “You were a juror on a high-profile murder case. Now you’re missing. A former police officer was killed on his way to Beachside Manor to see another former officer. The police aren’t dumb. They’ll be right on top of Henderson’s killing, and it won’t take them long to put two and two together. As soon as they do, they’ll get your father out of there.” He squeezed her hand. “He’ll be transported to a secure facility. He’ll be safe.”
A sob escaped her throat. “Safe.”
He knew what she was thinking. Her father’s safety was the most important thing, but she had no idea if Brand were telling the truth or not. She didn’t trust him, and he couldn’t blame her. He’d asked her again and again to give him her trust, but he’d done little to earn it.
That thought made him recall a question that had occurred to him while they were hiding in the warehouse office. “Tell me something. Why didn’t you scream for help when the officers showed up at the warehouse?”
Lily stared at him in surprise. Her mouth opened, but nothing came out. She pressed her lips together and looked down at her hands. “I’m not sure.”
“Could it be that you don’t trust the police, either?”
“Of course I trust the police,” she answered quickly. “My father was on the force for almost twenty-five years.” Her wide brown eyes met his, and he saw confusion and wariness in their unfathomable depths.
“Right. You could be in police custody now, where you’d feel safe. So why didn’t you scream?”
She pressed her lips together and looked down at her hands. “I should have, but I —”
“But you what? You were afraid I’d shoot you if you screamed?”
“No. I was afraid they would shoot you.”
Her answer stunned him. She was afraid for his life?
Her head was still down, and her profile was barely discernible in the darkness. He could make out the slight up-turn of her nose and the stubborn tilt of her chin.
“Odd behavior from a cop’s daughter.”
She angled her head to stare at him. “You know a lot of cop’s daughters?”
“You know what I’m talking about. You’ve been telling me how much you learned from your dad.”
“So maybe I should have screamed for the police.”
“I’m grateful you didn’t,” he muttered.
“Maybe I should have.”
About the Author:
Bestselling romance author Mallory Kane has published over 40 romantic suspense titles between Harlequin Intrigue and Tule Publishing Group, and she has multiple independent projects spanning genres. Mallory loves romantic suspense with dangerous heroes and dauntless heroines, and she enjoys tossing in a bit of her medical knowledge for an extra dose of intrigue.
Mallory taught herself to read at age three, starting a lifelong love affair with books. Her mother, a librarian, loved and respected books and taught Mallory that they were a precious resource. Her father was a brilliant storyteller. His oral histories are chronicled in such places as the Veterans’ History Project at the Library of Congress. He was always her biggest fan.
When she’s not writing, Mallory enjoys designing one-of-a-kind jewelry using broken vintage pieces and creating collaged greeting cards. She lives in East Tennessee with her husband, Michael, and their two cats. Mallory loves hearing from her readers. Connect with her at mallorykane.com, @mallorykane on Twitter, and Author MalloryKane on Facebook.
Maddy, thank you so much for allowing me to be your guest today on Maddy’s Romance Madness.