Ashes Ashes

Are you ever really innocent until proven guilty?

Sophia Naziri is wanted for questioning in the murder of a U.S. senator. She’s worried the police will show up on her doorstep any moment, but when Detective Colby Black appears, it’s to help her put out a kitchen fire, not take her in. Yet. His easy smile and persistence in getting to know her pushes all her troubles to the back of her mind, until a hit man tracks her down. Getting arrested becomes the least of her worries and the handsome detective could be her only way out—if she tells him the truth.

Colby Black’s sniper skills have been a blessing and a curse to him. As a member of a Hostage Negotiation Team, he can use them to save people, but sometimes he can’t protect the innocent despite his best efforts. When a hostage situation goes bad, he tries to put it behind him by helping out his mysterious next-door neighbor, Sophia Naziri. But she pulls Colby into a web of lies and conspiracy that will force him to use every skill he has in order to survive. Faced with the moment of truth, can he trust anyone around him—including the woman at the center of it all?

Amazon * Barnes & Noble

Excerpt

He rested his hands on her shoulders, but didn’t say anything.

“This is where I make my stand,” she told him. “If I don’t, I know I’ll regret it for the rest of my life. I have a chance to make a difference, to get justice for Philip.”

He let out a breath. “I know about wanting to make a difference, but what if you don’t make it out? Is it worth your life?” He gently turned her around to face him. “Because I don’t know if it is.”

She held her hand to his cheek, her brown eyes intense and searching his face. Putting a hand at the back of her neck, he pulled her to him, brushing his lips over hers. Her arms slid around his neck and she melted into his arms. His feelings that he hadn’t consciously admitted he had for her surged to the surface and his mouth pressed into hers, no longer gentle. She responded with just as much fire and Colby could barely suppress a groan. His hand slipped to her back, running the length of it. His entire body felt like there was nothing else, just her, and without her there was nothing.

Author Julie Coulter Bellon