The Fall of Lucas Kendrick

BLOOD TIES

“Hooper’s darkly riveting Blood trilogy comes to a terrifying climax.… The chilling intensity of this novel is sure to haunt your dreams!”

—
RT Book Reviews

“Series fans and newcomers alike will appreciate the appendixes, which include bios of Special Crimes Unit agents and definitions of their various paranormal abilities.”

—
Publishers Weekly

BLOOD SINS

“Disturbing … Hooper pulls out all the stops.”

—
Publishers Weekly

“Fans of Kay Hooper won’t be disappointed.”

—
The Romance Reader

“Another solid entry.”

—
Booklist

BLOOD DREAMS

“You won’t want to turn the lights out after reading this book!”

—
Romantic Times

“A good read for fans of other serial-killer books and the TV show
Criminal Minds
.”

—
Booklist

“Spectacular … With its fast pace, high-adrenaline plot, cast of well-developed characters, and fluid dialogue,
Blood Dreams
fills every expectation a reader could have.… I highly recommend.”

—
Romance Reviews Today

SLEEPING WITH FEAR

“An entertaining book for any reader.”

—
Winston-Salem Journal

“Hooper keeps the suspense dialed up … Readers will be mesmerized by a plot that moves quickly to a chilling conclusion.”

—
Publishers Weekly

CHILL OF FEAR

“Hooper’s latest may offer her fans a few shivers on a hot beach.”

—
Publishers Weekly

“Kay Hooper has conjured a fine thriller with appealing young ghosts and a suitably evil presence to provide a welcome chill on a hot summer’s day.”

—
Orlando Sentinel

“The author draws the reader into the story line and, once there, they can’t leave because they want to see what happens next in this thrill-a-minute, chilling, fantastic reading experience.”

—
Midwest Book Review

HUNTING FEAR

“A well-told scary story.”

—
Toronto Sun

“Hooper’s unerring story sense and ability to keep the pages flying can’t be denied.”

—
Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine

“Hooper has created another original—
Hunting Fear
sets an intense pace.… Work your way through the terror to the triumph … and you’ll be looking for more Hooper tales to add to your bookshelf.”

—Wichita Falls
Times Record News

“It’s vintage Hooper—a suspenseful page-turner.”

—Brazosport
Facts

“Expect plenty of twists and surprises as Kay Hooper gets her series off to a crackerjack start!”

—
Aptos Times

SENSE OF EVIL

“A well-written, entertaining police procedural … loaded with suspense.”

—
Midwest Book Review

“Filled with page-turning suspense.”

—
The Sunday Oklahoman

“
Sense of Evil
will knock your socks off.”

—
Rendezvous

“A master storyteller.”

—T
AMI
H
OAG

STEALING SHADOWS

“A fast-paced, suspenseful plot … The story’s complicated and intriguing twists and turns keep the reader guessing until the chilling end.”

—
Publishers Weekly

“This definitely puts Ms. Hooper in a league with Tami Hoag and Iris Johansen and Sandra Brown. Gold 5-star rating.”

—
Heartland Critics

HAUNTING RACHEL

“A stirring and evocative thriller.”

—
Palo Alto Daily News

“The pace flies, the suspense never lets up. It’s great reading.”

—
Baton Rouge Advocate

“An intriguing book with plenty of strange twists that will please the reader.”

—
Rocky Mountain News

“It passed the ‘stay up late to finish it in one night’ test.”

—
The Denver Post

FINDING LAURA

“You always know you are in for an outstanding read when you pick up a Kay Hooper novel, but in
Finding Laura
, she has created something really special! Simply superb!”

—
Romantic Times

“Hooper keeps the intrigue pleasurably complicated, with gothic touches of suspense and satisfying resolution.”

—
Publishers Weekly

“A first-class reading experience.”

—
Affaire de Coeur

AFTER CAROLINE

“Harrowing good fun. Readers will shiver and shudder.”

—
Publishers Weekly

“Kay Hooper has crafted another solid story to keep readers enthralled until the last page is turned.”

—
Booklist

“Kay Hooper comes through with thrills, chills, and plenty of romance, this time with an energetic murder mystery with a clever twist. The suspense is sustained admirably right up to the very end.”

—
Kirkus Reviews

Prologue

Epilogue

H
E WAS A
rotund little man, an unashamed paunch straining the seams of his tailored vest. Shiny wing-tipped shoes were on his small feet. He had a great leonine head with a cherub’s face, small brightly twinkling eyes, and pouty lips. And he was so much a caricature of a strutting banty rooster pleased with his own importance that few people casually encountered would even look for more than that.

Lucas Kendrick was one of the few; he knew from past experience that the federal agent calling
himself Hagen was about as harmless as a battleship and just as tough. So he stood in the dingy hotel room gazing out a dirty window for long moments before turning to cut off the droning voice of the federal honcho. “All right.”

Hagen blinked. “All right? Just like that?”

Lucas leaned back against the window frame and smiled sardonically. “There was really no need for all this cloak-and-dagger stuff,” he said. “Meeting secretly like this. But you have to play your little games, don’t you?”

“Mr. Kendrick, this is a serious matter,” Hagen retorted in his best official manner. “And I felt it only fitting that you complete the job your friend Steele began a few weeks ago. The stolen artwork must be recovered and Rome prosecuted—”

“Sure he has them?”

“Positive.”

Lucas didn’t question the assurance. “Okay. So how do I get inside his estate? He has more security than we do.”

The
we
Lucas used referred to Josh Long’s worldwide financial empire, something that hardly needed clarifying between him and the federal man. Lucas was the chief investigator for Long Enterprises, and Hagen had spent the past year and more involving Josh and his men in various “assignments” for his agency.

The federal man looked somewhat searchingly at Lucas now, seemingly disturbed. “You’re willing to accept the assignment, no questions asked?”

“Plenty of questions,” Lucas corrected. “But why fight it? I’m the only one you haven’t grabbed for one of your assignments; it was a matter of time. If I turn you down, you’ll either talk me into it somehow, or you’ll get me involved whether I like it or not. So how do I get onto Rome’s estate?”

Hagen’s cupid lips pursed slightly, but he responded readily enough. “Rome’s having a weekend party soon; he does that from time to time, and his guest list is rather exclusive. There is a past … connection between you and the
only single woman on that guest list. If she agrees, you’ll be accepted onto the estate as her escort.”

Lucas’s expression never changed, but some tautness crept beneath his classical features, and his sharp blue eyes, flecked with gold, hardened. “Oh? Who is she?”

“Kyle Griffon.” Hagen’s small eyes were very wary.

Softly Lucas said, “What past connection are you talking about, Hagen?”

“We both know the answer to that, Mr. Kendrick.”

“And just how the hell do
you
know? Her name was never in any of my reports.”

“No, it wasn’t. She was never linked to your undercover operation. You did an excellent job.”

Lucas decided not to repeat his question. He really didn’t want to know the answer. Instead he asked tersely, “What’s the plan?”

More than an hour later Lucas again stood gazing through a dirty window. He was alone now, Hagen having left, and he looked back over his shoulder at the shoddy room. He had almost forgotten that secretive men met in dingy hotel rooms to discuss and plan dangerous operations.

Almost forgotten.

Ten years hadn’t changed his memories, just made them more distant. He could still remember the cardboard taste of burgers and cold coffee, the stiffness of sitting for too long in cars, and the grinding frustration of political games having no place in his vision of the role of the law in human affairs.

He could remember undercover operations during which he literally had become someone else, and the disorientation of returning to the real world with memories of junkies and glittering lifestyles and violence in the back of his mind. He could remember triumphs and tragedies, a little laughter and a lot of pain, and people briefly known.

He remembered Kyle Griffon.

Lucas half closed his eyes, shutting out the sight of a dingy, rainy street seen through a dirty window. And only sagging furniture marred by cigarette burns and too many hard years heard his low murmur.

“Oh, hell, Kyle, how am I going to face you?”

L
UCAS
K
ENDRICK’S HEART
leapt into his throat. He rolled with that old but familiar feeling, annoyed that he still remembered how to ride an emotional bronc. It had been a long time. He clamped his teeth together and watched through narrowed eyes, telling himself he would have felt the same way while watching
anyone
with a death wish. It didn’t help.

He hadn’t really expected it to.

The triangular sail was about eighteen feet across and colored bright red and blue; dangling
on a flimsy harness and steering the thing with a flimsy control bar was a small figure dressed in drab green.

Objectively speaking, he thought, it was a glorious sight. The hang glider banked and dipped and lifted as the strong mountain winds kept it aloft, its brilliant colors contrasting beautifully with the rich, varied, early-winter shades of green and brown in the valley and the distant snowcapped peaks of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Lucas watched the glider, fists jammed into pockets and heart pounding in his throat, expecting a treacherous downdraft to snatch the flimsy craft and batter it to the valley floor far below. He couldn’t take his eyes off it even long enough to fully appreciate a rare glimpse of a bighorn ram as it perched briefly on a rocky crag nearby and then vanished.