At eighteen, the Feds recruited Lilly Mansfield to make her first hit and now nineteen years later she is a hired assassin working as a contract killer for the CIA. She gets through the days by telling herself the people she kills deserve it and she is doing a patriotic duty for her country that not many people can. Gradually she isolates herself from everyone feeling burnt out except for Averill, Tina, and their thirteen-year-old daughter Zia.

When Salvatore, the head of a worldwide crime cartel kills those who Lilly regards as her family, she turns rogue because Salvatore was a CIA asset. She knows that the agency will send someone to take care of her but she never thought Lucas Swain was that man. On his part, Lucas never expects to fall for Lilly or become the instrument that would take over the assignment with Lilly that Averill and Tina never completed. Swain knows that when Lilly discovers who he really is she will want nothing to do with him.

Linda Howard always writes fantastic romantic thrillers and her latest one is no exception. Only an author of her caliber can create a heroine that is a contracted killer and have the audience care about her and hope she find a way out of this life short of death. Swain, a happy-go-lucky agent in comparison to Lilly, is a true patriot with a good heart; he is a man who risks everything for the welfare of his country. Readers will empathize with his predicament and hope he and Lilly will stop the cartel from executing the plan that would kill millions of people worldwide.

REVIEWED BY HARRIET KLAUSNER

DO NOT REPRINT WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE REVIEWER, HARRIET KLAUSNER