By
USA Today Bestselling Author
Heather Slade

MAYHEM

I sit back, watch, take it all in, as I determine my next move. I’m quiet, stealthy, and always ready to act—making my enemies regret their every decision. It’s always the silent shy-type people need to worry about. And they worry about me. But when K19 needs the best profiler in the business to come out of “retirement,” it takes every bit of my charisma to convince her to help. And now, there’s no holding back. She’s going to learn why they call me MAYHEM.

GRACE

No way, not a chance. I’m officially in “retirement.” Not that I’m anywhere near old enough. I’m just done facing off against the dregs of humanity and looking filth right in the eye. And now, it’s time to trust the one man who makes it all worthwhile—the one who makes me lose control. He’s chaos and mayhem, and I cannot get enough.

Finally they’ve tracked down Hanadarko akd Grace Hunter. They’ve also got a pretty good idea she won’t want to talk to Mayhem. With Steel, Cowboy and Winslow, Mayhem is hoping to convince Grace to come out of retirement to help them solve this case. The bodies keep piling up, and they really need to solve this sooner rather than later.

There’s a lot of animosity between Grace and Mayhem and we will find out all about it in this book. For right now, they need to go over the investigation to date and start the profile. Of course, there’s a bit more to resolve first.

This is a favorite scene.

After setting up an investigation “war room,” I checked the time, stunned to see it was zero two hundred hours. Given Cowboy said they’d arrive between eight and nine hundred, they’d soon be on the road. I still had time to withdraw my demand for Mayhem’s involvement. In fact, I could request the opposite. I shook my head. Cowboy and Winslow had already witnessed enough of my drama. Instead, I’d do what I told them to tell Mayhem. I’d man the fuck up. On this go-around, I’d focus on what was important— finding a serial killer. However, from everything I’d read, we weren’t looking for one. It appeared more like a ring of murderers.

I finally climbed into bed an hour later, doubting sleep would come. When I woke what felt like five minutes later, it was because Milagro was standing at the bedroom door, whimpering.

“You gotta go out, girl?” I rolled out of bed, shocked to see how late it was. I’d slept beyond the time Mayhem, Cowboy, and Winslow were supposed to arrive. “Ugh,” I groaned when I looked out the window and saw an SUV in the driveway. Worse, Soj was standing near the passenger door, talking to the man I guessed was the reason Millie was making a fuss.

“Don’t you dare act happy to see him,” I said, knowing full well my dog would be beside herself the minute she saw Mayhem.

Before letting Millie out, I looked in the mirror and groaned a second time at the dark circles, pale skin, and wrinkles a twenty-nine-year-old woman shouldn’t have. “Good news. He won’t think I got all gussied up to see him,” I muttered, opening the bedroom door.

I took my time pulling on my boots, then walking over to unfasten the chain and unlock the deadbolt. “I’m warning you, if you run over to him, you’re not getting any bones for a month.”

Milagro didn’t even look up at me. As soon as she could squeeze her body through the opening, she ran directly to Mayhem. I wasn’t surprised. Honestly, I wanted to do the same thing. Especially when our eyes met as he bent over to rub Millie’s ears.

What I’d give to be able to turn back time and do everything differently. Keep my mind where it was supposed to be rather than becoming obsessed with the role Bryar Davies had played in my then-boyfriend’s life.

Winslow was the first to approach as I stood on the porch, watching the scene playing out in front of me and reluctantly meeting Soj’s scrunched eyes. The man knew I had a dog; he’d just rarely seen her.

“Thank you,” Winslow said, standing beside me.

“Considering I haven’t done anything yet, you might want to hold back on the gratitude.”

She shrugged. “You’re helping. That’s enough for now.”

When Mayhem and Cowboy walked in my direction, I stepped off the porch and approached Soj.

“You locked the door,” he said in a quiet voice when I got close enough that no one else could hear us.

“I had work to do.”

He nodded toward the porch, where Mayhem was sitting on the top step, Millie’s head resting on his thigh. “Who is he to you?”

“An old friend. Not that it’s any of your business.”

Soj raised a brow. “You are my business.”

I kicked at the dirt with the toe of my boot and smiled up at him. “I’m not.”

“Because of him?”

I rested my hands on his forearms. “Because of me.”

“Do you want me to leave?”

I kicked the dirt again and looked over at the porch, itching for a hit off one of Soj’s smokes. “No.”

“But you will lock the door.” He pulled out a cigarette and lit it.

I snatched it from his mouth and took a hit. “We’re workin’ a case. An important one. I’m not going to have much free time. You know what I’m sayin’?”

He nodded. “You want me to leave.”

I took another hit, handed the smoke back to him, and walked away. “Come to dinner tonight,” I said over my shoulder.

Mayhem absentmindedly stroked my dog’s head as he watched me walk toward him. Yeah, my face might look like crap, but my body was a different story. I worked hard to keep it in shape. More so since I left the FBI and had little else to do.

I was tiny but packed a big punch, as my great-grandmother used to say. At five feet four and one hundred and twenty pounds, a strong wind could probably blow me over. However, it was my “perfect hourglass figure”— again, something my great-grand said— that caused men to stare in the same way Mayhem was now. I didn’t doubt Soj was equally fixated on my backside.

“Who is he?” Mayhem asked when I got closer.

I laughed. “Verbatim what he said.”

“Did you respond?”

“Yep.” I walked past him. “Come on, Millie. We’ve got work to do.” She didn’t follow me, the bitch. Instead, she waited until Winslow, Cowboy, and Mayhem came inside. Actually, just Mayhem.

“Wow,” Winslow muttered when I led her into the room where I’d set up various whiteboards. Two for victims, two for suspects, two more for questions, and finally, two more for evidence. I had more stored in a back bedroom if we needed them.

“Looks like the one you brought,” Cowboy said to Mayhem.

“She always outdid me.”

“Bathroom’s down the hall. Fridge is full of stuff to drink. We’ll figure out what to eat as we go. Soj can get takeout.” I looked over at Mayhem, who was holding a framed photo of my great-grandmother and me.

“How is Meemaw?” he said, placing the frame where it had been. “What is she? One hundred and—”

“Three,” I answered before he finished the question. She’d turned one hundred less than a month after I walked out on Mayhem and swore I’d never look back. Meemaw had let me cry on her shoulder, then told me to buck the hell up when she decided she’d seen enough of my tears.

I’d been named for my beloved great-grandmother— Grace Hanadarko— and it was Mayhem who’d first called me by her last name. It stuck and soon replaced my previous code name— Huntress— which I detested. However, no one we worked with on what would be my final case knew its significance.

“She’s quite a lady.”

My eyes met his. I knew what he was up to. When he’d referred to her that way when they first met, she responded by saying she wasn’t a damn lady; she was a “fucking broad.”

It wasn’t just me who swore like a sailor. As the story went, one of my first words was “shit,” after spending an afternoon with her. My Geepaw, her son, gave her a boatload of grief about it until, less than five minutes later, my own mama blurted the word.

“Let’s get started,” I snapped, hating that I’d introduced him to the woman who meant more to me than anyone else on the planet. Then I’d put him in second place, even over my parents and grandparents.

“I’ll go grab your board,” offered Cowboy.

“I’ll get it,” Mayhem countered, already walking out the door.

“I’ll forewarn you; I can get a little intense,” I said after he was out of earshot.

The smirk on Cowboy’s face told me he’d already been briefed on my investigation style. Truth was, I preferred to work alone— until Mayhem. He was the only man, only person, I’d worked with who could actually keep up. While the rest of the agents might be able to toss a thought in, here or there, Mayhem was right there with me, firing as fast as I did. God, it had been exhilarating. I hated how much I missed it. Now, here I was, about to jump back in with both feet.

Fuck.
Heather Slade. Code Name: Mayhem (Kindle Locations 461-521). K19 Shadow Operations Team One Book Five.

As they go over everything, I start to wonder about the case myself. Have I guessed correctly or am I going to be surprised.

Okay I was surprised. There’s so much that gets resolved in this book and I truly loved the way everything comes together.

Intrigue and suspense abound, and there is also action, sizzle and romance that rounds the series out.

I can’t wait to start reading the new series!

5 Contented Purrs for Heather!

Heather Slade

USA Today and Amazon Top 15 Bestselling Author Heather Slade writes shamelessly sexy, edge-of-your seat romantic suspense.

She gave herself the gift of writing a book for her own birthday one year. Forty-plus books later (and counting), she’s having the time of her life. The women Slade writes are self-confident, strong, with wills of their own, and hearts as big as the Colorado sky. The men are sublimely sexy, seductive alphas who rise to the challenge of capturing the sweet soul of a woman whose heart they’ll hold in the palm of their hand forever. Add in a couple of neck-snapping twists and turns, a page-turning mystery, and a swoon-worthy HEA, and you’ll be holding one of her books in your hands.

She loves to hear from her readers.