Brook/Alley FBI Series

Annabelle “Annie” Alley was turning into a beautiful, younger version of her mother, Kaitlin. All of the Alley women looked alike. Both Annie and Kaitlin were well-known authors, and Annie’s famous FBI series had the critics singing her praises. Not many realized that her books were an honest portrayal of her baby sister’s life. Annie finds herself in New York in the middle of winter for an awards dinner and a book signing. She is homesick, and misses her husband and children. She’s counting the days until the twins’ Spring Break when they would fly to Belize to spend time with her family. Warm tropical breezes sounded like heaven — especially in the freezing, pelting rain on the cold and lonely street heading to Barnes and Noble. No wonder her Mama refused to come back to New York in the winter. As she walked, she had the creepy feeling that someone was following her. She heard the echo of footsteps and every so often, she saw a huge shadow behind her. On the way back to the motel, she let her fear prod her into running. Suddenly, from behind her, a large hand covered with a sickly sweet dampness closed over her face. She realized that she hadn’t been paranoid after all. Her mother’s abduction was repeating itself. Her last thoughts were of her husband and her babies... Victoria Van Haven, an old enemy of Kaitlin’s, convinced her younger son to hold the Alley woman for ransom to save the family’s empire. In reality, Victoria just wanted Katie dead. She wanted her to pay for her older son’s death. What she didn’t know was that her son would abduct the wrong Alley! Shelly, a surgeon and former FBI agent, her husband, Michelle, and their old unit are called back to action to go after Annie in Madrid. Fighting impossible odds, they manage to save Annie and bring her back home. Van Haven remains determined to exact her revenge, and continues harass the family — taking both Annie and her mother hostage with the aid of her criminal connections. None of them could have guessed at the terror Annie’s sister, Shell, and the rest of her family would rain down on them.

Michelle Brooke became one of Atlanta’s finest surgeons in less than a year. She was a whiz kid with a brain like a computer, a photographic memory, and petite, pretty and unbelievably well liked by all. Compared to her life as a special agent with the Atlanta’s FBI unit, her job was stimulating, rewarding and not nearly as hazardous to her health. Her husband, Michael Brooke, returned to the FBI unit in Atlanta after a year spent trying to work with his father. He was a special agent, and trying to be anything else didn’t seem to fit. Shelly understood how Mike felt. He managed not to get injured on every assignment, which was something Shelly couldn’t seem to manage. She decided to hang up her guns and pick up the stethoscope. She finished her residency, and she loved her job. It was hard not to miss the excitement and danger of being a special agent, but she couldn’t continue putting her family through the many near-death situations she often faced. Shell was barely five foot tall. At twenty-six years old, she still looked like a teenager. Shelly had trouble gaining weight and weighed barely ninety pounds, but it was ninety pounds of muscle. She still ran, swam and worked out relentlessly. She was healthy for a change and had not received even a bruise in months. She loved her schedule, and being able to go home to their children at the end of the day told her that she had made the right decision. It didn’t seem like anything could stop them now. The kids were healthy, Mike was happy, and Shelly decided that being a doctor, a wife and a mama was more than enough. She played the piano and she painted in her leisure time, and they took off to the islands every chance they got. They had enough bad stuff happen in their short marriage, yet they still managed to survive and stay deeply in love. They had it all. Shell loved Mike more now than the first day at her Aunt Tina’s when the boy became a man in her eyes and she was blindsided. He still had that affect on her. She would stop mid-sentence and stare when he walked across the room. Lord, help her, but the man still made her pant. One thing that Michelle and Michael didn’t realize was that life wasn’t always fair and that the past can and will come back to haunt you. Life comes back hard and stops both of them in their tracks. Can they go on? Can they survive? What do you do when your life comes to a total stop?