In Serena's Web
Authors: Kay Hooper
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.” —Baton Rouge
Advocate
“The pace flies, the suspense never lets up. It’s great reading.” —
Palo Alto Daily News
“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
BANTAM BOOKS BY KAY HOOPER
The Bishop Trilogies
Stealing Shadows • Hiding in the Shadows
Out of the Shadows
Touching Evil • Whisper of Evil
Sense of Evil
Hunting Fear • Chill of Fear
Sleeping with Fear
Blood Dreams • Blood Sins • Blood Ties
The Quinn Novels
Once a Thief • Always a Thief
Romantic Suspense
Amanda
•
After Caroline
Finding Laura • Haunting Rachel
Classic Fantasy and Romance
On Wings of Magic • The Wizard of Seattle
My Guardian Angel
(anthology)
Yours 2 Keep
(anthology)
Golden Threads • Something Different
Pepper’s Way • C.J.’s Fate
The Haunting of Josie • Illegal Possession
If There Be Dragons • Rebel Waltz
Larger than Life • Time After Time
For Linda
S
HE WATCHED THE
tall, dark, undeniably handsome man enter the restaurant, watched his graceful progress through the crowded room. She watched the fawning waiters and noted the interested stares of fellow diners. She studied the man’s companion for a brief moment.
Blondes
, she thought.
Always blondes. Doesn’t his taste vary?
She looked across the table at her own companion. Another blonde. But the face she studied now was the opposite in every way—except
one—from the face belonging to the blonde across the room.
The one similarity was beauty.
Masculine beauty met her thoughtful gaze as she studied her companion. His was an arresting face: lean, classical of feature, tanned, with a determined jaw and humor playing about the curved lips and gleaming in green eyes. A face capable, certainly, of haunting dreams and breaking hearts.
He was a tall man, athletic, with broad shoulders and a lithe way of moving. Thick, silvery blond hair. A man in his mid-thirties who was obviously strong, tough, and determined.
She looked once again at the dark man across the room. Slowly she began to smile.
“You’re smiling,” her companion observed in a tone of immense foreboding.
She laughed softly and looked across the table at him, her gray eyes as deceptively unthreatening as a silent mountain fog.
“
Why
are you smiling?” he demanded, anxiety mixed with amusement in his deep, pleasant voice.
“I’m not blond, and I don’t have blue eyes.”
“That’s why you’re smiling?” He glanced at her wineglass suspiciously, obviously wondering how much was too much.
Her smile widened. “Brian, you’re a lovely man. I don’t know what I would have done without you these last weeks.”
Far from being flattered by these soulful remarks, Brian Ashford began to frown in earnest. “Rena, you’re up to something,” he said uneasily. “The last time you told me I was a lovely man, I had to bail you out of jail the next day.”
Serena Jameson waved a slender hand in a dismissing gesture. “That was a misunderstanding.”
“You bet it was. You misunderstood that cop when he arrested you, so you punched him in the eye.”
Serena gave him another of the gentle, unthreatening smiles he’d learned to mistrust. “He was going to arrest Sam, and I couldn’t allow that.”
Brian sighed. “I know, I know. Sam was in trouble, so you got yourself into trouble to keep
him
out of trouble—which is the way your mind works. You’re
frightening
, d’you know that?”
“Nothing terrible’s happened, so—”
“I know nothing terrible’s happened … this week. Unlike last week. And the week before. Rena, I’m going to apologize to your father if I ever live to see him again. I believed—truly believed—that he was showing needless concern by requesting someone to accompany you from Europe to New York and then on to the West Coast.”
“Brian—”
“I never thought,” he went on cordially, “that six weeks in the company of a rather lovely twenty-six-year-old woman could hold anything remotely resembling danger. Piece of cake, I thought. Oversee the travel arrangements, keep the lady company, see some of the country I’ve never seen, and just make sure the genius’s daughter doesn’t fall down and break a leg during the trip. Easy. Simple. Safe.”
“Brian—”
“
However
, no one warned me that you bleed when somebody—anybody—gets cut. No one warned me that your gentle smile and soft voice cloak the heart of an army general bent on victory. No one warned me that the genius’s daughter
inherited more than her fair share of the parent’s brains,
and
his lack of common sense! And no one warned me that you get into more trouble than a shipful of sailors on liberty.”
Serena looked mildly shocked. “Not
that
kind of trouble, Brian.”
Brian gazed imploringly toward the ceiling and whatever lay beyond. “She’s going to get me killed,” he murmured.
Reaching across the table to pat his hand comfortingly, Serena said, “Daddy won’t blame you, Brian, whatever happens. He’s used to me.”
Brian employed his free hand to rake through his thick blond hair. “No man in his right mind could ever get used to you,” he told her frankly. Then he shook his head as if to clear it. “Look, Rena—your father is very important to my company. If that microchip he’s developing really works, it’ll definitely revolutionize the computer industry. And I really don’t mind taking an extended vacation and accompanying you across the country. I could even enjoy it, except for the fact that I’m slightly concerned about two possibilities.”
“Which are?” She was gazing thoughtfully across the room, her hand still resting gently on his.
Brian waited until she returned her gaze to him. “One, that you’ll get me killed. Two, that I’ll murder you.”
Serena sat back, her hand sliding smoothly over his as it withdrew. She was still smiling. “Nonsense, Brian.” She summoned a waiter with a glance, a trick she had learned from her charismatic father. “You’ll feel better after a good night’s sleep.”
As if he were approaching senility and needed extra sleep, Brian thought irritably. “Rena—” He broke off with a sigh as the waiter approached.
With the gently wistful smile that always won her instant slaves of the male sex, Serena spoke to the waiter. “Would you please have a bottle of your finest champagne sent over to Mr. Long’s table and put it on my bill?”
“Certainly, Miss Jameson.”
The waiter, Brian observed sourly, was ready to die for her. Then her request sank in, and he began to feel seriously alarmed.
Serena added sweetly, “And when he asks who sent it, just tell him an admirer, would you, please?”
“Of course, Miss Jameson.” The waiter, a silly smile on his face, departed.
“What,” Brian asked evenly, “was that all about? Who’s Long?”
Wide gray eyes gazed at him innocently. “Joshua Long,” she murmured. “He’s staying here at the hotel, in case you haven’t noticed.”
Brian glanced across the room and frowned. He waited until the waiter appeared again, following the man’s progress as he carried champagne to another table. When he got a good look at the recipient of that expensive bottle, his frown deepened. “I know the name.” Then he looked back at her quickly. “Of course I know the name. Rena, he’s the closest thing this century’s seen to a rake.”