’Twas the night before Christmas . . . and dozens of rich, influential hostages are trapped inside a sprawling lakefront mansion in New Orleans. The perp? Detective Reed Ware, model cop turned outlaw. Reed’s out for truth, and will stop at nothing to get it—including waging a coup among the city’s most elite, including the mayor, the council chairman, the sheriff, and the superintendent of police . . . who just happens to be hostage negotiator Caroline Wallace’s father. Cool, calm, controlled. That’s Caroline’s reputation. But when Reed, looking even hotter than he did years ago when seventeen-year-old Caroline tried to seduce him, becomes her next case, she’s swept up by their still-sizzling tension.
