{"product_id":"sizzle-isbn-9780345500786","title":"Sizzle","description":"\u003cb\u003e#1 \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestselling author Julie Garwood’s trademark mix of dazzling love stories, unforgettable characters, and riveting suspense never fails to keep readers turning the pages late into the night. In red-hot \u003ci\u003eSizzle\u003c\/i\u003e, she turns up the heat even higher. \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Lyra Prescott, a Los Angeles film student, is closing in on graduation and dives into work on her final filmmaking assignment: a documentary transformed by a twist of fate into a real-life horror film. While working on her project, a rash of mysterious incidents convince Lyra that she’s trapped in a sinister scenario headed for a violent ending. Running scared, she turns to her best friend, Sidney Buchanan, whose connections bring devilishly handsome FBI agent Sam Kincaid into Lyra’s life. As the noose of intrigue tightens, the passion between Lyra and Sam escalates with dangerous intensity. With the rugged FBI agent beside her, Lyra must learn to let down her defenses and follow her heart—even if that leads to deadly peril.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “Sizzle most satisfying . . . If a book has Julie Garwood’s name on it, it’s guaranteed to be a meticulously written, well thought-out, and thoroughly engaging story.”—\u003ci\u003eSun Journal\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e“Excellent adventure . . . [An] element of quirky humor provides a nice lift to the story and is the quintessential Garwood touch.”—\u003ci\u003eRT Book Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e “Sizzle most satisfying . . . If a book has Julie Garwood’s name on it, it’s guaranteed to be a meticulously written, well thought out, and thoroughly engaging story [with] captivating characters.”—\u003ci\u003eSun Journa\u003c\/i\u003el\u003cb\u003eJulie Garwood\u003c\/b\u003e is the author of numerous \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestsellers, including F\u003ci\u003eire and Ice, Shadow Music, Shadow Dance, Slow Burn, Murder List, Killjoy, Mercy, Heartbreaker, Ransom,\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eCome the Spring.\u003c\/i\u003e There are more than thirty-six million copies of her books in print.\u003ci\u003eChapter One\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThey called him a hero for doing his job. And if that weren’t bad enough, damn if they weren’t making him talk about it.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSpecial Agent Samuel Wellington Kincaid received a standing ovation when he finished his lecture. He gave a quick nod then tried to leave the podium and the auditorium, but he was pulled back by another FBI agent who insisted that, as soon as the cheering and clapping stopped, Sam answer questions.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eKnowing he should cooperate, he nodded again and waited for the audience of cadets and future FBI agents to quiet down. Like most people, Sam hated giving speeches, especially those concerning his work in intelligence, but this was a training seminar and a goodwill mission, and he had been ordered by his superiors to talk about his role in the dramatic capture of the notorious Edward Chester, a radical white supremacist and one of the most elusive criminals in many years.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDespite his reluctance, Sam had been scheduled to conduct five of these seminars around the country. He’d already completed the first in D.C., and this one in Chicago was the second. Next week he would fly to Seattle for the third and then on to Los Angeles. His final stop would be at the naval base in San Diego where he would address Navy SEAL trainees. Inwardly, he groaned at the thought of three more appearances in front of inquisitive audiences who wanted only to hear sensational details of the capture.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis particular audience, however, also wanted to hear how Sam, while helping out on another case, saved the life of Alec Buchanan, a local Chicago FBI agent. The incident had happened six weeks ago, and since then, a few stories had been circulating. Agent Buchanan had been on medical leave, so they weren’t able to get any facts from him. Before Sam was introduced to the crowd, he had been warned about their curiosity and the questions he might face. Was it true Agent Kincaid had gone into a blazing house to get Buchanan? How many gunmen were in the house when he’d broken in? Had he carried Buchanan out seconds before the house exploded?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhat happened was a matter of public record. Sam still didn’t want to go into it, but now that he stood at the podium, he was trapped by a group who wanted all the gory details.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eYet the first question Sam was asked had nothing to do with the Chester case or Alec Buchanan. It was the same one that was asked almost every time Sam was introduced. “Agent Kincaid, I couldn’t help but notice your accent. Is it . . . Scottish?” a female cadet asked.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Yes it is.” Sam was accustomed to people’s curiosity about his background, and so his answer was polite but brief.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“How is that possible?”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHe smiled. “I’m from Scotland, and that’s probably why I have a bit of an accent.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe cadet blushed. Not wanting to embarrass her, Sam continued, “What you really want to know is how someone from Scotland could become an FBI agent, right?”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Yes, sir.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“I have dual citizenship,” he explained. “I was born in the United States, but I was raised in the Highlands of Scotland. I did my undergraduate work at Princeton, my postgraduate work at Oxford, then moved to D.C. to get my law degree. I started with the FBI just after I passed the bar.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSam evaded disclosing anything more about his personal life by calling on another eager cadet whose hand was raised, and for the next twenty minutes he was bombarded with questions.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eToward the end of Sam’s lecture, Agent Alec Buchanan and his FBI partner, Jack MacAlister, slipped into the room and took seats near the rear door. Alec, still recovering from the wound to his back, shifted forward to find a comfortable position. Neither federal agent had seen Sam for a few weeks, but during the time they had spent with him in D.C., he’d become a good friend.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eJack leaned toward Alec to whisper. “He really hates doing this, doesn’t he?”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAlec grinned. “Yeah, he does.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“We ought to mess with him a little bit.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“What have you got in mind?”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“I could raise my hand and ask him a couple of questions about his sex life.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAlec laughed. A woman in front of him turned around to glare but changed her mind when she saw him. Instead, she smiled.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eJack lowered his voice again. “How long is Sam going to be in Chicago? I forgot to ask when I picked him up at the airport.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Two nights. He’s staying with Regan and me, but I had to promise him that my wife wouldn’t cry all over him again.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGiving an understanding nod, Jack said, “She’s a crier all right.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“I believe your fiancée shed a few tears at the hospital.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“True,” he admitted. “Will Sam join our poker game tomorrow night?”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“That’s the plan.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Can he play?”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“I sure hope not.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Man, listen to that brogue. He’s really miserable up there. Should we save him?”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAlec took a second to watch Sam, who was turning from one questioner to another, and replied, “Nah.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe two agents thoroughly enjoyed watching Sam squirm in the limelight. Although he looked composed, it was apparent he was nervous because his Scottish brogue got thicker with each sentence he uttered. Alec also noticed that, during his lecture, Sam never used the word “I” when describing his accomplishments. He was humble, self-effacing, and impressive. As Alec had discovered firsthand, Sam was also as hard as steel and as unfeeling as a machine when it was necessary.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSam was a skilled agent, proficient in gathering intelligence and carrying out missions, but his real expertise was in languages. Truth be told, the only languages he couldn’t translate were those he hadn’t been exposed to. As he had explained to the cadet who was curious about his accent, most of his childhood was spent in Scotland. What he had not mentioned was the fact that, as the son of career diplomats, he had either lived in or traveled to almost every country of the world. Languages came to him easily.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt was this linguistic proficiency that had saved Alec Buchanan’s life.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe Chicago office had sent Alec and Jack to D.C. to follow a lead on a suspected arms dealer. A low-level informant was ready to give them the names of men who, for a price, could help them. While Jack headed off to get background information on a couple of people, Alec planned to make contact with the informant to gain his trust. There was no guarantee that anything would come from the meeting, but the D.C. office insisted on sending along audio equipment to record the conversation anyway. And even though the informant spoke some English, they thought it would be prudent to have a translator on hand.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhat was supposed to be a quick meet-and-greet turned into a nightmare.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSam Kincaid happened to be in the D.C. headquarters at the time finishing a case report. He was reading the last page on the computer screen when the director called him into his office. He asked Sam for a favor. An agent from Chicago was in town to question a possible informant, the director explained, and the translator, who was sitting in a van a block away from the house where they were meeting, was having difficulty.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe director handed Sam a file and said, “This has all the information on the case thus far, along with photos of those involved.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSam quickly looked it over and handed the file back.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“The safe house is real close,” the director told him. “Shouldn’t take long. It might even be over before you get there.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFifteen minutes later Sam was sitting in the van with the driver, Agent Tom Murphy, and the translator, who introduced himself as Evan Bradshaw. Sam took one look at the perplexed young man at the console and summed up the situation immediately: rookie. Evan handed Sam his earphones and moved aside to give him his chair. “They’ve been talking for about an hour.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSam slipped the earphones on and listened for a minute, then turned around to find Evan sliding the van door open to leave.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Hey . . .” Sam called.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Yes?”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“They’re speaking English,” he pointed out, trying not to sound exasperated.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“I know, I know,” he answered. “But every now and then the guy says a sentence or two in a dialect I’ve never heard. I can’t make heads or tails of it.” He got out of the van and, before he pulled the door closed, said, “I think Agent Buchanan ought to pull the plug on this one. I hope you can understand what the man’s saying. Good luck.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOnly Murphy and Sam remained. For several minutes Sam listened to the conversation, which continued in English. Suddenly he heard two men burst into the house and begin barking orders in another language. Sam understood every word, but he only needed to translate one sentence to know that they were planning to kill the informant and Alec, then blow up the house. The charges had already been set.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“There’s a bomb in the house. Call it in and stay in the van,” Sam shouted as he ripped the van door open. He hit the ground running, pulling his Glock from its holster. He leapt over a fence and raced across the yard. At the sound of a gunshot, he increased his stride and, using his forearm to protect his eyes, crashed through a bay window.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHe landed on his feet and took in the scene all at once. The informant, blood oozing from a bullet wound to the head, lay crumpled on the floor. Agent Buchanan was slumped in a chair, his white shirt covered in blood. A gunman running toward the front door whirled around in surprise when Sam crashed through the window. Another gunman stood behind Buchanan’s chair. He raised his gun to the back of Alec Buchanan’s head and shouted, “If you—”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThose were his last words. Sam fired his gun. His bullet struck the man between the eyes. Sam spun to his left and fired several times in the vicinity of the second gunman, forcing him to dive for cover. In a rage, the man rolled, then sprang to his feet. Sam shot him as he was bringing his weapon up.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNot wasting a second, Sam rushed to the unconscious Alec Buchanan, lifted him over his shoulder, and carried him out of the house. He managed to get him across the street and behind a huge oak tree when the house exploded. The force was so great the trunk of the tree shook. Fiery debris rained down on them.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSeconds later, the van screeched to a halt in front of them, and Murphy leapt out to help get Alec inside. While Sam applied pressure to Alec’s wound to stem the flow of blood, Murphy threw the van in gear and sped away from the fire, stopping at the end of the street to summon an ambulance.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSirens screamed in the night, and within minutes two paramedics were transferring Alec into the ambulance. He had been stabbed in the back, just above the right kidney. They worked quickly to stabilize him. Sam rode with them to the hospital, and though it was only a couple of miles away, it seemed to take forever to get there.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“How’s he doing?” Sam asked once they were well on their way.#1 New York Times bestselling author of Fire and Ice","brand":"Ballantine Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46303803441381,"sku":"NP9780345500786","price":9.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780345500786.jpg?v=1767736709","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/sizzle-isbn-9780345500786","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}