Product Description

In the suspenseful new thriller from New York Times bestselling coauthors Sherrilyn Kenyon and Dianna Love, a Bureau of American Defense agent must join forces with an informant he can neither trust nor resist.

Bureau of American Defense operative Carlos Delgado has spent the past sixteen years watching over his shoulder, waiting for death to catch up to him. His luck runs out when BAD intercepts an unexpected tip on the number one threat to United States security: the Fratelli de il Sovrano. Their best hope for uncovering a deadly plan that risks countless lives and threatens economic chaos just days before the presidential election is to capture a mysterious informant known as Mirage. But when Carlos takes her into custody, Mirage is not at all what he expected -- and neither is the threat she poses to the secrets he would die to protect.

Gabrielle Saxe has hidden from a killer for the past decade, sending anonymous tips on international criminals to intelligence agencies around the world. When a postcard arrives from a friend who is supposed to be dead, she takes a risk that catapults her into the midst of dangerous operatives on a treacherous mission -- and into the arms of a man who is duty-bound to surrender her to Interpol as an international felon. Carlos is the last person Gabrielle should trust and the only one standing between her and death. But little does she know, she holds the key to his survival as well....

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #30997 in Books
• Published on: 2009-05-12
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 400 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781416597421
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Publishers Weekly
Romantic suspense fans will welcome the second BAD (Bureau of American Defense) Agent novel from bestseller Kenyon and RITA Award–winner Love (after Phantom in the Night). E-mail tips under a pseudonym from French heiress Gabrielle Tynte Saxe to law-enforcement agencies lead to the rescue of a diplomat's daughter from the Fratelli de il Sovrano, an international terrorist organization bent on world domination. Gabrielle, who secretly works for world peace, is lying low in a planned community near Atlanta, out of reach of her vengeful movie star ex-husband and the South American criminal responsible for the fatal bombing of a van whose passengers included her mother. When her cover is blown, BAD agent Carlos Delgado rides to the rescue, joining Gabrielle in a mission to stop the Fratellis' latest nefarious and far-fetched plot, which involves using disabled teens. Fortunately, amid the overblown action, there's always time for hot sex breaks. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About the Author
SHERRILYN KENYON, aka Kinley MacGregor, is the author of numerous New York Times bestsellers, including Born to be BAD and BAD Attitude. There are more than ten million copies of her books in print. She lives with her family near Nashville, Tennessee. Visit her website at www.dailyinquisitor.com/sherrilyn.

DIANNA LOVE is a RITA award-winning author who started writing while working over a hundred feet in the air creating marketing projects for Fortune 500 companies. When not plotting out her latest romantic action-adventure, she travels the country on a motorcycle to research new locations. She lives in the Atlanta, Georgia, area with her wonderful husband and a tank of unruly saltwater fish named after celebrities. Visit www.DiannaLoveSnell.com.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

One

If he had to die today, he'd have preferred a warm climate and a bullet between the eyes over this.

Carlos Delgado had no one to blame but himself. He had agreed to take the lead on this screwed-up mission.

The routine HAHO -- high altitude, high opening -- jump from a Câ?? 130 came with a standard set of risks. First, his team had to hit a tiny spot in the French Alps near St. Gervais. Second, a midnight op upped the ante. Last, parachuting into a snowstorm kicked in the high-octane factor.

And those weren't even the best reasons for labeling this op suicidal.

He stretched his legs and lifted a hand to scratch his face, but stopped. The Gentex face mask itched like a son of a bitch, but breaking the seal between skin and mask would immediately lower the raised nitrogen level in his blood. That meant he'd have to abort the jump and scrub the mission since this op was planned with a minimum number of operatives.

With the mood his three teammates had been in when they went wheels up, someone would immediately accommodate his wish for a quick death.

But they'd show some restraint since none of them wanted to waste a day off for his funeral.

Carlos checked his watch. Just after lunch on Sunday in the States. Headquarters should have new intel by now. He was ready to get moving as much as he hated making the jump.

He'd made the leap more times than he wanted to remember, but the stakes were high this time. The only thing worse than flying in an airplane was exiting one during flight...and at this altitude. An adrenaline junkie's dream. Not his.

He slapped a sideways look at Korbin Maximus, sitting next to him on another uncomfortable canvas seat. Their resident adrenaline junkie and insertion specialist for BAD -- Bureau of American Defense -- wore an identical oxygen mask. His night-vision goggles were shoved up on his forehead.

Slouched, eyes closed above a perpetual five-o'clock shadow, and arms casually crossed, Korbin appeared at rest, but Carlos knew their point man was not asleep.

"What's the matter, Korbin? Job puttin' you to sleep?" Reagan "Rae" Graham's British lilt came through the commo headset they all wore. Perched across from Carlos and Korbin, Rae was the only female on this op and no petite miss at five-eight. She could more than handle herself in hand-to-hand combat, cool as an ice cube under pressure. Few men would suspect the trim woman packaged with all those lush curves to be so lethal, but she was one tough babe from the short, sandy brown hair to a mile of legs...to the G36C rifle strapped across her chesty flight suit.

"Just reserving my strength for later." Korbin lifted a dark lash long enough to send a whispered wink at Rae.

"For the op or some sweet thang?" Rae chided in a poor imitation of his Texas drawl that sometimes carried shades of Korbin's Mexican heritage.

"I'm always up for a sweet thing, especially one loaded for bear." Korbin's eyes crinkled in challenge.

"Yeah, right. In your dreams." Rae flipped a droll don't-waste-your-time glance at him.

Carlos rolled his eyes at the pair. The banter and verbal poking had gone on for the past six months. Why hadn't they found a room yet? Should be a perfect match since both of them considered dinner reservations a long-term commitment.

BAD did have a "No fraternizing with team members" rule, which wouldn't normally faze most agency operatives, who considered breaking rules part of their job description.

But the first commitment of every agent in BAD was to protect teammates, which would be damn hard to do if one of the agents caught in cross fire was a loved one.

Carlos had no problem steering clear of relationships with females on a mission. Emotions complicated an op and jeopardized lives.

He'd learned that lesson the hard way and never made the mistake again. Never would.

"Besides, Korbin, you haven't made it to the R's yet," Rae piped up. "Who is it this week? Jasmine, Kelly, or Lisa?"

Korbin scowled, eyelids still at half-mast.

Rae's gaze twinkled with undisguised gloating over the direct hit.

"Is that what you're doing?" Gotthard Heinrich, the fourth operative, broke in. As the beefiest member of the team, he packed an easy 275-plus of solid muscle into that granite body and a temper not to be tested. "Gayle two weeks ago..." Above the clear oxygen mask, Gotthard's diamond-blue eyes narrowed in sharp concentration. "Haley last week...Isabelle...two days ago. Damn! You are working your way through da alphabet. You son-a-bitch." He spoke perfect English, French, German, Russian, and Italian whenever he wanted, a faint German accent slipping into his English only when in a secure situation.

"Thanks, Rae," Korbin growled, anything but appreciative.

"Hey. You're the one with the itch and a predilection for patterns."

"Must be nice to be single," Gotthard grumbled.

"Depends." Korbin shifted his slouch. "I don't have someone to go home to every night."

"Makes two of us." Gotthard dropped his head back, eyes shut.

Banter eased tension on a mission, but Carlos grimaced over Gotthard's slip. The few agents aware of the big guy's turbulent marriage also knew Gotthard did not discuss it openly.

BAD was a covert organization the U.S. government would never acknowledge that protected national security and saved lives, to put it in pretty terms, but the bottom line was they did whatever it took to get the job done. That way of life generally torpedoed serious commitments, in spite of a few couples that had managed to make cohabitating look possible. Most of the time even the best relationships fell victim as unavoidable casualties.

The one married teammate on this mission was slowly realizing that and getting an earful from his wife about being home for Thanksgiving in four weeks.

Wouldn't be so hard if Gotthard could tell his wife the real reason he'd missed the last two holidays. That he didn't really design interiors for aircrafts, but that sufficed as a cover.

Gotthard sat up, tense lines daggering the bridge of his nose.

"Incoming?" Carlos asked before he could stop himself, but he needed better intel, now. Gotthard had the only link to headquarters and had probably just gotten a vibration from his wrist unit.

The big guy gave a curt nod as he shoved the pale gray sleeve of his flight suit back, exposing his wrist video. The satellite-linked video device looked like an oversize square watch similar to the Vâ??Rambo unit worn by Israeli soldiers and alerted the wearer of an incoming message by vibrating.

But this electronic baby had been customized and developed just for BAD operations, all financed by a silent investor Joe knew. With a name like Joe Q. Public, no sense of humor when it came to his name, and a background most agents only speculated about in hushed conversations, no one questioned the director's supplier for BAD toys.

Gotthard was their communication specialist, who could all but talk to NASA with a piece of aluminum foil and tin can if they needed to reach an astronaut. When the wide-bodied agent finished reading the text on his arm piece, he lifted his gaze to Carlos, then his deep baritone came through the commo set.

"Heads up, everyone." Perfect English this time.

Korbin straightened next to Carlos, alert and ready. Rae cut her eyes at Gotthard, who continued once he had everyone's attention.

"New information is coming through in chunks. The transmissions are breaking up as we move between two satellites." Gotthard's gaze shot down to his wrist video. "Package...is confirmed missing from origin...stolen goods."

Carlos nodded when Gotthard glanced up to see that he understood. The package was Mandy Massey, the missing seventeen-year-old daughter of an American diplomat currently in Uruguay working on a military-site agreement the United States needed in that region. The diplomat thought his daughter was still traveling across South America with friends, but she was also known as a hellion who had disappeared from time to time from her private school in Europe.

BAD intercepted a kidnapping tip from an anonymous source known only as Mirage. The message indicating Mandy as a target of kidnappers had been sent with specific electronic markers, obviously meant for international intelligence agencies scanning for suspicious communication. BAD instituted a covert search across South America, which ended at the last place Mandy had been seen. Another electronic tip followed hours later, warning if the young girl went missing to look for her at a château in the St. Gervais area of the French Alps.

The BAD mission room had sounded more like a bar brawl in the making twelve hours ago when Joe first informed them of this jump. Carlos couldn't fault his companions for arguing against sending a team to jump into a blizzard when the missing renegade daughter had disappeared twice before then shown up later as if nothing were wrong. But the minute Joe shared that the second intercepted missive from Mirage stated Mandy would be given to something called a fratelli, the room had quieted, all agents ready to go.

Added to that, Mirage had been correct too many times to ignore the validity of the message. The very reason every intelligence agency in the world searched for this unknown person. No informant ever just shared intelligence freely.

They all had an agenda.

BAD needed to find out what Mirage stood to gain from sharing this information. What game was going on?

The team knew all too well that the reference to a fratelli in the tip could well mean the Fratelli de il Sovrano, which translated into Sovereign Brotherhood, number one on BAD's most-wanted list of dangerous organizations.

During the past year every agent had seen what this maniacal group could do to human beings. Men, women, and children had been used as guinea pigs for the Fratelli's biological terrorist attacks. The virus unleashed had turned the victims' bodies into hideous forms as they drew their last breaths pleading for death.

Making tonight's HAHO jump was no longer under debate with the chance of saving this young w...

Customer Reviews

Whispered Lies-A Joyfully Recommended Title!!
The Bureau of American Defense has just received a lead on the world's most dangerous organization. The Fratelli de il Sovrano is a maniacal terrorist group and B.A.D. has seen all too well the destruction they can unleash. B.A.D. agent Carlos Delgado is determined to see the Fratelli brought down, and it's clear that the agency's only hope of doing so is to capture a mysterious informant known only as Mirage. When Mirage provides information that enables Carlos and his team to rescue a diplomat's daughter from being turned over to the Fratelli, B.A.D. tracks Mirage down and sends Carlos to get the elusive informant. But Mirage isn't at all what Carlos expects.

After several attempts on her life, Gabrielle Saxe went on the run, and has lived off the radar for a decade. Now, she uses her phenomenal computer skills to send anonymous tips on criminals to various intelligence agencies around the world. Gabrielle's world is turned upside down once again with the arrival of a sexy agent she doesn't know if she can trust. Gabrielle has every reason to be wary of Carlos, and he of her. Despite this, the pair can't help but be drawn together as they team up to stop the Fratelli's latest plot. But can newfound love hope to survive in the face of the danger the Fratelli presents, not to mention the lovers' own respective pasts catching up to them?

Passion, danger, and romance pack one heck of a punch in the latest, thrilling installment of the BAD Agency series. Whispered Lies is a sexy adrenaline rush of a tale that had me on the edge of my seat from start to finish. Carlos is, quite simply, the perfect hero (without ever being cardboard perfect). He's sexy, caring, protective, and has a past that has left him with scars on his heart and an uncertain future. I absolutely adored Gabrielle. She's utterly brilliant and, though not a trained agent, nevertheless steps up to do all she can to save the lives of innocents. She has a strength of character I admire and it made her the perfect match for Carlos.

Though the seventh book in the series (third full-length novel), the authors provide enough information that Whispered Lies can stand on its own. However, fans of the previous B.A.D. book, Phantom in the Night, will know that the Fratelli storyline began in that story.

Sherrilyn Kenyon and Dianna Love, each phenomenal writers in their own right, are an extraordinary writing team, as Whispered Lies shows. I absolutely loved Whispered Lies the first, second, and (as I re-read yet again) third time around. It's everything a romantic suspense should be and I cannot wait to see what happens in the next B.A.D. tale. Joyfully Recommended!


Shayna
Reviewed for Joyfully Reviewed

Phenomenal!
Carlos Delgado is used to living on the edge. As a member of the covert government agency BAD, Bureau for American Defense, he frequently is involved in risky missions. His latest mission starts with a tip about a kidnapping... and leads him straight to Mirage, an anonymous tipster sought by every intelligence agency in the world. Little does Carlos expect Mirage to be a woman! Mirage, also known as Gabrielle Saxe, has a hidden agenda, one that could jeopardize everything Carlos has fought for. Will Gabrielle and Carlos stand a chance at a happily-ever-after once their hidden pasts are revealed?

I'm a huge fan of Sherrilyn Kenyon's Dark-Hunters, but wasn't as enthusiastic about this particular series. Part of my trepidation came from the name of the covert agency as BAD just sounded, well, bad to me. But oh wow, did Sherrilyn Kenyon and Dianna Love ever prove me wrong! WHISPERED LIES is a fast paced adventure that I just couldn't put down!

It was the characters that really made WHISPERED LIES work for me. Gabrielle and Carlos both have been hurt in the past but neither one has given up. Instead, they are both survivors, fighting every day to succeed and conquer those forces that have hurt them. While some of the situations they encounter might be a bit over-the-top, it is the strength of the character development that made it all believable in the context of the overall world.

WHISPERED LIES is a fascinating romantic suspense tale! Sherrilyn Kenyon and Dianna Love do a phenomenal job at crafting a story that is both intense and romantic. Easily recommended!

COURTESY OF CK2S KWIPS AND KRITIQUES

Blah!
I read the reviews for this book before I bought it, so I went into it with the idea that I was in for a good read. It took me days just to get past the second chapter. Somehow anything on tv was more interesting than that book. I wasn't grabbed up and swept away. I didn't feel any thrills or excitement about venturing in the BAD world. I didn't feel much of a spark between the hero and heroine, and by the time I got to the first love scene, alllll the way in the middle of that big book, I read it and was like, "eh". I've put the book down, and will sit it on the shelf, probably never to finish. For some reason I got the idea that the heroine was more ballsy, having to survive the way she did for some many years, and she turned out to seem really owl-eyed and easily startled. Oh well. I'm still a Sherrilyn Kenyon fan and will continue to read her solo ventures in the future.