Spotlight & Giveaway: Secret Investigation by Elizabeth Heiter

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Elizabeth Heiter to HJ!

Hi Elizabeth and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, Secret Investigation!

 
I’m so excited to be here, to share Secret Investigation with you!
 

Tell us about the book with this fun little challenge using the title of the book:

Here’s a little bit about SECRET INVESTIGATION…

S is for a SEXY undercover hero.
E is for an ENSEMBLE cast (who appear across the Tactical Crime Division series!)
C is for CEO heroine, Leila Petrov.
R is for former Army RANGER, Davis Rogers.
E is for the EVIDENCE Davis and Leila need to find to clear her name.
T is for TRAITOR, the person inside Petrov Armor responsible for faulty armor.

I is for INTRIGUE, Harlequin Intrigue.
N is for the dangerous NETWORK helping the traitor inside Petrov Armor.
V is for how VIOLENT that network can become when they’re threatened.
E is for the unseen ENEMY who’s much closer than Leila or Davis expect.
S is for the SABOTAGE threatening everything Leila has worked for.
T is for the Tactical Crime Division TEAM Davis relies on.
I is for the way-more-than-professional INTEREST happening between Davis and Leila.
G is for GREED, the assumed motive of the traitor tearing apart Leila’s company and her life.
A is for Davis trying to AVENGE the death of a good friend and fellow soldier.
T is for the specialized TACTICS of the TCD team, including profiling, hostage negotiation, weapons, IT and more.
I is for the INJURED and killed soldiers that lead to Davis going undercover.
O is for the dangerous OPERATION Davis’s colleagues undertake to help Davis find the traitor.
N is for NEVER saying never, especially when it comes to how and with whom you’ll fall in love.

Please share the opening lines of this book:

The sandstorm came first. Then came the bullets.
Training had been going well…

Please tell us a little about the characters in your book.

Army Ranger turned TCD Special Agent Davis Rogers is extremely loyal, both to the soldiers he once served with and his new FBI teammates. He’s working hard to prove himself as one of the newest members of the Tactical Crime Division and going undercover at Petrov Armor to figure out who sabotaged shipments of armor the military used is his first time taking lead. He’s determined not to mess it up – especially since he knew one of the victims.

CEO Leila Petrov has spent the last year proving she’s qualified to take over as CEO, but the last few weeks have been tough, as she’s mourned the unexpected death of her father, who founded the company. When she realizes there’s a traitor in their midst, it’s not just her capability that’s in question, but her late father’s legacy.

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

• This is the second book in the multi-author Tactical Crime Division series. All the books can stand alone, but reading several lets you see the ensemble cast across many books (similar to ensemble shows like Criminal Minds or NCIS, where different characters get their turns taking lead!).
• This is the first Harlequin Intrigue I’ve written that includes a sub-plot, with profiler Dr. Melinda Larsen and her TCD teammate, agent-at-large Kane Bradshaw, trying to track down leads outside Petrov Armor – and connecting themselves in the process.
• ]This is the second book I’ve written with a former military hero (the first one was my ex-Marine Colter Hayes, in K-9 Defense).

What first attracts your Hero to the Heroine and vice versa?

My hero and heroine feel an instant physical attraction when Leila is brought into the TCD office for questioning about the faulty armor her company produced, and Davis is the one questioning her. It only begins to shift into something deeper once Davis goes undercover at her company and they’re forced to work together to ferret out the traitor.

The First Kiss…

The first kiss between Leila and Davis happens after he overhears her ex – who works at a high-level position at her company – admitting he still has feelings for her. Here’s a brief snippet from that scene:

“He’s not right for you,” Davis told her as he strode around her desk the same way Eric had.

“What?” He’d been listening in on their conversation? How much had he heard?

Instead of answering, he slid his hands around her waist and yanked her to him. Her body crashed into his, the hard planes of his chest stealing her breath even as she instinctively pressed tighter.

Then, his head ducked toward hers, his lips hovering a few centimeters away, actually brushing against hers as he asked, “Leila?”

She responded by pushing up on her tiptoes, wrapping her arms tight around his neck, and pressing her lips to his. The softness of his lips contrasted with the hardness of his kisses, then his tongue swept into her mouth. She felt it all the way down to her toes: no matter what happened in the future, this was exactly where she was supposed to be right now.

If your book was optioned for a movie, what scene would you use for the audition of the main characters and why?

The scene I’d use for my main characters’ movie version would be when Davis first meets (and has to interview!) Leila in the TCD’s interrogation room. Here’s a small piece of that scene:

As she came through the door, he was unprepared for the little kick his heart gave, sending extra blood pumping to places it had no business going. Maybe it was her determined stride, the nothing-fazes-me tilt of her chin in a room that made hardened criminals buckle. He felt her reciprocal jolt of attraction as much as he saw it in the sudden sweep her gaze made over his body, the slight flush on her cheeks.

She recovered faster than he did, scowling at the setup. “If you’re trying to intimidate me, it’s not going to work. I’m here voluntarily. I want to help, but I don’t appreciate being bullied.”

He debated rethinking the whole interview plan, but decided to trust Melinda. He’d never worked with a profiler before coming to TCD, but in the short time he’d been here, he’d become a believer. “If you think this is being bullied, you have no business working with the military. Take a seat.”

If your hero had a sexy-times play list, what song(s) would have to be on it?

Davis was a soldier and now he’s a no-nonsense weapons expert for the FBI, but he has a sensitive side, too. For a romantic playlist, I think he’d go for songs by classic crooners like Frank Sinatra, Bobby Darin, Tony Bennett, and Matt Monro.

If you could have given your characters one piece of advice before the opening pages of the book, what – would it be and why?

I would have advised Davis to trust his gut and Leila to be careful who she trusts. During the story, Davis is reluctant to trust Leila, because even though he thinks she’s innocent, she’s still a suspect. If he’d trusted her more, she might have been more willing to open up to him, too. For Leila, who’s known most of the top people at the company for years, it’s hard to imagine any of them as a traitor, but the person responsible is much closer than she thinks.

But of course, I didn’t warn them and so they both make mistakes along the way.

What are you currently working on? What are your up-coming releases?*

Right now, I’m working on the third book in my K-9: Alaska series with Harlequin Intrigue. My next release after Secret Investigation is the second book in that series. The stories are all set in the remote Alaskan town of Desparre, Alaska, where people go to hide…or disappear. Each story features a K-9 in a crucial role, from a former Combat Tracker dog with the military to a personal therapy dog to an FBI Victim Specialist dog to a police K-9. The first book in the series, K-9 Defense, is available now!
 

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: I’m giving away a signed copy of Secret Investigation to one lucky reader (open to US readers)!

To enter Giveaway: Please complete the Rafflecopter form and Post a comment to this Q: What’s your favorite quality in a hero? What about a heroine?

 
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Excerpt from Secret Investigation:

I’m excited to share an exclusive excerpt from Secret Investigation. This scene takes place at Petrov Armor, when Davis shows up undercover. Leila met him earlier that day when he interrogated her at the FBI office and now, she discovers, HR has hired him as her assistant:

“Davis!”

No way. Two men named Davis in one day?

Leila got to her feet, anxiety already tensing the back of her neck before Davis Rogers entered her office.

This morning, he’d looked more like the brawny owner of a night club in jeans, and a T-shirt that clung to a muscled chest and arms. He’d even had a layer of scruff on his chin. Definitely not what she’d expected for an FBI agent.

Now, he was clean-shaven in dark dress pants and a blazer. He should have looked less appealing in clothes that hid his physique. Instead, it made her focus more on his face. On hypnotizing dark brown eyes made even more intense beneath heavy brows. On unlined brown skin she wanted to run her hands over, feel for the last traces of this morning’s scruff. On generous lips she wanted to kiss.

The thought startled her. She wasn’t the type to lust over men she barely knew. Putting it down to too many emotions near the surface—stress, grief and anxiety mixing together and messing with her head—Leila straightened her blazer, trying to focus. “What do you think you’re—”

“It’s nice to meet you,” Davis spoke over her. “I’m so excited to join Petrov Armor. I can provide any assistance you need,” he added, only a hint of sarcasm there, probably so small Ben wouldn’t notice.

But Leila sure had. She felt her face scrunch up with disbelief as Ben looked back and forth between them. But before she could toss Davis out of her office, one side of those lush lips lifted in a slow grin. It was a smile half full of amusement and half full of confidence, like he knew exactly what she was thinking.

What kind of game was he playing? Did he honestly think she was going to let him screw with her company, with her employees?

She smiled too, but infused hers with enough warning that he should have taken a step back. It was a trick she’d learned long before rising to CEO, back in university when walking home from the library at night meant passing drunk guys who thought it was acceptable to follow. It never failed to drop the smirks off people’s faces.

But Davis stepped closer, held out his hand. “I think we can work well together to do what needs to be done.”

Nervy. She should have expected it from an FBI agent. And he should have expected her to immediately call his bluff. But as she looked past that cocky grin into his steady gaze, she saw something she hadn’t expected, something that looked like honesty.

Excerpts. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
 
 

Book Info:

In the wake of a tragedy, the Tactical Crime Division gets to work.

Investigating crime is a day at the office for the specially trained agents with the TCD unit. Except when it becomes personal for former army ranger Agent Davis Rogers. When ironclad body armor inexplicably fails on the battlefield, Rogers takes on the undercover assignment to find the traitor responsible. Petrov Armor CEO Leila Petrov is reluctant to provide access to her company…until she discovers she’s being framed. But will a joint effort be enough to uncover the truth?
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Meet the Author:

Publishers Weekly bestselling author ELIZABETH HEITER likes her suspense to feature strong heroines, chilling villains, psychological twists, and a little bit (or a lot!) of romance. Her research has taken her into the minds of serial killers, through murder investigations, and onto the FBI Academy’s shooting range. Her novels have been published in more than a dozen countries and translated into eight languages; they’ve also been shortlisted for the HOLT Medallion, the Daphne Du Maurier award, the National Readers’ Choice award and the Booksellers’ Best award and won the RT Reviewers’ Choice award.
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