Spotlight & Giveaway: Thief of Fate by Jude Deveraux and Tara Sheets

Today, HJ is pleased to share with you Jude Deveraux and Tara Sheets’s new release: Thief of Fate

The powerful conclusion to the Providence Falls series, a love story that has crossed continents, centuries, and a murder investigation.

In 1844 Ireland, Liam O’Connor upset the balance of fate by falling in love with Cora McLeod and stealing her away from her destined soulmate, Finley (Finn) Walsh.

The angels have given him three months to redeem himself if he can manage to get Cora to fall in love with the right man this time—Finn, but for the past two months, Liam has failed. Now with only one month left, things are looking worse than ever. Cora has made it clear she wants him.

Even though he has Cora in his arms once again, he knows it’s only temporary. He realizes he will soon be cast into hell, and all is truly lost. Liam’s having a devil of a time wrestling with his own emotions while trying to deflect Cora’s attention back to Finn. It’s time for drastic measures.

Also by Jude Deveraux and Tara Sheets
CHANCE OF A LIFETIME
AN IMPOSSIBLE PROMISE

Enjoy an exclusive excerpt from Thief of Fate 

LOVE WAS PATIENT. LOVE WAS KIND. IT WAS A GREAT many things, Liam knew. But he wasn’t convinced the heart-shaped, vibrating bed with the coin slot on the motel nightstand that read Love Machine: 25 Cents for Three Minutes fell into any of those categories. Still, he found the concept intriguing enough to search his pockets for a quarter, just to be sure.

“Liam,” Cora said in exasperation. “A little help over here?” She was crouched on the motel floor, kneeling on a hefty man who was flailing under her knee like a beached octopus. The man was almost twice her size, but the stench of whiskey and marijuana wafting through the dingy room, not to mention the lines of white powder on a hand mirror beside the bed, explained why he was such a mess. Wally Jensen was good and bolloxed.

“We need to get him over there so I can question him.” Cora pointed to a red velvet chair with cigarette burns on the armrests. Like everything else in the place, it had seen better days.
The Fantasy Palace, a seedy establishment just north of downtown Providence Falls, was little more than a roadside motel. It had been there since the early seventies, and from the looks of
the shag carpet, geometric wallpaper, and stained popcorn ceiling, it hadn’t changed much. From the outside, it looked like a cartoon castle, complete with two turrets and a faded banner waving in the wind.
Each “luxury” motel room was designed in a different theme, like Kingdom of Camelot, Space Odyssey, Tropical Escape, and Wild West. But according to the brochure on the TV stand, this honeymoon suite, the Lover’s Dream, was the ultimate upgrade. It was steeped in shades of crimson, from the lacquered headboard and ruffled pillows to the sparkly curtains and feather boa lampshades. The overkill of blood reds on every surface gave the room an almost sinister vibe, and while it did seem like someplace from a dream, Liam wasn’t sure it was a very good one.
“You ruined my vacation,” Wally grumbled. He was somewhere in his early forties, but the sagging jowls, nicotine-stained teeth, and bloodshot eyes made him appear much older. “Scared off my girlfriend, and now she’s gone.”
“Come, man. We’re not that scary.” Liam gripped Wally under the arms and hauled him off the floor. “I’m sure any woman of yours would have to be made of far sterner stuff than that.” He tried to sound encouraging, but he’d seen Wally’s girlfriend peeking through the window when they’d first arrived. She’d bolted from the room, jumped into a Camaro with a dented fender, and peeled off down the street without looking back. They’d called in her license plate, so she wouldn’t get far, but it was clear Wally’s vacation was officially over.
Once Wally was seated, Cora placed her hands on her hips and gave him a hard stare. Today she’d pulled her blond curls into a high ponytail, which only served to accentuate her delicate features and guileless blue eyes. Liam wondered how often people underestimated her as a police officer. She looked neither formidable nor intimidating, but maybe that was her greatest weapon. No one ever expected the steely core of determination hidden beneath Cora’s sweet demeanor until it was too late.

Pride swelled in Liam’s chest for this woman who’d captured his heart. He’d loved her across lifetimes and would go on loving her, even after he was gone. Which will be soon, he reminded himself. He had only one month left to help Cora fall in love with her intended soul mate, Finley Walsh, and by God, he would succeed. After what the angels had shown him, he could not—no, he would not—fail.
“Mr. Jensen, a lot of people are looking for you,” Cora said. “The Booze Dogs know you spray-painted over their security cameras the night their money was stolen. They’re hunting you down, as we speak.”
Wally tried to lurch to his feet, but Liam stopped him.
“Don’t bother denying it,” Cora continued. “After you went missing from the compound, they searched your room and found paint on your clothes that matched the paint on the cameras. Now you’re on their radar, but we’ve found you first. It must be your lucky day.”

“Luck?” Wally snorted. “My girlfriend took off, and now you pigs are breathing down my neck.”
“Aye, luck.” Liam pierced him with a glare. “What do you think those bikers would’ve done to you if they’d found you first?” The motorcycle club’s president, Eli Shelton, was not what anyone would call a merciful man. Rumor had it that the Booze Dogs took care of their own problems with a twisted sense of rough justice. Ever since Eli discovered someone had stolen almost two hundred thousand dollars from his compound, he’d been out for blood.

This seemed to sober Wally, and he sagged in the chair. “How’d you know where to find me, anyway?”
“We didn’t,” Cora said. “We were answering a domestic disturbance call. You and your girlfriend were partying a little too loudly in here and one of the maids saw your drug paraphernalia through the window. Guess it’s our lucky day, too.”
Wally dropped his face into his hands with a garbled curse.
“Tell us about the night you took the money,” Liam de¬manded. “Who were you working with?”
“No one,” Wally said. “Somebody paid me to take out the cameras. That’s it. That’s all I did.”
Cora raised her brows. “Good luck convincing our captain of that.”
The city of Providence Falls had suffered two murders in as many months: the first was John Brady, a prominent business¬man, and the second was Lindsey Albright, a young college girl who’d been dating a boy from the motorcycle club. So far, the police had no strong evidence to connect the two deaths, but Captain Boyd Thompson was convinced the bikers were be¬hind everything. Cora and Liam had a different theory, but they agreed to keep their suspicions to themselves for now.

“Two people may have been killed over this money, and we’re looking right at the Booze Dogs.” Cora paused to let that sink in, then shrugged. “Maybe we won’t have to look very far. Maybe it was you.”
“No way! I’m not a killer.” Wally’s face grew red enough to match the decor. “And I didn’t steal no money from the club, either. Only an idiot would steal from Eli Shelton. Do I look stupid to you?”
She refrained from commenting. “Who paid you to paint over those cameras, Mr. Jensen?”
“I don’t know.”

Liam scoffed. “You expect us to believe—”
“I got a text,” Wally wailed. “Said if I blocked the security cameras that night, I’d make a quick two grand, no questions asked.”
“So, you took a bribe to betray your own club,” Cora said. “Without even knowing why.”
“It wasn’t like that,” Wally said in frustration. “I figured one of the guys wanted the cameras out so he could sneak around with someone’s old lady. No harm, no foul. It wasn’t supposed to be a big deal. Look, my girlfriend and I have been on the rocks for a while. I thought if I spent some money on her and took her someplace nice like this, she’d stick around. I just wanted to show her a good time.” He looked at Liam. “You get that. Right, bro?”
Liam glanced at the mirrored ceiling above the heart-shaped bed. The Fantasy Palace had some interesting amenities, to be sure, but it wouldn’t have been his first choice to impress a woman.
“How did this anonymous person pay you, Mr. Jensen?” Cora asked.
“They left an envelope of money on my windshield the next morning. I thought that’d be the end of it, but then Eli found out all that money was stolen, and all hell broke loose at the compound. People started fighting and pointing fingers. I got spooked. So, I told my girl we’d go on a little vacation, and I took off.”
“And you came to the Fantasy Palace.” Cora looked skeptical. “This isn’t much of a hideout, Mr. Jensen. It’s not even outside the city.”
“I know, but my girlfriend always wanted to come here,” Wally said. “And I wanted to prove I’d do anything for her.”
Liam frowned. “Even risk your own neck?”
“My neck’s never been worth much.” Wally slouched in the chair, looking more miserable by the second. “Anyway, I love her. What good is my life if she ain’t in it?”
Liam had no answer. How many times had he asked himself the same thing about Cora? Poor man. Wally Jensen was on the wrong side of the law, his life was in danger, and he was in love with a woman he couldn’t keep. He’d made his bed and had to lie in it, but Liam couldn’t help feeling a stab of pity for the man. Fate was a fickle bedfellow, and every soul was just one twist away from either happiness or heartache.
“I was hoping everything would blow over, and they’d forget about me,” Wally said, rubbing his chin. “I was going to lie low here for a while, then take my girlfriend to California, where my cousin is. But I don’t know. I haven’t figured it all out yet.”
“Well, there’s no need,” Cora said briskly. “You’re coming to the station with us.”
To Liam’s surprise, Wally sagged in relief. “You’re locking me up?”
“That’s correct, Mr. Jensen.” Cora snapped handcuffs on his wrists while reading his rights.
They escorted Wally to the car without a struggle. Sloshed as he was, he still seemed to have enough self-preservation to recognize jail was the lesser of two evils. Better safe with them than facing the Booze Dogs’ method of justice. Maybe if his luck held, the law would shield him long enough for Eli Shelton to forget all about his betrayal. Not likely. Liam knew that would take a miracle, but he hoped, for Wally’s sake, he had one coming.
On the way back to the station, Liam contemplated his own poor luck. Given his lack of success over the past couple of months, and the fact that Cora was still no closer to loving Finn, the future was looking dimmer with every passing hour. Still…

If there was even just a sliver of a miracle out there for him—he didn’t need much, just a leftover scrap or a crumb from the celestial table—Liam would snatch it and run like the thief that he was.

Excerpt. ©Jude Deveraux and Tara Sheets. Posted by arrangement with the publisher. All rights reserved.
 
 

Giveaway: A print copy of Thief of Fate by Jude Deveraux and Tara Sheets (US winners only)

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Meet the Author:

Jude Deveraux is the author of forty-three New York Times bestsellers, including For All Time, Moonlight in the Morning, and A Knight in Shining Armor. She was honored with a Romantic Times Pioneer Award in 2013 for her distinguished career. To date, there are more than sixty million copies of her books in print worldwide. visit her website, http://www.judedeveraux.com

Tara Sheets is an award-winning author of contemporary romance and women’s fiction. Her work has earned first place recognition in literary contests nationwide, and her debut novel, DON’T CALL ME CUPCAKE, won the 2016 Golden Heart® award sponsored by Romance Writers of America. Tara lives in Charlotte, North Carolina. For additional books by Tara Sheets, visit her website, http://www.tarasheets.com