Every face hides a secret. Every legend tells a lie. Conor McBride has accepted bargains he may live to regret - assuming he lives through them at all. He's taken an undercover assignment in exchange for the chance to resume his career as a solo violinist. He's also agreed to a proposal from the woman he loves, but it isn't the type he had in mind. When their simple mission turns complicated, Conor and Kate discover everyone is hiding something - secrets as twisted as the fabled lanes of an old world city. Unraveling them will be anything but simple, or safe. Excerpt: As soon as night falls, darkness becomes your weapon. Use it, or you'll find it used against you. She scrambled up the steep incline, repeating the words to herself like a mantra, like a prayer she was trying to believe in, willing them to produce the effect she needed. Invisibility. Concealment. When Conor had offered this advice - his face solemn, as if reciting a piece of ancient wisdom - she'd tried to match his mood, but ended up annoying him with an ill-timed giggle. Kate wasn't laughing now. The situation was more frightening than anything she'd prepared for, and her strategy was unraveling. Instead of heading for the summit she should have taken the last side trail to slip back along a different route. She'd realized her mistake a few minutes earlier, when the forested mountainside began dropping away. It seemed as though the unseen hand of an artist was rubbing at the scenery, thinning the composition. The higher she climbed, the fewer the trees. Eventually, there would be none. She would emerge like wild game flushed from its cover - a solid, unobstructed target. It was too late to double back now, but with the cloud cover of a March evening speeding its arrival, the weapon she'd been waiting for finally appeared. Darkness. It poured over the mountain, an inky tide arriving exactly on time. Within a shrinking sphere of visibility Kate paused to listen for a sign of pursuit. Earlier, she'd been able to detect it - a distant thump of booted feet on the trail, more vibration than sound. Methodical. Relentless. The beat of it in the ground under her feet had unnerved her, but its absence was worse. Pebbles from eroding stone shifted beneath her feet. She cringed at the rattle echoing through the otherwise silent forest. Scrambling up the final steep section of rock, she pulled herself onto an outcrop of ledge and stood motionless on the summit. At the corner of her eye something shivered in a thicket of evergreens, and she spun to face it. A bird? A rustle of wind? Something else? Kate focused on the indistinct shape of the trees, but the movement had subsided. She relaxed and took a long breath, wiping the sweat from her forehead, but when she turned he was right there, his dark figure filling the space in front of her, extinguishing what light remained. She screamed and reflexively took a step away, then felt herself toppling back over the ledge. A hand shot out and yanked her forward. She heard him grunt as one of her windmilling arms connected with his chin. Off-balance himself, he slammed her onto the ground and fell on top of her. Kate landed hard, flat on her back, and felt the air explode from her lungs like a shot being fired.