Fatal ScandalI’m Metropolitan Police Lieutenant Sam Holland, and my day often begins in the dead of night when dispatch calls to tell me we’ve got another homicide in the District of Columbia. Middle-of the night phone calls never bothered me until I married Nick. Now I’ve got a very good reason to be home in my warm bed. He understands when my work interrupts a night of sleep—not to mention other things it’s been known to interrupt. . .

Now that he’s the vice president, he and our son Scotty are surrounded at all times by Secret Service agents. When the president asked my husband to take the place of the ailing vice president, he agreed on several conditions—that I would not be required to have a detail so I can continue to do my job as a homicide detective and that we could stay in our own home so we could remain in close proximity to my ailing father. See why I love him so much? He’s always thinking of what’s best for me.

I can tell he’s worried when I get called out in the middle of the night. He has this look he gets on his handsome face, as if there’s something he wants to say but he keeps those thoughts to himself most of the time. He’s insanely protective of me, so I know he doesn’t want me to go, but to his credit he rarely interferes with my work. When he does, whoa, major fireworks! But since that usually leads to make-up sex, I’m okay with the occasional dispute.

He never lets me leave without telling me to be careful. It’s our routine. He says, “Be careful out there, babe,” or something adorable like that, to which I reply, “Always am.”

It’s not like he isn’t plenty busy himself as vice president. Even though his schedule is hectic, he makes time to help with my cases. Other than the fact that he’s crazy hot, he’s also damned smart and the most well connected dude in all of Washington. There is literally no one he doesn’t know. Another reason I love him so much.

I’m entertained during the workday by my junk-food-eating, Bible-thumping partner, Detective Freddie Cruz, who loves to correct my language and force fried food on me whenever he can. Don’t tell him I said this, but he’s one of the best cops I’ve ever worked with, even if we’re still smoothing out some of his rough edges. He’s a great guy, a little too earnest at times, but I’m molding him to my vision.

Most of my coworkers are totally awesome, with a few exceptions. Some people don’t like me because I’ve moved quickly up the ranks. They mutter about nepotism because my dad was deputy chief when he was shot on the job three years ago.

Nothing causes me more grief than knowing that the person who shot my dad and left him a quadriplegic is still on the loose. My dad was three months shy of retirement from the police force when he was shot, and I won’t rest or retire until I find the shooter.

Never a dull moment around here, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Read Fatal Scandal, book 8 in Sam and Nick’s story, available on January 13 everywhere e-books are sold. Here’s what’s up in Fatal Scandal:

As a new year dawns in the capital city, dual scandals rock the Metropolitan Police Department—and Lieutenant Sam Holland is right in the middle of them. Chief Farnsworth is catching heat for the way he handled a recent homicide investigation, and Detective Gonzales is accused of failing to disclose an earlier connection to the judge who decided his custody hearing.

When Gonzo’s fight for his child turns deadly and he has a shaky alibi, Sam must defend two of her closest colleagues. All while her husband, Vice President Nick Cappuano, settles into his new office at the White House.

Nick begins to wonder if the president is using him for a political boost, and his worries mount over a complication in the plans to adopt Scotty at a time when Sam is being put through the wringer by the always-rabid DC press corps. As the evidence against Gonzo piles up, Sam suspects someone is gunning for her—and her team.


You can read more about Sam in Fatal Scandal, the eighth book in the “Fatal” romantic suspense series, published by Carina Press. The first book in the series is Fatal Affair.

GIVEAWAY: Leave a comment by 6 p.m. eastern on January 22 for the chance to win a digital copy of FATAL SCANDAL. Three lucky winners will be randomly selected. The giveaway is open to everyone.

Meet the author
Marie Force is the New York Times, USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestselling author more than 35 contemporary and romantic suspense novels, including the the Fatal Series, the McCarthys of Gansett Island Series, the Green Mountain Series, the Treading Water Series and several standalone stories. Find her online at marieforce.com, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/MarieForceAuthor or on Twitter @marieforce.