Arson investigator Ryan Piasecki was a man who got the job done no matter what the obstacle...or how beautiful she was. Ambitious executive Natalie Fletcher's new business was going up in smoke, literally, and she needed Ryan's help to catch the arsonist. But if he wasn't careful, the sparks flying between him and this hothouse rose would erupt into a five-alarm blaze - and they'd both be engulfed by the Night Smoke.

They called him Nemesis. He walked the dark alleyways alone, a shadow among shadows - and that's the way he liked it. Until the night he saved Deborah O'Roarke from an attacker and rediscovered the quiet ache of yearning lodged in his heart. It had been a long time since he had wanted to reach out to someone….

#1 New York Times best-selling author Nora Roberts presents the final novel in the thrilling Night Tales series.

Her voice was like whiskey, smooth and potent, but it was her contradictions that fascinated Detective Boyd Fletcher - the vulnerability beneath her tough-as-nails facade.

Burned out and tired as hell, the only thing ex-cop Holt Bradford wanted to do was relax. But when beautiful single mom Suzanna invaded his solitude to search for the missing Calhoun emeralds, he couldn't say no. Holt was no longer the bad-boy teen Suzanna remembered. He'd grown into a dangerously sexy man--all the more reason to keep a safe distance. Suzanna wouldn't risk her well-ordered life for a man who could make her mouth go dry with a simple glance.