No indiscriminate killing. No collateral damage. No unvetted targets.
These are the rules Hawes Madigan lives by. Rules that make being Fog City’s Prince of Killers bearable. Soon, he’ll be king—of an organization of assassins—and the crown has never felt heavier. Until the mysterious Dante Perry swaggers into his life.
Dante looks like a rock god and carries himself like one too, all loose-limbed and casually confident. He also carries a concealed weapon, a private investigator’s license, and a message for the prince. Someone inside Hawes’s organization is out to kill the future king.
In the chaos that follows the timely warning, Hawes comes to depend on Dante. On his skills as an investigator, on the steadiness he offers, and on their moments alone when Hawes lets Dante take control. As alliances are tested and traitors exposed, Hawes needs Dante at his back and in his bed. But if the PI ever learns Hawes’s darkest secret, Hawes is sure to get a knife to the heart—and a bullet to the brain—instead.
There’s no shortage of twists and turns in this new romantic suspense trilogy from Layla Reyne. Prince of Killers is book one of three. Fair warning: buckle up, cliffhangers ahead!
Prince of Killers by Layla Reyne
Series (name + # in series): Fog City #1
Publisher: Layla Reyne (Self-Published)
Release Date (Print & Ebook): June 10, 2019
Length (Print & Ebook): 216 pages (52K words)
Subgenre: M/M Romantic Suspense
Warnings: Explicit sex including mild kink; explicit language; violence; instances and/or discussion of homophobia; off-page instances and/or discussion of PTSD, drug use, and abuse of minor characters.
Amazon – Kindle Unlimited
Get to know more about Layla Reyne in this fun Review Tour Q&A!
- Do you listen to audiobooks? If so, are there any you’d recommend?
Yes! One of my day jobs is as a legal resource editor, and I always have an audiobook playing when I’m doing that work. The Tales of Verania series by TJ Klune, narrated by Michael Lesley, is an absolute treasure.
- What are your five favorite words?
I just need one: Fuck, especially the way Tristan James says it narrating audiobooks 😉
- Do you have a favorite cover from one of your books?
This one! Cate Ashwood who did all the Fog City covers sent me the cover concept for Prince of Killers first, and I screamed “Holy Shit!” so loudly that my dogs startled. And I kept repeating “Holy Shit” for like the next week. She deserves so much credit, as does Wander Aguiar for the gorgeous photos, and Patrick Sean (the model) for just being that damn gorgeous.
He was starting to think Dante was right. Whatever was happening now was connected to what had happened then, on the night Isabelle Costa died.
That fact acknowledged—and the anxiety and unease that came with it internalized—a calm settled over Hawes. He counted the panes in the windows, waited for his breath and heartbeat to slow, then dropped his arms and turned back to his condo full of visitors. “I’ll see what I can find out today at the pier.”
“I’ve got a hearing at ten.” Helena dumped her empty paper plate into the trash. “If I don’t go by the station beforehand, I’ll swing by there after. I can be at HQ by one.”
“No,” Hawes said. “Things need to appear as usual. I would normally be in this morning. You wouldn’t.”
“I’ll go in with you,” Holt said. He patted Lily’s back through the sling. “She’s having fun being out today.”
Dante pushed off the fridge. “And I’ll have their backs.”
Helena blocked his forward momentum with her arm. “Look here, Mr. Hair—”
“Hena,” Hawes chided, while Holt laughed.
Their sister, however, held the steak knife at-the-ready and had drawn nose-to-chest with Dante, though you wouldn’t know it by her stance. For all she cared, she was taller than Dante, not a good foot shorter. “You’ve gotta give us more before I let you walk into this with my family.”
“There’s a flash drive in my coat pocket.”
“I’ve got it,” Hawes said, saving Holt the trouble of reaching around the baby and laptop. He retrieved the flash drive—generic, drugstore model—and held it out to Holt.
Holt’s wary gaze split between him and Dante. “I’m not putting that in my computer without checking it for viruses.”
“I wouldn’t either,” Dante said. “Which was why I checked it before I put it in mine. No viruses, I swear.”
Holt still hesitated. Hawes slapped the drive into his hand with a firm, “Just do it.” They didn’t have time to argue.
Hawes moved behind Holt so he could view the screen as Holt disconnected from servers and wireless networks before inserting the flash drive. No blue screen of death appeared. Holt released a held breath, and Hawes put a hand on his shoulder, squeezing gently. Then harder, unintentionally, when Holt opened the first unnamed folder and the screen filled with surveillance photos—of Hawes. From various spots around town, from the pier, from outside the family fort in Pac Heights, and in front of his condo. Each had a bull’s-eye drawn on his head.
About Layla Reyne: RITA Finalist Layla Reyne is the author of the Agents Irish and Whiskey, Trouble Brewing, and Changing Lanes series. A Carolina Tar Heel who now calls the San Francisco Bay Area home, Layla enjoys weaving her bi-coastal experiences into her stories, along with adrenaline-fueled suspense and heart-pounding romance. She is a member of Romance Writers of America and its Kiss of Death and Rainbow Romance Writers chapters. Layla is a 2019 RWA® RITA® Finalist in Contemporary Romance (Mid-Length) and 2016 RWA® Golden Heart® Finalist in Romantic Suspense.
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