Jul 3, 20175 min read

WIRED by Julie Garwood

“Whoever thinks romantic suspense is dead should read a Julie Garwood book.”

—USA Today

WIRED

A beautiful computer hacker and a bad-boy FBI agent must collaborate—in more ways than one—in the sizzling new novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Julie Garwood. Allison Trent doesn’t look like a hacker. In fact, when she’s not in college working on her degree, she models on the side. But behind her gorgeous face is a brilliant mind for computers and her real love is writing—and hacking—code. Her dream is to write a new security program that could revolutionize the tech industry. Hotshot FBI agent Liam Scott has a problem: a leak deep within his own department. He needs the skills of a top-notch hacker to work on a highly sensitive project: to secretly break into the FBI servers and find out who the traitor is. But he can’t use one of his own. He finds the perfect candidate in Allison. Only, there’s one problem—she wants nothing to do with his job and turns him down flat. What Liam doesn’t know is that Allison is hiding secrets that she doesn’t want the FBI to uncover. But Liam will do nearly anything to persuade her to join his team, even break a few rules if that’s what it takes. A temptation that could put his job—and both of their futures—on the line...

Series: Buchanan/FBI | Genre: Romantic Suspense | Heat Level: 5

Publisher: Berkley | Release Date: Jul 04, 2017 | Pages: 320pp

“Julie Garwood creates masterpieces every time she writes a book.”

—The Kansas City Star

ENJOY AN EXCERPT

from Wired

Allison looked at the wall of agents behind her. She had had enough of Phillips’s patronizing attitude and wanted to get out of there, but it was apparent she wasn’t being given a choice in the matter, so she reluctantly followed.

They proceeded down a hallway where the walls were clear glass. There was so much activity she didn’t know where to look first. They passed a huge room filled with computers and techs, all men dressed in suits and ties, but with their jackets off. Allison stopped to watch. They were typing furiously and watching their screens. Against the far wall facing her was a giant world map. Dots of light appeared with lines curving from relay station to relay station, bouncing off satellites around the globe. It was obvious to Allison that they were trying to pinpoint the exact location where a cyberattack originated, but the person or persons at the source had put up barricades. The screen was filling up with more dots, indicating the techs weren’t getting anywhere.

When Phillips noticed Allison wasn’t behind him, he came back for her. “What are you doing?”

She didn’t answer for a couple of minutes. As she watched the lights jump across the screen, she began to recognize the pattern. It was one she had seen before. “Is that a training session?”

“No, of course not. This isn’t a training facility. These are all professionals.”

“Then why is it taking them so long to…” She paused. Trying to be more diplomatic, she revised her question so that it wouldn’t sound antagonistic. “How long do you think it will take before one of them pinpoints the location?”

“It could take a day or two, sometimes longer, and sometimes the location disappears before we can locate the point of origin.” He stared at her while she continued to study the map, then offered a challenge. “You think you can do better?”

There it was again, that smartass attitude in his tone and expression. She decided she wouldn’t let him irritate her, but then he said, “I didn’t think so.”

Oh, it was so on. She brushed past him, opened the door, and walked into the room. The air smelled clean but with a hint of aftershave. Every male in the room looked up at her and froze. She smiled, hoping to put them at ease as she walked over to a tech in the back row and said, “Would you mind if I have a try?”

All heads turned in the direction of Phillips, who was still outside the glass. He nodded.

Another tech nearly knocked his chair over when he stood. “Here,” he said, “You can use the station next to Stan.” He rushed to the back row, inserted his card into a slot, then pulled out the chair. “Here you go. All set.”

He introduced himself. Then eleven others followed suit. They wanted to know why she was there, but she didn’t explain. She sat, adjusted the chair, stared at the screen for several seconds, and started typing. Her mind was so focused on the task at hand, she no longer was aware of her surroundings.

Phillips stayed outside feeling annoyed. He had a lot of work to get done, and this exercise with Allison seemed a waste of time to him, but orders were orders, and he would, of course, acquiesce. His instructions were to show her the unit before the evaluation; however, her sudden focus on this cyber problem might just produce the results he expected. If that happened, he could bid Ms. Trent good-bye sooner than later.

“Sir, how long do you think it will take before she gives up?” one of the agents asked.

Phillips didn’t answer him.

Another agent said, “She doesn’t need to know her way around a computer. Not with looks like that.”

“Do you realize how sexist you sound, Pierce?” the first agent chided.

Phillips kept checking the time. Fifteen minutes passed before Allison stopped typing. She reached for a small Post-it, picked up a pen, and wrote something. Then she stood and thanked the techs for letting her join them.

“Give up?” Phillips asked what he thought was the obvious question when she came through the door.

Smiling, she slapped the Post-it on the lapel of his jacket, turned, and walked down the hall to find Jordan.

He pulled the piece of paper from his lapel to see what she had written. It was an address in San Francisco, California. “What the…”

CONTINUE READING EXCERPT AT JULIEGARWOOD.COM

THE AUTHOR

Julie Garwood is among the most critically acclaimed—and popular—romance authors around, with nearly forty million copies of her books in print. She is the author of numerous bestsellers, including Hotshot, Sweet Talk, The Ideal Man, Sizzle, Fire and Ice, Shadow Music, Shadow Dance, and Slow Burn. She lives near Kansas City.