With her indomitable flare for giving readers what they love most, Diana Palmer delivers a searing, explosive story in which one man and one woman confront their splintered past and walk a precarious tightrope between life and death. Desperado is a novel readers will not soon forget.

Summary

He is every inch the desperado.

Tough, relentless and a force to be reckoned with, Cord Romero lives for the adrenaline rush that comes with being a mercenary for hire. Risking his neck is all in a day's work.

But this time the job is personal.

Having barely survived a murder attempt from an elusive enemy, Cord has made it his personal mission to neutralize his foe--the head of a multinational corporation that fronts a child labor ring. Cord knows only too well how deadly--and conniving--this man can be. He's seen it firsthand.

In order to get closer to his target, Cord joins forces with the Lassiter Detective Agency, where he's reunited with his childhood friend Maggie Barton. Cord is surprised to find Maggie is no longer the impressionable young woman he once knew. A recent widow, she is now a strong and independent woman in charge of her own life--and an expert in a profession that places her as Cord's equal. She has one vulnerability, however: a tragic secret from her past that threatens her relationship with Cord...and sets her up as a pawn for his deadly enemy.

On this, the most important case of his life, Cord Romero cannot afford to be distracted. And he reluctantly acknowledges that Maggie plays an indispensable part in unraveling the child labor magnate's links to a shady global corporation that is the source of his wealth. Forced to trust each other for their very survival, Cord and Maggie embark on a lethal game of cat and mouse that can only leave one winner standing.