Splendid Isolation Old spies make dangerous hostages. A prisoner at the tender mercies of the British Secret Intelligence Services, Manuel has to believe that trading freedom for protection was his only hope of avoiding payback for his crimes. Yet his checkered past is neither forgiven nor forgotten. Every day, Manuel is tasked with providing his handlers new intelligence about the bloodthirsty power players he once served. And if he refuses, there are consequences. In charge of Manuel's debriefing is Cole, a high-ranking Section officer whose history is intimately intertwined with Manuel's misdeeds. He has made it his mission to unearth Manuel's secrets, however long that takes. He will break Manuel because it is necessary. Avenging a broken heart has nothing to do with it. But time is not on their side. When Manuel's former employer targets the safe house where he is imprisoned, his usefulness as an asset is called into question. As old passions awaken, both Cole and Manuel discover that letting go of the past may not be as easy as they'd hoped. The Truth about the Liar When hunter becomes hunted, the lines between enemy and friend are easily blurred. A hit man with a price on his head, Arthur's days are numbered. He should be in MI6 custody, paying penance for shooting one of their agents and killing three others. He should be at the mercy of his South American employers, who paid him handsomely to liquidate a former associate only to be rewarded with failure. He certainly shouldn't be alive, in the care of a nefarious figure that even the SIS is wary of crossing. En route to meet his unlikely benefactor in Egypt, Arthur is placed into the care of mysterious, subtly menacing Klaus. A man with a near-perfect reputation for delivering scalps, Klaus is not likely to facilitate Arthur's escape. But Arthur knows how to handle tall, dark, unnervingly handsome threats. It shouldn't take much to win Klaus over-even if it means that Arthur must plan his next move on his knees.