Bøger af Susan Fanetti

Lawrence Ellis, with vast wealth and power, has made it known that he wants control of Signal Bend, Missouri. He is a man who always gets what he wants; there are no limits to the lengths he'll go, and he has the means to pay all manner of people to do his dirty work for him. The Night Horde MC, led by its President, Isaac Lunden, is wildly outmatched but prepared nonetheless to defend their hometown to the last man, and they are willing to do whatever they must to protect their home. Lilli Accardo, Isaac's old lady, with her own special skills and resources, stands with them, rebelling against Isaac's need to shield her.After toying with them for months, Ellis loses patience for the game and rains down destruction on the Horde, their families, and the town itself. Tested to their very limits, beyond anything they could have imagined, forced to travel dark roads, the citizens of Signal Bend fight a war no one-not even they themselves-thinks they can win.Challenged constantly from without, beset by their own inner demons, Isaac and Lilli must find the true strength within their bond. Isaac needs to protect what is his; Lilli needs to stand on her own; but they are stronger side by side.Even in the deepest darkness, love brings hope.NOTE: dark themes; explicit sex and violence.

Thorin "Thunder" Vaduva is a journeyman MMA fighter-toiling in the shadows, a set of strong shoulders to lift other fighters toward stardom. After years in prison for a crime he didn't commit, he's trying to get his life on track-be a good father to his teenage son, get his fights in, do his work, keep his head down, keep his demons at bay.Nina Rodriguez is trying to get her life started. Her days are filled with work and school, slowly climbing toward a meaningful career. Her aspirations aren't flashy, but she wants a life with purpose.When Nina comes to the Capital City Fight Center so her brother, Thor's teammate, can teach her to fight, she and Thor really notice each other for the first time. After that they fall hard and fast, even while they're taking things slow. Their love comes easy. But life is hard, and full of storms.When one of those storms tears Thor's life apart, only real love can bring the sun back.

Tulsa, Oklahoma 1996 Maxwell "Gunner" Wesson is the loose cannon of the Brazen Bulls MC. A loss taken when he was a boy left a hole inside him, full of chaos and noise, and only pain and destruction can quiet the tempest. Full of courage and fiercely loyal, he has the Bulls at his back, even when his outbursts threaten to damage the club. But the club president's patience is wearing thin. Gun's lack of control has put the Bulls on the front lines of a brewing war, right in the heart of Tulsa. Leah Campbell is a small-town girl, living the life her mother walked away from. She takes care of her father, the town minister, and keeps his secrets, ensuring that he keeps his place as the moral and spiritual center of their community. But Leah has secrets of her own, and she's faltering under the weight of all the things she cannot say, and all the things she must be and do to keep the truth at bay. She's filled the hole her mother made, but it's left her empty. When two such damaged souls, full of secrets and empty of hope, come together, they will either save each other or tear everything apart. Note: explicit sex and violence.

Tulsa, Oklahoma, 1998 Simon Spellman isn't a native Oklahoman. He's a city boy, born and raised in Chicago, but he's lived in Tulsa, and worn a Brazen Bull on his back, for years. Tulsa is his home, and the Bulls his family-the only one he claims, and the only one he wants. As far as he's concerned, life as a Bull is too risky, and the club too demanding, to make room for anyone else. Especially now, while the Brazen Bulls MC stands on the brink of war, smack in the middle of their hometown. Debra Wesson has been part of the Bulls family since her younger brother first put on a kutte. She's known Simon for years; since a crisis threw them together a couple years back, she's known him intimately. They are perfectly compatible, both adventurous in bed and neither interested in a relationship. They've enjoyed each other and kept their hookups a secret from her volatile brother and everyone else. Until they realize that friends with benefits has become something much deeper, despite their guards against it, and they're forced to contend with what's real between them. But it's dangerous to be a Bull, or to love one, right now, as the conflict with the Street Hounds finds its flashpoint. With the enemy standing just on the other side of town, there's no safe place to be. When war hits home, everything that matters is in the line of fire. Note: explicit sex and violence.

Jerome "Hoosier" Elliott is the President of the Night Horde SoCal. He has worn a patch for many years, and he's led his club, and his family, through times of strength and times of struggle. For most of those years, his old lady, Bedelia Beth-"Bibi" to those who know and love her-has stood by his side. Club life has had its challenges, some almost insurmountable, but they have made each other strong and waited for each other always. Together, they made the club a family. After club violence tears them apart, Hoosier needs Bibi to find him and bring him back. The way to their future is their past: the story of the life they've made together, and the dreams they've dared to make come true.

Twenty years ago, as a young Pagano Brothers soldier, Donnie Goretti was horribly injured on the job. The devastating scars of that attack led him to be known as "The Face."Since then, he's been alone, reminded daily that he's too ugly to look at, much less to love. He's devoted himself instead to his work, and he rose through the ranks to become the underboss of the Pagano Brothers family. Now, he is a man of wealth, influence, and respect. In the day, he's a powerful executive and philanthropist. In the night, he's the don's ruthless right hand. When he wants companionship, he has it; there will always be women attracted to his status. But he harbors no delusions that they care about him. How could they, when they can hardly bear to look at him?When he meets Arianna Luciano, a principal dancer with the Rhode Island Ballet, Donnie offers her the same arrangement he's offered many other women. He's armored his heart with cool reserve and an arsenal of iron-clad rules about what he expects, what he'll allow, and what he'll give in exchange.But Ari doesn't like rules, and she wants no part of Donnie's offer. She sees his scars as signs of his pain, markers of his history. They are nothing to be ashamed of. They don't diminish his worth. She wants the chance to fall in love.If only she could make him believe it.

Joseph "Havoc" Mariano is an enforcer for the Night Horde MC. He's a punch first, think maybe kind of guy, a man of action. He's impatient and frustrated with the quiet life-times are changing, his town is changing, his club is changing, and Havoc places the blame squarely on the women that his brothers are settling down with. There's only room for two women in his life: his mother and his sister. Romance holds no appeal for him whatsoever. He's a homegrown, hometown boy whose attitude covers scars he's mostly forgotten about. Corinne Hawes is a single mother struggling to find a way to make a life for her and her teenage son, Nolan. She is an artist at heart, a free spirit on whom the structure and rigor of routine chafes hard. When she takes a job that makes Havoc her boss, they butt heads. But in their confrontations, a spark ignites. When they let their guards down, that spark explodes into a blaze. While Cory learns to trust Havoc, and Havoc grapples with a major shift in his priorities and outlook on life, the period of legitimacy and peace comes to an end for the Horde. They had no idea that they were in so deep until an old enemy resurfaces and perpetrates a horror that affects Havoc, and Cory, profoundly. Note: Explicit sex and violence.

Tulsa, Oklahoma, 2000. Fernando "Ox" Sanchez spent more than two decades as an enforcer in the Brazen Bulls MC before he was named to take the Vice President flash from a brother lost in club turmoil. In the time since, as Ox has settled into his place at their president's side, the club has cleaned out festering wounds and begun to heal. The Bulls are strong and growing, their work is expanding, and Ox's life with his old lady is perfect. Their love has never wavered in fifteen years, their lust for each other still burns hot, and together, they've made a home that is a sanctuary from their past and their present. Life is good. But Ox came from nothing, and scraped for years just to get by. He's lived long enough to know better than to take the good times for granted. Madonna "Maddie" Donne met Ox when she was at her lowest, and with him at her side, she's climbed to heights of success and power matched only by the Bulls. After spending her whole life fighting for survival, she built herself up from that nothing, and Ox offered his shoulders for her to climb on when she couldn't reach alone. Together, they've built a beautiful life. But that beauty won't protect them from the fight they're about to face. When Ox, named for his size and brute power, takes ill, he and Maddie will need every ounce of strength and resolve, every moment of love and trust, to fight the battle before them now. Note: explicit sex and violence.

THE LOVE AT THE HEART OF THE BRAZEN BULLS MC Oklahoma, 1968. Brian Delaney is home from war, scarred in body and soul. He's not the same man he was when he left Oklahoma, and he's come back to a home he doesn't quite recognize. He's struggling to get his life going again. Maureen Quinn was just a girl when she was ripped from her home in Northern Ireland and dropped into the middle of Oklahoma, a world she didn't understand, with family she'd never met. Even years later, she doesn't quite fit. But she has big plans for her life, and the drive to reach them. One spring day, while Brian's out riding to clear his head, he stops at a small-town store. The blue-eyed Irish lass behind the counter captures his interest with her beauty and sass. Mo eyes the scruffy biker buying rubbers and smokes and finds herself intrigued by his husky voice and wry smirk.And the rest is history. Their life isn't easy. Brian's war isn't over yet, and Mo's fight is just beginning. But their love is forever. What they have is worth waiting for.

Loneliness is all that Brenna has ever known. She doesn't expect that she will ever even know true companionship, let alone love. People say she was born with the mark of Odin, but Brenna feels it as a curse rather than a blessing. Those who would tell her she is favored by the Allfather are too afraid to look on her; she is apart from her people. Yet she has learned the power of her difference, and turned it to her advantage. She is a shieldmaiden, with a legendary reputation for her valor as well as for her godly gift. Vali is a giant among his people, well-liked and respected. He is of the Úlfhéðnar, a berserker, one of Odin's own elite warriors, and one of the fiercest and bravest warriors to wield an axe or spear. He is the Storm-Wolf; his strength and ferocity are his gifts from the Allfather. Fortune threw the two warriors together when they were but children. Fate brings them together again as warriors when two jarls ally for a raid into Estland. Again and again, Vali seeks Brenna out. He sees her; he sees the woman behind the whispers. More than that, he will not look away. Vali has not forgotten the debt he owes Brenna from their very first meeting, and in seeking his opportunity to repay her, he finds a lonely, beautiful woman whose quiet strength captures his heart. But the sagas do not sing of warriors who live quiet lives, or of love that does not know trial and tribulation. Favored by the gods they may be, but that does not protect Brenna and Vali from the simple and devastating hardships of their lives. Their reputations cannot help them. It is their love that must become their legend. Note: Explicit sex and violence

Heart's ease is the second installment in The Northwomen Sagas, following God's Eye. When raiders from the North land in Olga's world and take it over, she is captured and made a slave. She and her people suffer at the hands of creatures that seem more beasts than men, and not even her talent and skill as a healer can help them. But one barbarian, big and golden, seems different from the others. He doesn't revel or partake in the suffering of the new slaves, and, when he learns that Olga is a healer who knows some of their words, he releases her from her bonds. The raiders stake claim to Olga's world and mean to settle it, and she and the rest of her people who survived make a new community with the invaders. The barbarians who destroyed her world and made her a slave grow to be her friends and her equals. The friendship she forms with the one who cut her bonds is the deepest of them all. Leif is a valiant and esteemed warrior who's raided for many summers. As a leader in this new world they mean to settle, he forges deep, close ties with those who'd been only allies, and sometimes enemies, and with the native people of this new land. In particular, he's drawn to the dark-haired healer, whose tiny body holds the will and spirit of a mighty raider. Leif is deeply loyal to the jarl who's treated him as a son. When the jarl arrives to view their success, Leif struggles to understand the ways his mentor has grown cruel and deceitful and to see the man he's loved as a father, whose sons he loves as brothers. But he recognizes the brutal lies for what they are. Torn between the man to whom he'd long ago sworn his unconditional fealty and the friends to whom he is devoted, Leif makes a devastating choice, trying as best he can to save those he loves, at any cost to himself. Even at the cost of their love for him. The consequences of his choice are severe. Perhaps too severe to allow forgiveness. But until there is forgiveness, there can never be ease. Note: explicit sex and violence.

A NEW MAFIA ROMANCE SERIES! Against his father's wishes, Trey Pagano made a choice to join the other side of his family and stand with Don Nick Pagano, head of the Pagano Brothers, the most powerful Family in New England. Now he strives to find the balance between these two sides of himself, between the father who raised him and the don who means to lift him up. Seeking the brightest mind to keep his secrets, Don Pagano recruited Lara Dumas, a woman with a brilliant intellect bound up in a damaged mind and frail body. Lara has carefully constructed a small world for herself in a comfortable corner of Providence, building boundaries within her limits. When Lara is hurt by Pagano Brothers' enemies, the safety of her world is destroyed. The don assigns Trey to take her away and protect her-and the things she knows. Hundreds of miles from home, hidden from danger and cut off from everything they know and trust, Trey and Laura grow close. Against his better judgment, Trey falls for the woman whose strength shines through the cracks in her psyche. Despite her trauma, Lara comes to trust the man who's kept her safe. Whether the bond they forge in safety can survive when they return to the world is a matter of faith-in themselves and in each other.

Nick Pagano is a leader in the Pagano Brothers organization. As their head enforcer, it has been his responsibility to mete out justice, to seek retaliation, to uncover the secrets of Pagano enemies by any means necessary, and to sink deep the evidence of those means. It is work that requires keen vision and perfect control. It is work at which Nick excels. It is work that has made him dark. As the Paganos fight a war against an enemy determined to destroy them and change the landscape of the New English underworld, the boundaries between work and family that Nick's father and uncle long ago made sacrosanct are crossed, and Nick's work becomes personal. Beverly Maddox lives across the hall from Nick. She's living a life she's worked hard to build, with a job she likes and friends she loves, content in her surroundings and in her own skin. She thinks the best of people and offers them her trust and friendship without reservation. Though her life hasn't always been kind, she has not let the troubles of her past weigh her down. Her outlook is light, in both senses of the word. It's her light that catches Nick's eye, and his attention inadvertently causes Beverly to be swept up into his dark world. Thrust together by circumstance, Nick comes to see that Beverly's light eases his dark soul. But will his darkness douse her light instead? Note: explicit sex and violence.

THE CONCLUSION OF THE PAGANO FAMILY SERIES. Joey Pagano was left disabled following a violent moment in his family's history, a moment he chose to be a part of. During the past ten years of a life he's only half lived, all of his brothers and sisters have gotten married and made families of their own, but Joey's had no one. Before he was hurt, he was the carefree family clown, living a life of privilege and excess, with any girl he wanted hanging on his arm. Now he's resigned himself to being alone. He's given up. Tina Corti grew up in Quiet Cove, just like Joey. She's known him most of her life, though she hasn't seen much of him since his troubles. No longer the daydreaming schoolgirl with a crush on her oldest brother's best friend, Tina has worked hard to accomplish her goals. She wants to make a difference, to do her part, for her family and the world. She's stretched her wings beyond the Cove, but she's kept her roots firmly in place. A chance meeting kindles a fragile friendship. Joey, scarred in body and soul, is guarded. But Tina's gentle optimism and patience give him room and cause to trust, to love, to breathe. She brings him back to life. Before they can settle into their love and imagine a happy life together, their families bring violence into their world again, and Joey will have to return the favor. Note: explicit sex and violence.

Carlo Pagano Jr. is the eldest son of a large Italian-American family in Quiet Cove, Rhode Island. He's a disappointment to his father but a hero to the young son he is raising alone, after his wife abandoned them. Sabina Alonzo-Auberon is a beautiful Argentine native married to one of the most influential and wealthy men in New England. Though James Auberon is highly esteemed, the power and glamour the world sees hide a darker reality that exists within the walls of their home. Sabina is trapped in a life of control and abasement, living with a man too powerful and vengeful to escape. Sabina doesn't wish to be rescued and whisked away on a white horse. She's not looking for a fairy tale hero; she knows the fairy tale is a lie. She's waiting for the chance to save herself. But she won't turn down help if it comes. A fateful meeting with Carlo brings Sabina the chance to break free and make a life on her own terms. If any name demands respect and strikes fear more than Auberon, it's Pagano. Carlo's uncles head one of the most powerful 'families' in the Northeast, and they will offer their help-for a price. What begins as an offer of assistance deepens into an intense bond, but before Carlo and Sabina can be together, they must overcome the obstacles in their path. Together Carlo and Sabina seek true and honest love, and freedom from the demons of their pasts, but no quest was ever without its trials. Explicit sex. Some dark themes.

After a cataclysmic tragedy leaves her alone in the world, Gabriela Kincaid climbs into her father's ancient pickup and strikes off on her own, turning her back on everything she knows. No destination in mind, moving toward nothing but distance. Just somewhere. Fate chooses her destination, and she finds herself in Jasper Ridge, Idaho, a small town in the shadow of the Sawtooth Range. With nowhere else to get to, and no way to get anywhere else, she decides to make her home there. Heath Cahill is fighting the demons of his own horrific past. A son of the most important rancher in Jasper Ridge, he's tethered to the town, so he's made his escape inward, turning his back on any new chances for a happy life. But he sees something in the eyes of the young woman who walks into the town saloon: a guarded pain he recognizes as like his own. He tries to resist the pull he feels, but with a nudge from Fate, friends, and family, Heath opens his heart again. Together, they find love and hope for happiness. First, though, they must face a past that neither has escaped.

Patrick "Trick" Stavros is a soldier in the Night Horde SoCal, and he was a soldier in the US Army, once upon a time-a sniper deployed to Afghanistan. The club recently tasked him to use those skills, and the job he did for his club weighs heavy on him, just as the job he did for his country does. He's struggling under the weight, and he's beginning to crumble. Juliana Dominguez is a single mother who has just moved with her young daughter, Lucie, into Trick's apartment complex. Juliana and Trick know each other a little, and share a mutual attraction, but she has rebuffed his advances. She knows about the Night Horde, and she wants a safer, more secure life for her daughter. Circumstances conspire to bring them together despite Juliana's reservations, and they learn that they share some kinds of pain and can make each other stronger. Then, just as Juliana realizes that, with Trick, she and Lucie can have the security and stability they need, and also have something even more important-real, deep, meaningful love-the consequences of Trick's club life threaten to tear it all away. Note: explicit sex and violence.

Tulsa, Oklahoma, 1995. Conrad "Radical" Jessup, Sergeant at Arms of the Brazen Bulls Motorcycle Club, has life just about where he wants it: he's free of a bad marriage, and his club is cruising along healthy and strong, their business relationships as solid as their brotherhood. He's a contented man, riding his road at his speed. Until a massive highway wreck brings a blonde on a little sportster crashing into his life. Willa Randall is making a new life in Tulsa, working hard to put a demolished past in her rearview mirror. Trying to keep herself safe, she's built a life insulated by locks and walls. Inside those walls, she's alone, but she feels secure, and that's enough. Until a big, tattooed biker holds out his hand and helps her up from the pavement. A love seeded in chaos grows fast and deep. But when chaos is a constant, can any love endure? Note: explicit sex and violence.

THE NIGHT HORDE SOCAL SERIES CONCLUDES. Ronin Drago has always been a fighter, a warrior, a soldier. Not one to take the lead or the limelight, he stands stalwart with his brothers, but he keeps his own counsel. The Night Horde SoCal has been taking too many hits lately, and he fears that they are cracking under the strain. Every run seems to bring more chaos and less clarity, and Ronin no longer sees the purpose in their fight. But he is a loyal man, and long ago the club gave him a family when he had no other, when he came home from war to an empty life that had once been full of love and promise. Lorraine Milligan loved the young man that Ronin had been in that long ago time, and she loves him still. But she broke his heart and left his life empty. She's regretted it ever since, but she never thought to have the chance to make amends. In the years since she ran from their young love, she has made a good life, successful and content, but shadowed by her regret, her Great Lost Love. When their paths cross unexpectedly and the old spark between them rekindles, they have a chance to remake a future together. But first Ronin must come to terms with the full dimension of what he lost when Lorraine left him. And then they both must decide if his club and their love can fit together at all. **This volume also includes Home & Safe, the epilogue novella to the Night Horde SoCal series. Note: explicit sex and violence.

Ride or die...An act of treachery has weakened Isaac Lunden, President of the Night Horde MC. His life, and his family's, is changed fundamentally. Lilli, his old lady, is at his side, exhorting him to fight. But he isn't sure that what's left to him is enough to fight for. In Dark Woods is the story of Isaac and Lilli's journey through this difficult time.Also included in this volume are six short stories that take place during the Signal Bend Series.Note: Explicit scenes.

Tulsa, Oklahoma, 2001. Caleb Mathews is caught between two worlds: Osage Nation, the world of his ancestors, and the Brazen Bulls MC, the world of his brothers. Straddling both, he struggles to be steady in either. The pull he feels most strongly is to his club. There, he knows he'll someday find his place to stand. But to choose them is to betray his blood. After her father's violent death, Cecily Nielsen turned her back on the Brazen Bulls-the world that her father helped create, and the only family she'd ever known. Now, she's lost in the dark, unsure of what she has or who she is. Going nowhere, toward nothing, and spiraling out of control. When Cecily finds herself in danger, it's the Bulls she calls for rescue, and Caleb who answers. She doesn't want to need the Bulls, whom she blames for her father's death-and she especially doesn't want to need Caleb, who's seen her at her worst. But in her lowest moment, she calls out for the family she remembers, and Caleb brings her home. At Cecily's side as she finds her footing, Caleb finds his as well. Together, they stand on solid ground, and they keep each other steady when the club and the world itself fall into chaos. The one who's seen the worst of you and stays strong at your side is the one to hold close.

John Pagano is the "good son" of his family, the one among his brothers who has always done what was expected of him, who was never a disappointment or a trouble. He's built a good life in that quiet space. But he's not happy. Despite the strong foundation of his family, his work, and his town, John is missing what he really wants: something-someone-of his own. A family and home that's his. As he's gotten older, that need for what's missing has begun to make cracks in the foundation of his good life. Katrynn Page has had no such strong foundation of family. The product of an unconventional upbringing, she has learned that love is a wavering, unreliable thing. Working with Bev Pagano at Cover to Cover Books, becoming close friends, Katrynn has spent her years in Quiet Cove as an honorary member of the Pagano family-just close enough to really see all she does not have, has never had. Everything she most wants. John comes to see that Katrynn is what he's been missing. Katrynn comes to see that John is exactly what she wants. But a drunken encounter gets them off to a disastrous start, and Katrynn must first find it in herself to forgive John and then learn to trust him, and herself, enough to believe that love can be steadfast. She will have to take a leap of faith. Note: explicit sex

Michael "Demon" Van Buren is an enforcer with the Night Horde SoCal. He is a man tormented by his past, by the beast that lurks in his soul. He wants nothing more than to have love and a family, to be a good father to his young son, to have a home. But the experiences of his life have warped him, and he despairs of ever having, or deserving, the chance. Demon met Faith Fordham when they were young-when she was quite young. The daughter of the former club's Sergeant at Arms, Faith set her sights on the Prospect with the romance-hero eyes, and she didn't care that her father, and her age, had made her off limits. As captivated by her as she was by him, and a slave to his impulses, Demon, too, ignored the dangers of loving the SAA's forbidden daughter. It ended in the only way it could. They were torn apart, lost to each other. Losing everything. Ten years later, Faith comes home to a place she's never lived, and Demon, darker now than ever, is there. Note: explicit sex and violence.

Tulsa, Oklahoma, Christmas 2001. Roland "Fitz" Fitzgerald is having the worst holiday season of his life. His blood family is falling apart, and his chosen family is badly hurt and struggling to get back on its feet. He became a member of the Brazen Bulls MC to find brotherhood and a purpose for his life, but everywhere he turns, all he sees are dark shadows. There was light in his life once, but he lost it long ago. Kari Kovacs' life isn't perfect, but she's content in it. She's got her job, her friends, her family-most important of which is her young son, the light of her life. She devotes her attention to him and has decided neither she nor he needs more. She had a different kind of love once, but she doesn't let herself dwell on its loss. On Thanksgiving Day, when Fitz is caught in a dark tempest of heartbreaking trouble, he runs into Kari. Their past rekindles at once. By New Year's Day, their lives, and their futures, are full of light. Note: This Christmas story takes place toward the end of Stand, Book 7 of the Brazen Bulls MC series, and is Book 7.5 of that series.

Signal Bend, Missouri survived a war on its streets and has arrived at a period of growth and peace. The town and its guardians, the Night Horde MC, relax into this moment of hope, looking toward the future for the first time in decades. Everyone but Robert "Showdown" Ryan. Having suffered tremendous loss in that war, and taking on the burden of blame for it, Show has nothing left of himself. He is an empty husk of a man, drowning in grief and whiskey, seeking relief in numbness. Shannon Bannerman has come to Signal Bend to manage the new Keller Acres Bed & Breakfast. She has left a successful city life to start anew in this tiny town, trying to keep the door closed on the regrets of her past. Shannon is drawn to Show despite his stony detachment, and he is drawn to her despite his need to stay numb. But the pain in their pasts is deep and damaging. Only real love, like neither of them has ever known, could heal it. NOTE: explicit sex.

Eastern Kentucky, 1937. After the death of her husband, Ada Donovan returned home to live again with her aging parents. She does all she can to help them keep the small family farm going. But times are hard, and there's never enough. During one of her infrequent visits to town, she sees a help-wanted notice for the Pack Horse Librarian Project, seeking librarians to ride up high in the mountains and bring books to the people there. Before her marriage, Ada was a teacher, and the thought of returning to the work she loved is impossible to resist. The mountains are her favorite place, books are her great joy, and her horse is her best friend.But not everyone on the mountain is happy to see her.Living in a crumbing cabin at the highest, most isolated point of Ada's route, there's a family that catches her attention. The father keeps to the shadows. There is no mother to dote on the happy, curious children. But soon Ada comes to love them just as fiercely as the woman they lost.And makes it her mission to bring them the world.

Connor Elliott is Sergeant at Arms of the Night Horde SoCal. He was brought up in the MC life and has never wanted anything else. But he's found out the hard way that love and the outlaw life don't always mix. Now he avoids romantic entanglements. Pilar Cordero is a firefighter in San Bernardino County. Her demanding career has taken its toll, so she, too, has decided to live her life without romance. She focuses on her friends and her family and takes physical fulfillment when and where she wants it. When Connor and Pilar meet, best-laid plans quickly go awry. In the midst of their struggle to understand the power of their connection and reconcile what they thought they wanted with what they know they need, Pilar's family and Connor's club collide. The result is explosive, and the aftermath leaves no one unscarred. Can they come through the fire and dark together?

As an enforcer for the Pagano Brothers, Tony Cioccolanti's life is steeped in violence. For the most part, he feels no burden on his soul for the blood he spills or the pain he inflicts. He is a soldier, and blood and pain are the wages of war.Yet one terrible mistake haunts him, in his dreams and in his waking hours. Billy Jones has moved to Quiet Cove, the place of her happiest memories, to start a business and fulfill a dream. Having summered in the Cove through most of her childhood, she understands about the Pagano Brothers and their control of the town. Their interest in her nightclub doesn't surprise her-nor does the "protection" payment they demand. The glowering goombah who visits her club regularly, however-he surprises her plenty.She was not prepared for the attraction between them.As Tony and Billy draw closer, Tony's violent life, and the Pagano Brothers' brutal world, explodes on the streets of the Cove.War has come, and its wages are due.

Honor Babinot is one of the best defense attorneys in Idaho, with a long list of high-profile wins on her resumé already. But her elite law firm is an old-boys' club, and to the partners she's just a 'little lady, ' despite her success. After another major win in the courtroom, she makes a bold move to leave the swanky office behind and step out on her own. Someday, she'll reach the success she's worked so hard for, and on her own terms. Logan Cahill is the eldest son of a powerful rancher and heir to the Cahill family legacy. He's also a notorious ladies' man, who's avoided commitment to anything but his family. Now that he's past forty, and his younger siblings have the next generation of Cahills handled, Logan is well set in his ways and perfectly content to be married to the Twisted C Ranch. Someday, he'll be head of the family he loves, and he wants nothing to draw him from it. Since Honor saved Logan's younger brother from conviction for a murder he didn't commit, she's taken up acreage in his head. Honor certainly remembers Logan. A chance encounter brings them back together, and sudden trouble draws them close. They can't deny or resist the fire that ignites between them. Honor is married to her career. Logan is married to the Twisted C. Neither wants to need the other. Neither has room in their plans for love. But love has plans of its own.

Sherlock is the Intelligence Officer of the Night Horde SoCal. It's his job to find and control information, to keep boundaries around what is known by whom. He's managed himself the same way, always keeping his club life and his personal life in separate boxes, not wanting to share either with the other. Lately, though, as his brothers settle down, one by one, and become family men, he's been sensing an empty space between his boxes. He needs someone to need him. For himself, not for his skill. Sadie is rebuilding her life after it fell apart publicly and exposed years-old secrets. She is learning to trust herself and everybody else, learning how to live in the world without the buffers she'd needed for so long. It's a struggle every day, but she's trying to master her needs one at a time. They meet when Sadie needs rescue. When she literally runs to Sherlock for it, he helps the strange, frantic girl without a second thought. In the way of rescuers, Sherlock feels responsible for her. And for him, that feeling holds a potent allure. It's not so easy between them: Sadie is afraid to need, ashamed to be needy, worried what it could mean if she were to trust someone enough to let her guard down. But Sherlock is determined and patient. He's one of the good guys, and he's found someone who understands him and who needs to take what he needs to give. He's not going to let her go. Note: explicit sex and violence.