Effie

Jilted by my fiancé. A disappointment to my family. Haunted by my childhood traumas. I felt so much all my life that I resolved to feeling nothing at all. Until I met my match. As the most infamous mafioso of the 21st century, Dante Salvatore was madly passionate, unequivocally bad, and entirely too dangerous to know. He was everything I abhorred, yet I found myself representing him in the biggest criminal trial of the decade. I was so focused on winning and achieving the success I deserved that I didn't notice the gorgeous, black-eyed man's effect on me until it was too late.

They say one action doesn’t define you. I killed a man. Stabbed him in the neck and licked the blood off my lips after I did it. Still, one action doesn’t define you. I could have called anyone. My father, the Prez of The Fallen MC, our family lawyer, my best friend, Lila, or my brother, King. I didn’t. Instead, I called Lionel Danner, the police officer renowned for taking down the Nightstalkers MC.

I was a nanny in need of a job. He was darkness personified. I had little to call my own. He was filthy rich, powerful, and dangerous. The assignment was simple, and my goal was too. Take care of his son. Keep my head down. When he least expects it, destroy him. It should have been easy. I thought it would be, until I looked into his stark blue eyes. I came here to steal his life. I didn’t count on him stealing my heart.

I was a good girl. I ate my vegetables, volunteered at the local autism centre, and sat in the front pew of church every Sunday. Then, I got cancer. What the hell kind of reward was that for a boring life well lived? I was a 17-year-old paradigm of virtue, and I was tired of it. So, when I finally ran into the man I'd been writing to since he saved my life as a little girl and he offered to show me the dark side of life before I left it for good, I said yes.

He was 18. The heir to a notorious, criminal MC. And my student. There was no way I could get involved. No way I could stay involved. Then, no way I could get out alive.

Through the years, I lived more as an enigma than a man. For so long, I denied I had a beating heart of my own. Until her. Until she unearthed the starving vessel inside, forced me to acknowledge it, forced me to understand that I’m capable of bleeding the same as any other. For that, we paid. We're still paying. Yet she demands it still; the useless heart of the ruthless thief and shameless villain she fell for. My fear is that I’m no longer that man.

Two years ago, Reed Jackson betrayed Calliope Thorne and broke her heart. So she stole his most prized possession—a white mustang—and drove it into the lake for revenge. Now, Callie is stuck at a reform school while Reed is off at college, living his life without repercussions. Until he comes back.

Harlow Westbrook’s life is the stuff of dreams. Married to her four soul mates and with a family she adores and a fulfilling career, she should be blissfully happy. Except she can’t give Saint the one thing he craves - a biological child of his own. When cracks appear in their relationship, impacting the entire family unit, it threatens everything they have fought so hard for. But Harlow has never been the type of woman to give up when things get tough. Especially when her happily ever after is at stake.

I should have known when I couldn’t keep my eyes off her that this would be a mistake. I was hired to protect her, this woman who’s lost everything, yet there’s an obvious fire that blazes behind her beautiful gaze. She stares back, daring and tempting me. It calls to a side of me that’s darker and longs to tame her. We both have secrets; we both have a past we’re not ready to face. More than that, we both want to get lost in each other.

It’s a ghost town, this place that haunts me, the one that made me. It’s clear to me that I’ll never outgrow Triple Falls or outlive the time I spent here. I can still feel them all, my boys of summer. Even when I'd sensed the danger, I gave in. I didn’t heed a single warning. I let my sickness and my love both rule and ruin me. I played my part, eyes wide open, tempting fate until it delivered. There was never going to be an escape. All of us are to blame for what happened. All of us are serving our own sentences.