She told me Heaven would knock on my door one day. That I would be swept away from the hell I lived in. She was right about one thing and so wrong about the other. Heaven came in the form of an angel just like she said. And then. My life became hell. She disappeared. Vanished. I left. Went to war. Killed. All for her. Every face was the man who took her. Every dream filled with her. For 12 years, I existed in hell. Breathed in the fires from down below. Until her, the woman on the beach outside of my home.

For years, I pretended to be something I’m not. Drowning the beast living inside of me in copious amounts of alcohol and women. Not that I complained. And then Victoria Hughes walks back into my life and took me by surprise. The woman stunning me clear out of my mind the minute my mouth touched hers. After tragedy strikes and knocks her off her feet, I expected her to come to me, yet she didn’t. She pretended we’re nothing. But I see her. I’ve watched her, and she’s fighting grief while battling an all-consuming need for vengeance.

Meet the men of the rock band, Trained in Black. "Our someday will come soon, Joslyn." Those words were the last words I heard from Roman Nixon before I walked away. I knew our someday might come, but not the one he and I had always dreamed about. His life headed in one direction, mine in the other. While Roman became the lead singer for the successful rock band Trained in Black, I became a ruthless attorney. He moved on and married someone else. As I was forced to observe him and his bride on the cover of every magazine out there, I deserved to suffer because of what I had done.

I hate Dante Moretti. He is cold, calculating, and vicious. It’s no secret that he wiped out his former fiancée and her entire family on the eve of their wedding. He’s the kind of evil that makes even devils cry. But that’s not why I hate him.

He was the talented bad boy everyone wanted. I was the irrelevant geek everyone hated. He was the sun...drawing all of us in. I was a black hole...taking up space. He was destined to be a star. I was destined to remain an insignificant no one. Until he made me believe I was special...and then he destroyed me. I never thought I'd see Phoenix Walker again after he broke my heart, but fate had other plans. One tour. Eight weeks. Forty shows. Countless opportunities to make him pay. The world thought he was a god...but I know the truth.

I don't believe in fairy tales and Prince Charming. I believe in fear. He taught me how to be afraid. We first met on a playground on a wonderful summer day. It was the first time he hurt me and it wouldn't be the last. For 10 years, he's been my tormentor and I've been his forbidden. But then he went away, and yet I was still afraid. Now, he's back, and wants more than just my tears. You see...he thinks I sent him away so now he wants revenge...and he knows just how to get it.

Remi Tanner wasn’t part of the plan. But when I see my uncle doting on her, I know she’s going to help me destroy him. I’ll taunt her. Test her. In the end, I’ll break her. Ace Jagger wasn’t a good guy. But he swept into my life like a storm, and I’m caught up in the aftermath. He’s cruel. Calculating. In the end, I never stood a chance.

Shame. It wounds us. It damages us. Or, for the few poor souls out there like me...it defines us. I'm the son of the devil himself - the most feared mob boss who ever lived. I was cursed from the moment I took my first breath. I hate him...and I never wanted to become him. And I sure as hell never, ever, wanted anything of his. Until her. My name is Ricardo DeLuca.

Creswell Springs is a small town in Trinity County, California. Population 1,500 - maybe. It's a quiet town, with small town values. Its greatest income is the university just outside of the town limits...and the revenue the local motorcycle club brings in. I was the MC's only weakness. Or so my father use to tell me as I was growing up. Mad Max Hannigan was once Angel's Halos' president. He made the rules and everyone was expected to follow them or come face to fist with the enforcer....

I just ran into the girl who got away. Holding a hate letter addressed to me. And now we're stranded in an elevator. Last time we kissed, it was final. I wasn't supposed to see her again. Not in this city. On this elevator. The moment it craps out, stranding us overnight with animal cravings and fencing lies. Last time we kissed, how could we know our next might truly, madly, beautifully restore us?

I hid in the shadows all my life. That was where I felt I belonged the most, because I was ridiculed by the ones I loved, by society’s view of women like me.

It was one freaking kiss with a stranger. I wasn't looking for a hero the day Brent Eden charged into my life. He saw a damsel in distress facing humiliation. We played pretend. Swore I was his. Baited sweet chaos. Blew apart everything. My dating disaster? Gone. Our kiss? Electric. Divine. Toe-curling. His mistake? Oh, boy. Dropping the ultimate F-bomb: fiancée. Especially when my gossipy cousin tells the whole family.

Saving lives is the end goal. It's a responsibility I live with every day, the reason I wear the badge. Built on a brotherhood that runs deeper than blood, this way of life has become my very existence.... Until Liberty. I thought I was saving her. I never expected her to be the one saving me.

Ari Daniels didn't count on her whole world tumbling down around her in a mess of shredded promises, broken love, and unbelievable heartbreak. Alone and stricken with grief, she shouldered the blame and eventually closed her heart off, refusing to open it for another. After all, anytime she tried, guilt and regret were waiting in the wings to remind her how painful it was. A bet and one steamy night with a stranger force Ari to confront all she's been hiding behind. She tries to move on, but he refuses to stand down, wanting what she is terrified to give - herself.

From over a thousand miles away, I watched on the screen of my phone as two men murdered my wife. And I was helpless to save her. Consumed by hate and rage, I spent four years running from my memories - until a shattered woman gave me a reason to stop. Cora lived in a nightmare, but through sheer force of will, she’d turned it into something beautiful. She had a smile that could pierce the darkest soul. And with one glance, she shredded mine.