The crew of the Scarlet Gaze are figuring out what they want to do now that Lord Straik sa'Rin is no longer running a corsair ship. Some of the a'ani crew want to run a cantina on Risda III. Kazex just wants Ruthie. Ruthie just wants to have a nervous breakdown. Well, she wants Kazex, too. The delicious a'ani chief of security has been a steady, protective, delicious presence ever since she joined the crew. He's made it clear that he loves Ruthie as she is, nervous wreck and all. But Ruthie's afraid of what will happen to their easy friendship if she asks for more.

Life has a sick sense of humor. One minute, I'm arguing with my mobster ex while dripping wet in nothing but a towel. The next, he's dead on the floor, and I'm naked, vulnerable, and at the sole mercy of the most dangerous man in New York City. I've heard the rumors that all the mafia families bow to Creed Ferraro, but I never expected him to drag me into their world. Creed blames me for his brother's death, and now, I'm also a witness to his violent crime. I know the rules. In the mafia, witnesses and enemies don't get to live.

In the summer of 1959 Stella Raphael joins her psychiatrist husband, Max, at his new posting - a maximum-security hospital for the criminally insane. Stella soon falls under the spell of Edgar Stark, a brilliant sculptor who has been confined to the hospital for murdering his wife in a psychotic rage. But Stella's knowledge of Edgar's crime is no hindrance to the volcanic attraction that ensues -a passion that will consume Stella's sanity and destroy her and the lives of those around her.

What do you do when you’re so empty inside, you feel nothing? When all you’ve ever known was pain? You run. That’s what I did—I ran away without once looking back. People say starting over is the best way for a new beginning, but that’s far from the truth if you end up back where you began. Sometimes life likes to throw lemons at you really hard until there’s nothing left to do but make lemonade. I’ve known pain, but not the kind that messes with my heart.

Mercy Thompson’s world just got a whole lot bigger... A collection of all-new and previously published short stories featuring Mercy Thompson, “one of the best heroines in the urban fantasy genre today” (Fiction Vixen Book Reviews), and the characters she calls friends...