Indebted


J.L. Beck - 2014
    That all changed in a blink of an eye the moment Bree came home for break. She didn't expect to find her dad strapped to chair, a gun pointed at his head. Alzerro “Zerro” King wasn't a man to be messed with. Women flocked to him and men ran from him. He ruled the mafia with an iron fist and no one ever crossed him unless they wanted to pay the price. He believed the only way to pay for something, if unable to do so, was to do it in blood. Nothing got him harder than stringing someone up, and putting a bullet in their head. That is until Bree. One look is all it took for him to know she could pay for her father’s debt in many other ways… Ways that could get him hard. Could a big city mafia king fall in love with the small town country girl? Would she be able to handle his dark and demanding ways? When push comes to shove, would Bree end up running only to be killed? Or would she sacrifice herself for love?

Buttons & Lace


Penelope Sky - 2016
     A big one. The payment can't be settled with money or favors. He only wants one thing. Me. Every action gets a reward. A button. Once I fill his jar with three hundred and sixty-five buttons, he'll let me go. He'll let me walk away. But I have to earn every single one. By submitting to the darkest, cruelest, and most beautiful man I've ever known. ** TRIGGER WARNING ** There are some dark and disturbing scenes of abuse and punishment.

Deadly Fear


Cynthia Eden - 2010
    But getting inside the twisted minds of the cruel and the sadistic has taken its toll: She's walled herself off from the world. Yet Monica can't ignore fellow agent Luke Dante, the only man who ever broke through her defenses.ONE DREAM TEAMLuke has the unique ability to put victims at ease...professionally, he and Monica made a perfect team. Now they're reunited to catch a murderer who uses his victims' deepest, darkest fears for sport - but their investigative skills aren't enough. Luke and Monica will have to face the secrets from their past, the ones that terrify them the most, if they are to have a future together.BUT CAN THEY CATCH A KILLER WHOSE WEAPON IS...DEADLY FEAR

Shifter Wars


Kelly St. Clare - 2020
    Apparently, Mum’s other family play laser tag every Wednesday. Not even joking. Laser tag.What the hell is this place?In hindsight, the massive guy with honey irises was my first major clue. Unusual eyes for a human, right?Perfect eyes for a werewolf.But sexy supernaturals, thongs, and mounting financial strain aside, Mum’s past is buried somewhere in this valley, and I need to dig up the truth or find a way to live with her lies.What do you do when neither option will leave you unscathed?

The Rules for Disappearing


Ashley Elston - 2013
    . . But now that she’s been transplanted to rural Louisiana, she has decided that this fake identity will be her last. Witness Protection has taken nearly everything from her. But for now, they’ve given her a new name, Megan Rose Jones, and a horrible hair color. For the past eight months, Meg has begged her father to answer one question: What on earth did he do – or see – that landed them in this god-awful mess? Meg has just about had it with all the Suits’ rules — and her dad’s silence. If he won’t help, it’s time she got some answers for herself. But Meg isn’t counting on Ethan Landry, an adorable Louisiana farm boy who’s too smart for his own good. He knows Meg is hiding something big. And it just might get both of them killed. As they embark on a perilous journey to free her family once and for all, Meg discovers that there’s only one rule that really matters — survival.

Light as a Feather


Zoe Aarsen - 2013
    After a transformative summer, McKenna is welcomed into the elite group of popular girls at Weeping Willow High, led by the gorgeous Olivia Richmond. For the first time in a long time, things are looking up. But everything changes the night of Olivia’s Sweet Sixteen sleepover. Violet, the mysterious new girl in town, suggests the girls play a game during which Violet makes up elaborate, creepily specific stories about the violent ways the friends will die. Though it unsettles McKenna, it all seems harmless at the time. Until a week later, when Olivia dies…exactly as Violet predicted. As Violet rises to popularity and steps into the life Olivia left unfinished, McKenna becomes convinced Olivia’s death wasn’t just a coincidence, especially when a ghost haunting her bedroom keeps leaving clues that point to Violet. With the help of her cute neighbor, Trey, McKenna pledges to get to the bottom of Violet’s secrets and true intentions before it’s too late. Because it’s only a matter of time before more lives are lost.

Perfect Illusion


Claudia Tan - 2019
    He's got the whole package: blonde hair, piercing blue eyes.. killer lips. He's absolutely swoon-worthy. Too bad his personality is so full of shit. Daniel Kerrington is arrogant. Cocky. Insufferable. A walking one nightstand. Ever since our horrible encounter two months ago, we have pretty much established the fact that we hate each other. So there's no reason for the both of us to cross paths anymore, right? Wrong. Now that my parents' company has gone bankrupt, they have to turn to his father for help. Harry Kerrington offers to help the company and my parents on one condition: I'm to be engaged to his son. So basically I'm thrown together with the guy I loathe for the next three years of my life. Daniel and I have to push our feelings of mutual hatred aside and play our own part in making our fake engagement believable. We've got a lot to do if we want to make this work. But little did we know that we would be so wrapped up in our very own perfect illusion.

Trust in Me


Skye Warren - 2012
    In a betrayal of the crime lord who pulled her from the gutter, she’ll free the shipment of human cargo, and if she’s lucky, die in the process. The alternative is unfathomable, even to a woman well-versed in erotic torture. But luck abandons her yet again when she meets the security expert in charge of the shipment and finds herself face to face with her childhood crush. The man she once begged for help. The man who failed her.Tyler Martinez is an undercover FBI agent with one chance to right the wrongs of his past. Thrust deep into the seedy world of human trafficking, he must put aside his guilt over abandoning Mia all those years ago in order to save her now.Someone’s pulling the strings in this sadistic play on trust, but Tyler and Mia may not live long enough to see the curtain fall. Trust in Me is a story of erotic pain and incipient romance, spiraling ever faster toward betrayal or redemption.WARNING:This book contains explicit scenes of dubious consent, graphic violence and sex. It also depicts abuse and captivity situations. Not appropriate for anyone uncomfortable with these situations or anyone under the age of eighteen. This is a work of fiction.

Cold Fury


T.M. Goeglein - 2012
    Now on the run from a masked assassin, rogue cops and her turncoat uncle, Sara Jane is chased and attacked at every turn, fighting back with cold fury as she searches for her family. It's a quest that takes her through concealed doors and forgotten speakeasies--a city hiding in plain sight. Though armed with a .45 and 96K in cash, an old tattered notebook might be her best defense--hidden in its pages the secret to "ultimate power." It's why she's being pursued, why her family was taken, and could be the key to saving all of their lives. Action packed, with fresh, cinematic writing, "Cold Fury" is a riveting and imaginative adventure readers will devour.

Two Lies and a Spy


Kat Carlton - 2013
    Because when your parents are superspies and your dad declares a Code Black, it can only mean something bad. Very bad.Kari soon discovers that her parents have been disavowed and declared traitors, and she’s determined to clear their names. Breaking into the Agency seems like a reasonable plan, especially with the help of a team that includes her longtime crush, Luke, as well as her two best friends—an expert hacker with attitude and a master martial artist—and Luke’s popular, vindictive twin sister. Oh, and a new guy, who’s as cute as he is complicated...

No Turning Back


Tiffany Snow - 2011
    She moved to Indianapolis to start seeing to them, but things aren't going quite as well as she'd hoped. She's a runner for a high-powered law firm in town, not the most prestigious of positions, but it and her part-time bartender gig at least pays the bills. And one of the senior partners is a dreamboat in that obscenely rich, disturbingly good looking, slightly snobbish sort of way.Before she did a mortifying face plant in his lap during a meeting, she was quite happy ogling him from afar. After that...well...she was more about the avoiding. Mature, no. More likely to assure she keeps her job, yes.She's made some friends in the few months she's been in Indy. One of those friends is her neighbor Sheila, though Kathleen can't say she's completely comfortable with Sheila's job choice as a high-dollar escort.It's the middle of the night when Kathleen hears fighting coming from Sheila's apartment. As disturbing as that is, it's the ominous sound of silence afterwards that keeps Kathleen from falling back to sleep. Slipping from bed with the intention of making sure everything is okay, Kathleen knocks on friend's door, only to find Sheila murdered, her naked body sprawled on sheets stained crimson with her blood.Shock and horror are followed by gritty determination when it becomes clear that Sheila's death isn't random and it isn't the result of a jealous boyfriend. It's the opening gambit in a web of murder, deceit, conspiracy, and fraud that stretches to the law firm for which Kathleen works. Maybe to the very office that Blane Kirk commands.And Kathleen Turner, law office runner, can trust no one if she wants to survive.

Unbeautifully Loved


Emma Grayson - 2013
    Goes. On.These words comforted her though circumstances that weren’t always easy, but more importantly, it offered her the promise of something more... someday.Lexie knows what she needs to do after dealing with years of abuse at the hands of her son’s father. Enlisting the help of her best friend, they go on the run to escape the man who threatens to destroy her life.They finally find the perfect home in a safe town after months of transience; they decide to stay a while. Suspicious and guarded, always looking over her shoulder, the last thing Lexie wants is to become involved with someone new.Detective Lukas Gunn is Lexie’s bossy, persistent, and extremely hot neighbor.After an incident leaves her vulnerable, Lukas discovers that she’s haunted by her past. His goal is to protect her while making Lexie his, but she keeps Lukas at a distance. When history repeats itself, will Lexie be able to trust those around her to keep her safe? Will Lukas save her from her past in time? Or will the only love she ever knows be unbeautiful?********************************Warning**This book contains the following and is recommended for ages 18 and up. -Sexual content.-Abusive subject matter-Attempted rape-Language

Queen of Thieves


M. Kane
    Rags to riches. Pauper to princess. A girl with beauty and brains and power. Nobody suspects that the once orphaned girl grew up to be the city's most notorious thief.But that's what she is. A thief. A con artist. A criminal. It's what she's been for a long time. Something she once did for the sake of surviving became a habit somewhere along the way, a source of pleasure. Even now, even will all the money in the world, nothing's changed. Not really. Lia has no desire to change that, not even a little bit. She hasn't known anything else, not for a long time.Most of her life, she's dwindled along the line of good and evil, never quite crossing over to one side or the other. The line was blurred, her moral skewed, the rules broken, but through it all, she was never seduced by either side.But when an assassin arrives in her city with ill intentions, the thief's life is no longer in her hands. With her world spinning out of control, she's forced to play a role she never imagined she'd choose.Hero.*A Robin Hood retelling.* ➵ Ranked #1 in Mystery/Thriller➵ Selected by Universal Pictures' the Visit as a Top Mysterious Thriller➵ Selected by Fullscreen as a Top Thriller➵ Wattys 2016 Award: Collector's Edition*Trigger Warning: While this book isn't too dark, there are themes that may be uncomfortable for some readers (violence, sexual assault, etc).*

Stolen


Lucy Christopher - 2009
    I was stolen from an airport. Taken from everything I knew, everything I was used to. Taken to sand and heat, dirt and danger. And he expected me to love him. This is my story. A letter from nowhere.Sixteen-year-old Gemma is kidnapped from Bangkok airport and taken to the Australian Outback. This wild and desolate landscape becomes almost a character in the book, so vividly is it described. Ty, her captor, is no stereotype. He is young, fit and completely gorgeous. This new life in the wilderness has been years in the planning. He loves only her, wants only her. Under the hot glare of the Australian sun, cut off from the world outside, can the force of his love make Gemma love him back? The story takes the form of a letter, written by Gemma to Ty, reflecting on those strange and disturbing months in the outback. Months when the lines between love and obsession, and love and dependency, blur until they don't exist—almost.

Kill Without Mercy


Alexandra Ivy - 2015
    Individually they're intimidating. Together they're invincible. They're the men of ARES Security.Rafe Vargas is only in Newton, Iowa, to clear out his late grandfather's small house. As the covert ops specialist for ARES Security, he's eager to get back to his new life in Texas. But when he crosses paths with Annie White, a haunted beauty with skeletons in her closet, he can't just walk away--not when she's clearly in danger. . .There's a mysterious serial killer on the loose with a link to Annie's dark past. And the closer he gets, the deeper Rafe's instinct to protect kicks in. But even with his considerable skill, Annie's courage, and his ARES buddies behind him, the slaying won't stop. Now it's only a matter of time before Annie's next--unless they can unravel a history of deadly lies that won't be buried.