Sloane Kennedy

When legends awake, darkness trembles.In the pulsing heart of Seraphim City, twins Emilia and Clara Benning walk a path veiled in the shadows of myth. Raised on tales of their fierce Viking ancestors, they are unaware of the destiny awaiting them. As the modern world grinds on, unseeing, the sisters draw closer to a revelation that will ignite the ancient power slumbering within their blood.The cruel blight of human trafficking festers in the city's underbelly, claiming innocent lives in a relentless grip. It is a plague that yearns for a cure-a cure that only Emilia and Clara, human hosts to ancient deities Andarta and Eir - dare to provide. With the unwavering strength of the gods and the courage of warriors, they stand between the darkness and the light.But the battle for justice demands a terrible price. In the chaos of a harrowing rescue, Clara is lost, and Emilia's grief ignites a fury that heralds her awakening. The true powers of Andarta flare to life, a beacon of rage and retribution. As Emilia becomes the embodiment of a legend, survival hinges on her ability to harness this newfound might and confront the demons that threaten to consume her.In the midst of battle, Andarta, her steadfast sidekick Ty, and a legion of spectral Viking forebearers converge for an epic showdown. Together, they must dismantle a vile web spun by the most depraved of minds, their every move haunted by the chilling echoes of evil.Can they break the chains of torment and rise triumphant? Or will Emilia's fury consume all that she has come to cherish? Will the echoes of ancient valor be enough to conquer the malice that lurks in humanity's depths? Seek the answers within the pages of Andarta, The Ascending Veil, Book 1, where the battle for souls is timeless, and the might of legends endures.

JacksonEveryone says what a lucky guy I am. I've got a great kid, an amicable relationship with my ex, and a job working cattle on one of the largest ranches in Eden, Wyoming. Only problem is that "everyone" has no clue that I'm living a half-life.Because the other half is a closeted gay man who's got it bad for the young ranch hand he works with day in and day out.But the very straight Travis isn't an option. And even if he were, my sexy co-worker isn't exactly committed to commitment.So it's time for a change and since gay guys aren't exactly falling off trees in Eden, I'm going to need a little help...TravisIt was supposed to be a Friday night like any other. Me and my best friend heading into town to find some female company for a few hours. And even though Jackson usually goes home alone, he's still a great wingman.Unfortunately, between my impatience to get the night started and my bad habit of snooping, I've learned two things about Jackson in the space of five minutes that have left me all kinds of confused.Jackson's gay.And he's placed a classified ad to try and hook up with some guy he can't get his mind off after a brief run-in at a hardware store in the city.Now I can't get my mind off Jackson.Don't get me wrong, I like the ladies, but why can't I stop thinking about my good-looking best friend and the faceless stranger he's ready to start something new with? Jackson doesn't need some random guy right now. Not when he has me...Oh hell.

ZanderThe quick stopover in the small ranching town of Eden, Wyoming was supposed to be the chance to close the door on a piece of my past. Unfortunately, my temperamental car has other ideas. The thing is, with my tattoos and piercings, a guy like me doesn't exactly fit in a town like Eden.Then I meet her.Sweet, innocent, single mom Jolene who does fit in Eden.At least on the outside.But after five minutes with the spirited beauty, I know she's like me... an outsider always looking in. Still, I need to remember to keep my hands to myself because Eden's just a dot on the map, a place I need to put in my rearview mirror sooner rather than later.Problem is, Jolene isn't the kind of woman you can just walk away from...JoleneIt was the date from hell that turned into something I never saw coming. One minute I'm fending off the unwanted advances of a guy who looks picture-perfect on paper, the next I'm pointing the barrel of my gun at the mysterious stranger who's decided I look like I need a helping hand.Zander is all kinds of wrong for me and the conservative, insular town I've called home my entire life. But something about the kindhearted tough guy makes me wonder if a little bit of wrong is exactly what I need right now...

LuckyTwo years ago I humiliated myself by declaring my love to an older man who clearly didn't share my feelings. And that's fine. One day Zach will come around. Meanwhile, I've built a life for myself in northern Montana, pursuing my college degree while working hard toward certification in high-risk alpine search and rescue on the side. And perhaps I've kept the danger part a secret from my two dads. After all, what they don't know won't hurt them...Everything's going exactly as planned until my dads send Zach to check on me just as I'm dealing with an ex who doesn't understand the meaning of the word no. It's bad enough Zach still thinks of me as a child; now he also thinks I'm incapable of looking out for myself. I need to get him off my back before he finds out I'm not heading to Wyoming for summer break like everyone thinks. I'm going to Glacier National Park to learn how to rappel from helicopters...ZachTwo years ago I wanted something I couldn't have, so I threw myself back into my job as an Army Ranger and wound up scarred in more ways than one. When the army dumps my sorry self back into the real world, it's time to start over. I accept a summer job teaching high-risk search and rescue. On the way there, all I have to do is peek in on little Lucky Reed and make sure he's okay.He's not. Someone has it out for him, and I'll be damned if I'm going to let him get hurt on my watch. My plan is to keep him safe until he heads south for his summer job playing trail guide to tourists. Once he's gone, I'll be free to head to Glacier where my biggest challenge will be keeping a handful of alpine search and rescue students safe as they learn how to dangle from helicopters high above the Rocky Mountains.It's all fine. Until it's not. Danger follows us to Glacier, and by the time I finally start seeing Lucky as more than the awkward teenager he used to be, I wonder if it's too late to convince him that this scarred soldier sees him as anything but little anymore.

Ich hob den Blick, um Nein zu Seth zu sagen, doch dann sah ich es. Die eine Sache, die ich am meisten f rchtete. Es war keine Heldenverehrung oder die eigenwilligen Gef hle eines unschuldigen Kindes. Und es war auch keine verzerrte Reflexion eines Mannes, der nicht mehr da war. Alles, was ich sah, war ich ... die Art, wie er mich sah. ‒ RonanDer Unfallchirurg Ronan Grisham hat an dem Tag, als der Mann, den er liebte, ihm durch einen brutalen Angriff genommen wurde, alles verloren. Getrieben von dem Durst nach Rache nutzt er seinen Hass, um eine Untergrundorganisation aufzubauen, die tut, was er an jedem schicksalhaften Tag nicht konnte ... den Schuldigen das Leben nehmen, um die Unschuldigen zu retten. Aber Jahre sp ter ist er gezwungen, der letzten Verbindung zu seiner Vergangenheit gegen berzutreten, von der er sich nicht l sen kann.Sieben Jahre, nachdem er seine Eltern bei einem gewaltt tigen Einbruch verloren hat, bei dem er k rperlich und seelisch schwer verwundet wurde, versucht der einundzwanzigj hrige Seth Nichols, sein Leben wieder in den Griff zu bekommen, damit er die Leitung des internationalen Transportunternehmens seines Vaters bernehmen kann. Das Letzte, womit er rechnet, ist die R ckkehr des Mannes, den er mit einem unschuldigen, gestohlenen Kuss aus seinem Leben vertrieben hat.Mit einer Ber hrung seiner Lippen hat Seth geschafft, was keinem anderen gelungen ist, seit Ronan zusehen musste, wie das Licht in den Augen seines Verlobten f r immer erlosch. Er hat ihm das Verlangen zur ckgegeben. Doch Ronan darf nach niemandem verlangen, am wenigsten nach dem j ngeren Bruder seines toten Verlobten. Denn nur eine Ber hrung von Seth k nnte Ronans sorgf ltig konstruierte Welt zum Einsturz bringen und Ronan wei , dass er sich davon kein zweites Mal erholen w rde. Doch als eine Reihe von Angriffen auf Seth, die immer schwerer werden, Ronan dazu zwingt, in Seths Leben zur ckzukehren, wei Seth, dass es seine letzte Chance ist, Ronan zu zeigen, dass er der Mann sein kann, den der gebrochene Chirurg braucht. Nur dass der Ronan, der zur ckgekehrt ist, nicht mehr der Ronan ist, in den Seth sich vor so langer Zeit verliebt hat ...Kann Seth Ronans Heilung sein, oder wird er sie beide zerst ren?

I had one reason for never going back to the small town I once called home, but I never guessed it would be the same one that made me want to stay...BrooksI grew up in the small town of Eden, Wyoming, but never really felt like I fit in.Until I met the one boy who changed all that.When we were kids, Xavier Price understood horses, but somehow, he got me too. He'd made me feel like I wasn't just the overdressed, too sensitive fifteen-year-old geek who loved math and didn't always say the right thing. But all that changed the night he threw my trust back in my face and betrayed my family in the worst kind of way.And while I'm back in Eden to make sure my uncle's horse ranch is operating in the black, the one thing I know I won't have to deal with is the man who'd been on the verge of stealing my heart ten years ago.Because Xavier Price is still in prison for what he did and even if he weren't, he wouldn't be foolish enough to show his face in Eden ever again.Right?XavierWrong.That's what returning to Eden after ten years behind bars feels like. But it wasn't like I had a whole lot of choices. And it wasn't like I was going to be handed any decent job offers, let alone my dream one of working with horses.But that's exactly what happened and now that I'm foreman of Black Hills Ranch, I'm not letting this job go for anything.Not even the spoiled little rich kid I'd thought was different when he'd glommed onto me ten years ago.I have no doubt Brooks Cunningham didn't wait long to move on to bigger and better things the second my jail cell was locked behind me, and that's just fine by me. I'd been wrong about the sweet, emotional boy who'd had a habit of wearing his heart on his sleeve anyway.Except fate has decided to have another go at me by tossing Brooks right back into my sometimes too small world. Gone is the scrawny, stars-in-his-eyes nerd who used to do math problems just for fun. In his place is a gorgeous specimen of a man who thinks he can go toe to toe with me and once again destroy everything I've worked for.Not happening.

Nach vier Jahren im Ausland ist der K nstler Jonas Davenport nach Hause zur ckgekehrt, um sich der Verwirklichung seines Traums, ein eigenes Malstudio mit Galerie zu besitzen, zu widmen. Aber gerade als er bereit ist, die Dunkelheit aus seiner Vergangenheit hinter sich zu lassen, kehrt sie mit aller Macht wieder zur ck.Das Einzige, was den Ex-Cop Mace Calhoun davon abh lt, sich nach einem unbeschreiblichen Verlust die Pistole in den Mund zu stecken, ist eine Untergrundorganisation, die den Unschuldigen Gerechtigkeit verschafft, indem sie den Schuldigen das Leben nimmt. Das Leben des jungen K nstlers zu beenden, der abscheuliche Verbrechen an den unschuldigsten aller Opfer begangen hat, sollte das Einfachste auf der Welt sein. Also warum kann er es nicht ber sich bringen, den Abzug zu bet tigen?Nachdem er jahrelang in einem endlosen Krieg, der ihm die Seele raubt, gek mpft hat, ist der Navy SEAL Cole Bridgerton nach Hause zur ckgekehrt, um eine andere Schlacht zu schlagen ‒ Sich der Erkenntnis zu stellen, dass er seine j ngere Schwester, die vor acht Jahren von zu Hause weggelaufen ist, f r immer verloren hat. Er will Antworten und der Einzige, der sie ihm liefern kann, ist ein junger Mann, der darum k mpft, sein Leben in Ordnung zu bringen. Aber er h tte nie damit gerechnet, mehr f r den verst rten K nstler zu empfinden.Cole und Mace. Einer lebt nach den Regeln, der andere macht seine eigenen. Einer sucht mithilfe des Gesetzes nach Vergeltung, der andere mithilfe seiner Waffe. Zwei M nner, einer im Licht und einer in der Dunkelheit, werden sich selbst und einander finden, w hrend sie gezwungen sind zusammenzuhalten, um Jonas vor einer unbekannten Bedrohung zu sch tzen, die vor nichts halt machen wird, um den jungen K nstler f r immer zum Schweigen zu bringen.Doch die Narben jedes der M nner reichen tief und selbst die St rke von allen Dreien k nnte nicht reichen, um sie zu retten ...

Surrounded by a group of devoted four-footed and two-winged family members, Zak and Killian have built what should have been a dream life in their countryside farmhouse. But a cruel twist of fate and the re-emergence of old demons has frayed the edges of the men's seven-year relationship until just one wrong move could end up severing their bond for good.Seemingly content to walk on eggshells around one another, things come to a head when ER nurse Zak brings his work home with him... literally.After being forced to leave their posh Southern California lives, homeless stepbrothers Liam and Noah are slowly losing themselves to the streets they can't seem to escape. When twenty-one-year-old Liam is beaten up while protecting his younger "brother," the pair find themselves being welcomed into a home where being a stray is considered a good thing. But Liam and nineteen-year-old Noah have learned the hard way that nothing is given for free and there's no such thing as the kindness of strangers. Survival means only counting on and trusting in each other.Will Zak and Killian's offer of a no-strings-attached place to heal end up being more than any of the four men bargained for? Especially when feelings between Liam and Noah begin to crawl to the surface and the truth of what Zak and Killian's relationship has turned into becomes harder to deny?And what happens when lines begin to blur and needs start to change?Will Zak, Killian, Liam, and Noah end up going their separate waysOr will they learn that love doesn't always come in twos?*This is a novel about a foursome relationship, not just a story of two separate couples in physical relationships with one another. Thus, there is no "cheating" in this story. It is a standalone novel.Trigger Warning: The trigger warnings in this book may be considered "spoilerish" so they can be found by using the "Look Inside" feature or by downloading the sample and going to the section entitled "Trigger Warning."

I'm not a fighter. I never was. So how do I make the one man who might just be worth fighting for see that?At twenty-five years old, Ford Cornell should have his whole life ahead of him but instead, the would-be artist is drowning in denial and just trying to get through each day. And the boy who once believed life was about following impossible dreams has finally come to accept that it's really only about surviving a living nightmare... one of his own making.But the bruises are becoming harder to hide.So is the truth...I refuse to fall for a guy who won't accept the truth about who he is or what he wants. Not again...They say bad things happen in threes.For Sherriff Camden Wells, it's more like fours... or fives... or dozens.After an ugly lie destroys his career and the man he'd planned to spend the rest of his life with cuts him to the core with the ultimate betrayal, forty-year-old Cam is counting on his new job as sheriff of the quiet town of Pelican Bay to be the fresh start he needs. What he isn't counting on is meeting a young man who makes him want to break all his own rules.He wants me to accept something that will cause me to lose everything. I may not have much but it's something and something is better than nothing... right?Ford's gotten used to his role as his older brother's punching bag and being his mother's never-ending disappointment. They may not be the Cleavers but family is family and Ford's seen up close and personal what happens when you don't have anyone in your corner... or when you go against family.And there's just no way he's strong enough to survive that...Nothing about us should make sense but maybe that's why it does...Two men... one living a lie and one knocking down the walls of the closet he was forced to live in for so long. When one white-hot encounter leads to another and then another, Ford and Cam are forced to accept that their need for each other isn't going away anytime soon. But being together means one will need to go against everything he believes in.So which man will bend and which will break? And what will the truth ultimately reveal?

What happens when a group of tough vigilantes meets up with a big-hearted family with boundary issues?Reese: It's supposed to be an easy job. You know, the kind you get after you've been gone a while and the boss is unsure of how capable you still are? But then there's a mugging, an abduction, two thugs, and a blackmail scheme.And smack-dab in the middle of it is a beautiful lost soul who needs me. The scared, young gamer-geek pushes all my protective buttons and awakens something inside me that's ready to dive right in and inhale the man.But how could I have anything to offer someone like Ben? I'm a mess. Injured, scarred, practically closeted, the recognizable son of a famous man... There's no way I can ask him to give me a shot at forever. Right?Ben: It seems like I've been looking out for myself my entire life. Heck, I was even given away the day I was born. And, yeah, maybe if my adoptive parents had survived, I would have had a nice life. But they didn't. And I don't. Instead, I'm forced to put up with a hateful, scheming foster parent for the sake of sticking around to care for my little sister.Only, when a blackmail plan lands little Georgie in the hands of thugs, it's clear I'm her only hope. At least... until I meet the big, strong bodyguard someone sends to watch over me.Reese is everything I've ever daydreamed about: protective, attentive, affectionate, and dedicated. But he's hiding something, and I don't have the time or energy to figure out what. Because time is running out, and Georgie is the only family I have left.Until the biological brother who never wanted me shows up and turns everything on its head.After having finally accepted it's just Georgie and me, suddenly falling for my protector and being surrounded by Griff and the Marian clan makes me question everything I've ever known about myself and what defines a family.Can a guy with a broken past ever build a family with someone who seems too good to be true?***Reading Order Note***CAN BE READ AS A STAND-ALONE.While the authors recommend reading both the Made Marian series by Lucy Lennox and the Protectors series by Sloane Kennedy, it isn't required in order to understand the story. At the least, you may want to consider Grounding Griffin (Book 4, Made Marian series by Lucy Lennox) and Unexpected (Book 10, The from the Protectors series by Sloane Kennedy) to get a little bit of background. However, this novel, despite being a crossover, has been written in a way that it can be read on its own.

Everything was supposed to go back to normal when I was rescued. It hasn't. And I'm starting to think it never will because I don't even know what normal is anymore...It's been two years since Aleks Silva was rescued by his older brother from the dark underworld of sex trafficking and every day since then has been a battle. Leaving the house, interacting with people, even doing something as boring as deciding what clothes to wear or what to eat for breakfast are tasks that most people take for granted. But for Aleks, they're torture. Because freedom and choice are things that once came at a steep price and survival meant submitting to the whims of those who only saw him as a possession and plaything.Until there was one man who saw him as something more...I knew from the moment I saw him that I was going to get him out. But I also knew once I did, I'd need to let him go...He's known as Vaughn and nothing more. His job is to make sure secrets don't get out and the possessions he's been tasked with guarding never escape and tell their story. After eight years in a world where innocent kids are used to feed the darkest of depravities, Vaughn has seen things that would break even the strongest man. But he's played it smart and built up a wall between himself and the darkness that threatens to consume him.It wasn't until he met a young man who had to be a thousand times stronger to survive the life he was forced into as a child that the first crack appeared in his carefully constructed wall.Vaughn's only job was to make sure young Aleks Silva remained the ugly little secret of one of the most powerful men in Chicago. It was one job he was more than happy to fail at, and when he eliminated the threat against Aleks and set him free, he was sure their paths would never cross again.But fate has other plans...Vaughn is the only man from my other life who never had a starring role in my nightmares... but he's been in every one of my dreams. And I don't know why...When Aleks is suddenly abducted after leaving work one quiet spring evening, he's certain he'll never see his brother and family again. But terror quickly turns to relief when a familiar face once again comes to his rescue, along with all the feelings he's always had but never quite understood around the dangerous, older Vaughn. Certain that Vaughn will make everything okay again like he did once before, Aleks knows he doesn't even need to ask Vaughn to take him home. But when he does anyway, nothing he's ever experienced prepares him for Vaughn's answer... or the brutal betrayal that comes along with it.I'm sorry, Aleks, I can't do that.

NEW COVER 2020 BUT NO NEW CONTENTWhen Nate signs up with a matchmaking app, the sparkly, colorful, always-fashionable florist is hoping to find the guy who will finally see him as more than just a one-night stand. In fact, he's hoping he'll find "the one" who wants the same things he does - white picket fence, kids, minivan, dog - and doesn't mind having them with a man others might think shines just a little too bright sometimes.Enter Harrison Garrison.The uptight lawyer is all wrong for Nate. He's rigid, distant, controlling, emotionally closed off, and content to live his life in black and white...with maybe a little gray thrown in here and there. But when a misunderstanding leads to an encounter that is all kinds of white-hot, Nate starts to think maybe the matchmaking app got it right after all.Until he finds out the real reason Harrison signed up for the app...Will Nate be the one to finally add a touch of color to the staid Harrison's life, or did the app completely miss the mark?

At nearly forty years old, Cash Malloy has accepted that the lifestyle he and Sage, his partner both in life and on the job, live isn't normal but is what both men need to escape the darkness of their pasts. But he also knows that Sage's wounds run much deeper than his own and that there will come a day where what Cash can give Sage isn't enough anymore. And after meeting the young woman Sage has become enamored with, Cash knows that day is closer than ever.At twenty-one, Daisy Washburne has found a new life working for an underground vigilante group. To the men she works with, she's Daisy, IT girl extraordinaire, but in the silence of her apartment she's just awkward, quiet, weird Daisy whose computer is her best friend and whose only link to the outside world are the voices of the men she's trying really hard not to think of as family. But it's one voice on the other end of the phone in particular that calls to her like no other and eases just a little bit of the loneliness that has consumed her since losing her mother to a brutal act of violence.In order to survive, Sage Brighton has had to learn how to be two different people. To most of the world, he's happy-go-lucky, flirty, easy-going Sage. But to the one man who knows him better than anyone else, and yet still doesn't really know who he is, Sage sees himself as nothing more than a fucked-up mess who takes more than he gives. Life without Cash isn't even a possibility for Sage, but he can't deny the pull young Daisy Washburne has had on him from the moment he hears her voice for the first time. Only in the deepest recesses of his mind does Sage allow for a world in which he can have both Cash and Daisy at the same time. Fortunately for Sage, the lines between fantasy and reality are miles apart - almost a thousand miles to be exact, since Daisy doesn't live anywhere near Cash and Sage's home in the Ozarks.But when a chance encounter between Daisy, Cash and Sage in a motel just outside Seattle changes everything, the demons from Sage's past threaten to derail the life he and Cash have built together. When circumstances bring the trio back together, Cash sees an opportunity to give Sage what he needs, even if it costs Cash everything he's ever wanted. Only, he soon finds that Sage isn't the only one drawn to the quiet young woman who's good at being invisible. And he can't help but wonder if maybe the key to saving Sage isn't about Sage choosing who can give him a normal life.Because maybe normal isn't enough.Just like maybe one love isn't enough... for any of them.

Oz: Escaping the international modeling scene to design my own fashion collection is the first step to shucking my bobble-headed supermodel reputation and proving to the world I'm more than just a pretty face. But the minute I have to accept roadside help from the sexy man next door, I feel like the airhead people think I am. And what's worse, the man clearly doesn't think I'm worth the time of day. But despite trying to ignore my attraction to the mysterious doctor, I can't help but be drawn to him. With every moment spent together, I begin to realize he's hiding more than just some details of his past. He has one foot out the door. As soon as I start to feel like everything might be coming together for me, I realize the man I'm falling in love with isn't who I thought he was. Jake: After three years on the run for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, I've finally found a seemingly safe place to settle in Haven, Colorado. With friends, a job, and a cabin in the woods, I have everything I need to live a simple life without drawing attention to myself. Everything's fine. Fine. Until I meet my new neighbor. The gorgeous man is anything but subtle and brings color to my life that I didn't know was missing. But I learned years ago that falling in love with someone wasn't an option anymore when simply being seen with me could have dire consequences. It's time for me to run again, but I wonder if it's safe to stick around just long enough for a taste... Just when I begin to realize Oz is the missing piece to bring me back to life after years of hiding, my past catches up to me and throws everyone around me into danger. I know I should run, but what if it's time to finally stop running and make a stand, once and for all? While Body and Soul is the third book in the Twist of Fate series, each novel can easily be read as a standalone.

Coming home should be the easiest thing in the world, but I've never felt more lost...When his stellar military career comes to an abrupt and terrible end, thirty-two-year-old Maddox Kent returns to the town he never planned to step foot into again, hoping to mend the rift he himself caused with the brother he left behind. But coming home means facing some hard truths about himself and his actions. When he has the chance to start making amends by helping his brother with the wildlife sanctuary he runs, Maddox is thrown another curveball when a stranger appears...As long as we keep moving, everything will be okay. That's what I keep telling myself, anyway...For twenty-one-year-old Isaac, Pelican Bay is only supposed to be a stopping point on the trek from San Francisco to New York. With his little brother, Newt, in tow, Isaac is just looking to make things right by returning something of value to a person he wronged. But "getting lost" in the next big city proves to be a problem when the brutal Minnesota winter claims Isaac's car and strands him and Newt at the animal sanctuary. When the owners of the place offer him a job, a desperate Isaac agrees, despite the presence of a man Isaac instinctively knows could be his downfall...It should be so easy to let him go, but I can't. And not just because I want to protect him...Nothing about Isaac makes sense to Maddox. Not his piercings or makeup or flashy clothes. And most certainly not the snarky mouth that doesn't match the vulnerability Maddox sees in the younger man's eyes. But one thing does make sense to the hardened former soldier. Isaac is running from something, and Maddox's gut is telling him not to let Isaac and little Newt go until he can ferret out the truth.But having Isaac around means trying to make sense of something else Maddox isn't expecting... his own body's response to the beautiful younger man. Aside from their explosive chemistry, nothing about the straitlaced soldier and the secretive misfit works.But maybe that's exactly why it does...

I failed Caleb once because I was a coward. And he ended up paying the price. Never again...Ten years of war and the loss of nearly his entire family have left thirty-four-year-old former sniper, Jace Christenson, with nothing to come home to. And he prefers it that way. Life consists of his work in an underground vigilante group, the near-constant search for the last remaining link to who he used to be, and a string of meaningless sexual encounters that serve only one purpose... to make it easier to not feel anything anymore.But when Jace gets the call that the young man he saved two years earlier has gone missing, he's forced to deal with the truth he's been trying to deny from the moment he laid eyes on Caleb Cortano.That the young man is so very much more than just the exception to all his rules...You know how if something shatters when it breaks, there's no way to find all the pieces to put it back like it once was? Maybe sometimes it's better not to even try...Nineteen-year-old Caleb Cortano has been barely hanging onto his sanity in the two years since the truth about his father's depravities came to light. A victim of the man's crimes himself, Caleb has only managed to find any semblance of peace when he's in the presence of the man who saved him once before.But when he finally comes to accept that Jace Christenson wants nothing to do with someone who's shattered beyond repair, Caleb finds another way to seek solace from the pain inside.As the fear of being reunited with the father he both fears and misses becomes more and more likely, desperation has Caleb doing something foolish that brings him face to face with the only man he's ever wanted... but who doesn't want him back.Caleb stays with me until we get some answers... just me...When Caleb's life is threatened, Jace refuses to walk away a second time. Even if protecting Caleb means he's risking his own heart, Jace isn't going anywhere. At least not until he can put some of the missing pieces of Caleb's life back together.But will Caleb be able to do the same for the equally broken Jace?Will two shattered men be able to find all the missing pieces to be who they were truly meant to, or is Caleb right? Some things just aren't worth trying to fix...

I finally had the chance at a perfect life when I met the man I was supposed to be with. But he's gone and chances like that don't come along twice in one lifetime. Right?Former president Everett Shaw had his whole life laid out for him from the time he was a child and he lived out every expectation to complete and utter perfection... until he met the one man who changed everything. With plans to leave public life behind after finishing his term in office, Everett was looking forward to a quiet life with the man of his dreams at his side. But one brutal act of violence stole that bright future away, leaving Everett struggling just to get through each day.A decade later finds Everett nearing the age of sixty and living a shell of a life. Haunted by his loss, he finds solace in his roses and evenings sitting in front of the television. But when his estranged son is horribly injured while saving the life of another, Everett leaves everything behind in the hopes of mending the broken relationship and helping his son heal in more ways than one.My job is to protect and there are rules that have to be followed. Even if there weren't, I wouldn't risk letting anyone close... not again.Special Agent Jonathan Nash's job is to keep the former president safe, not be his friend. Even if something about the lonely older man draws him in, he's not about to risk what's left of his career for anything. And it's not like a guy like Everett Shaw would really see him anyway. Nor would he want him to, considering the ugly past Nash left behind to pursue his dream. No, he's better off following protocol and doing his job. Let someone else deal with the broken man. It's not his problem... it can't be.I learned a long time ago to live life on my terms and that sometimes you have to take that leap of faith to get what you want. But wanting two men at the same time? That's new, even for me.At forty-five years old, former Navy SEAL Gage Fortier has experienced success and loss in equal measure, and while his life has taken a direction he never planned, he wouldn't have it any other way. When Reese, the young man he's partnered with in the underground vigilante group they both work for, is injured on the job, he sees an opportunity to build on the friendship with the bitter former soldier while giving him a place to recover. But when he discovers that the young man is actually the estranged son of a former U.S. president, Gage realizes he has the chance to give both father and son so much more. There's only one problem with his plan... how to ignore his growing attraction for the devishly handsome Everett Shaw.And Everett's perpetual shadow, Agent Nash.Three men on very separate courses. Until something unexpected happens and three become one...