“My beautiful little angel.”
Those words cemented the day my world changed. I was painted in shades of brutality and sketched into an impeccable design of what he wanted.
Reborn in pain and doused in cruelty, I returned to my hometown after two years—the place that had me running.
But everything had changed, I had changed.
Thrust back into a world of money, status and secret societies with danger lurking around every corner, I tried to navigate my studies at the prestigious Coldharbour University.
Once upon a time, they were my best friends—Hollis, Texas and Preston.
They’re no longer boys I grew up with. Now, they regard me with contempt, and make no show to hide it.
Survival became all I know, I’ll do whatever it takes to grasp a sliver of normality. Even if it meant separating my realities.
Hollis, Texas and Preston had their secrets, as did I. Until the beginning of mine started to unravel, sweeping us all in its destruction and annihilating the relationship we’d rebuilt between us.
Not everything was what it seemed. They fed into the lies and lived by their version of it, but when the truth emerged, they finally understood that betrayal lurked closer than they’d imagined.
East Bay was riddled with an undercurrent of evil. And they were about to realise just how deeply it ran.
I belonged to them heart, body and soul. But my heart also beats for someone else.
And the thing about secrets… they always come to light.

When the divorced mother of the groom goes head-to-head with the single father of the bride, they might be the next couple experiencing a heart-to-heart.

When my son asked me to take his ticket for the honeymoon that didn’t happen, I balked. What would I do on a ten-day vacation in Belize? 

More importantly, what caused my son and the love of his life to call off their wedding?

I didn’t have an answer, and he wasn’t sharing

So, I’d traded places with him.
Over a week of sunshine and me-time was on the docket until he arrived.

Dallas Cole had silver in his beard, eyes the color of an ocean, and the most annoying drawl. And by annoying, I mean, thigh-clenching, heart-hammering, make me want to kiss him swagger.

Only, that’s something I would never do, because he’s the single father of the bride for the wedding that never was, and now, he’s encroaching on my parentmoon. 

One house. One bed. Not happening.

So what if he calls me darlin’ in that swoony voice. Not going there despite his smirky grin amongst the gray on his jaw. Not going to think about the fact he saw me naked . . . by accident.

Nope.

The former father of the bride will only be going head-to-head with this protective mother of the groom, not lips to lips, or any other body part. And definitely not heart to heart.

Picture this…you’re sitting by the ocean, sipping your favorite cocktail. The sun is setting over your skin, and the sound of waves crashing against the sand offers the perfect background music for the mellow reggae tunes that play through the salty air. Life is good. You have a best friend who seems to be a better friend to you than he is a boyfriend to his girl, your mom is calling your phone to ask what time you’ll be home for dinner, and your current “plaything” is too busy flirting with another girl in a desperate attempt to see if you care. Pathetic. But you don’t care because the sand is between your toes, your surfboard is freshly waxed, and you are one hundred percent sure that your life is perfect. It was all perfect, right?

Except Hades Hollow would never be perfect.This was a town built on old stories that were planted, grew, and eventually rotted here. It was a vicious cycle of rebirth. The stories would never die…not at least until the real one had been told.

It all started with a game. The kind of trickery that poisons your heart because it knows the mind is weak.

One was my nemesis, a genre-meddling musician. The foe .
One was as scary as he was charming. The weapon .
And one was a billionaire. The ruse .
I mean, I knew that, right. I knew who they were… I was about to find out the hard way that I didn’t know anything at all.
I’m Shiloh St. Claire. A daughter, a friend…and The liar .

I can still taste her on my lips, lingering there like a shot of pretty poison.

I should hate her for what she did. No one would blame me for it—not even her brother. The pain I felt that day ripped me apart until all that remained was the shell of the man I used to be. And now I’m left to lie in the aftermath.

Devastating news has my life spiraling further out of control. If I don’t get a handle on it, I could end up losing it all. But nothing cuts deeper than the shards of a broken heart, and the scars that won’t fade make it hard for me to care.

Everything changed for us when tragedy struck. The events of that night still haunt all of our dreams. We think the darkest moments are behind us, leaving a black stain on our past, until we realize that this nightmare is far from over.

Someone is out there who knows our secrets and gets off on risking the lives of those I love most. You can’t trust anyone, especially when your enemies crave the taste of revenge, but we’re not going down without a fight.

I’ll burn the world to the ground before I let anyone hurt her—even if she’s responsible for hurting me.

I didn’t know he was forbidden until after our one night stand…

I met Milo Corti during his self-destructive era, and he met me at the beginning of mine. That night when we crossed paths at a college party, we only had one goal: to feel good during our hell storms.

After we parted ways, I’d planned never to see him again. That was until I showed up for my first day as a student-teacher and found him sitting right there before me. Now I was forced to cross paths with the person meant to be nothing more than a fading memory.

The more time we spent together, the more drawn I felt toward him. When his world shifted for the worst, I couldn’t help but to lean in closer.

I’d always done the right thing. For the first time ever, I wanted to do something very wrong. I wanted to fall in love with the one person who was off-limits.

The problem with falling for something forbidden? Once you began to descend, you were destined to crash and burn.

I was the hero once, one of the good guys...until I was betrayed.

Now,  I'm something else. I am the shadow that haunts the night. I am a hunter, a protector...a force for good...I am Jonas Castillo.

For years I've existed on the edge of the dark, protecting innocents who can't protect themselves. Until... her. Jessica JJ Jones. The bane of my existence. A bright light in the dark.  The crack in my armor. A loud, argumentative beautiful crack in my armor.

But first, there's a more immediate concern. JJ is running scared. And to protect her I might have to break the vow I made years ago.