Tiffanie L. Campbell

I sat across from the man who slaughtered my family, holding four aces in my hand, and I decided to lose.

The room smelled of whiskey and old money. Matteo Genovese looked at me with eyes that were used to taking inventory and calling the rest property. He didn’t know who I was. He didn’t know I was the girl who rose from the graves he dug ten years ago. He only knew I was the beautiful stranger across the poker table who had just run out of chips.

“You can finish the hand,” he said, his voice velvet-smooth but lethal. “But if you lose, you belong to me. Fully. Irrevocably.”

I knew he had the straight flush. I knew I would lose. That was the plan.

I folded my hand. I let him win. Because the only way to kill a king is to get into his bed first.

Now, I am his property. His fiancée. He thinks he owns me. He thinks I’m just a trophy to secure his inheritance. But every time he touches me, every time he looks at me with that dark hunger, he’s pulling the trigger of the gun pointed at his own heart.

Welcome to hell, Matteo. You just married your worst nightmare.

“Look, baby,” he murmured, hands gripping my hips under the blanket. “The sun is coming up. Watch the sunrise while I fuck you.”

He fucked me deep while his hand slid up into my hair, gripping firmly and pulling my head back so he could kiss my throat.

The back door suddenly slid open.

Max stepped out carrying a cup of coffee, freezing the moment he saw us tangled together under the blanket.

“So you guys decided to watch the sunrise too?” he asked casually.

Daniel went completely still behind me. “Uh… yeah. Hey man, can you give us just a minute?”

Max’s eyes widened in realization. “Ohhhh shit.”

“Yeah, um, sorry,” he said quickly, backing toward the door. “My bad. Carry on with the… sunrise.”

⸻

Chloe Bennett thought moving into the Hockey House would be simple.

Finish graduate school. Spend time with her boyfriend. Survive living with a house full of elite college hockey players and their endless drama.

Then an anonymous podcast appears.

One episode is all it takes to send shockwaves across campus. Secrets begin surfacing. Relationships start cracking. Friendships are tested. And suddenly everyone is wondering who will be exposed next.

Daniel Kim hates drama, prefers loyalty over gossip, and wants nothing more than to enjoy his final year with the people he cares about. Chloe should want the same thing.

Instead, she finds herself drawn deeper into the mystery surrounding the podcast and the secrets hiding behind the Hockey House’s perfect image.

As scandals spread and tensions rise, relationships are tested in ways none of them expected. Because sometimes the truth brings people closer together.

And sometimes it destroys everything.

When the next secret drops, who will be left standing?

And when the truth finally comes out, will love be enough to survive it?

“You’re not going back to work.”

Stone’s voice was calm.

“You don’t get to decide that.”

“I do when someone put a bullet through the man sitting beside you.”

He stepped closer, trapping me against the door. “You’re the only witness, Corinne. They know you survived.”

“They don’t know who I am.”

His gaze moved over me, sharp enough to uncover every secret I had left. “Neither do I.”

“That makes two of us.”

His hand closed around my wrist before I could reach for the handle.

“You walk out that door, Fox, and I’ll follow.”

“To protect me?”

His jaw tightened.

“To make damn sure you come back.”

⸻

To wealthy men across the Southwest, Corinne Martinez is Stormie Fox, a high-end escort whose carefully planned tours take her from one dangerous city to another.

But Stormie is a lie.

Behind the seductive smile and expensive dresses, Corinne has spent years infiltrating a criminal network powerful men would kill to protect.

Then her client, veteran Black Daggers biker, Mike “Tiny” Benson is murdered in front of her.

Now Corinne has an encrypted flash drive she cannot open, killers hunting the only witness, and Jaxon “Stone” Hayes standing between her and the investigation she refuses to abandon.

Stone is controlled, ruthless, and determined to drag her somewhere safe.

Corinne is equally determined to escape his protection and return to the dangerous world where Stormie Fox still has unfinished business.

But as Tiny’s murder exposes a trafficking empire larger than either imagined, Corinne and Stone must decide whether they can trust each other with their secrets, their lives, and the desire growing between them.

Because Tiny was not the only target.