Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 72421 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 362(@200wpm)___ 290(@250wpm)___ 241(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72421 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 362(@200wpm)___ 290(@250wpm)___ 241(@300wpm)
Blair
My life is filled with one crazy man after another. I'm a lure to their obsession and possession. Kidnapped and tossed into a hole, I'm sure my fate is finally sealed. Then I come face to face with Eros Marino and see that familiar look in his eyes.
I'm starting to wonder if maybe, just maybe, I can use their own obsession against them. Sounds easy enough, but what happens when the cold-hearted bastard that feels nothing starts to make you feel everything?
You make all that control he thought he had slip free and take it for yourself. Turning him into a man that no longer evokes fear in me, but love.
Turning him into a man that is more deadly than ever.
I was sent to break her, but now I can't let her go.
Eros
Emotions are something I learned to control long ago. I'm the last cold-hearted bastard you want to appear in front of you. That is, until one sweetly innocent girl turned my whole world upside down.
Blair is a fiery mix of innocence and seduction. The second I laid eyes on her, everything in my whole world changed. Now I'll do anything to protect her, even from the people who sent me to destroy her. The Marinos—my family.
Except maybe she isn't so innocent after all. Her past is cloaked in the shadows of a killer that always lingers not far behind. When two worlds collide, I no longer know who is innocent or if her name is even really Blair.
It doesn't matter any longer who she is or who she thinks she belongs to. Now she's mine. I dare anyone else to say otherwise…including her.
This is the second book in the Kings & Queens Will Rise series. No cheating, no OW drama, and an HEA is always guaranteed! Each is standalone.
It features an extremely possessive hero, kidnapping, obsession, steamy scenes, a smart-mouthed heroine who is not who she pretends to be, and a criminal empire
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
Chapter One
EROS
“It’s unfortunate that it had to come to this,” my uncle, War Marino, tells the chief of police. We had a last-minute meeting with him, one he didn’t know we were having until we walked into his office.
I'd closed the blinds that peered out into the rest of the police station. We didn’t need an audience for this, but they too needed to know there are consequences for their actions.
I didn’t even bother locking the door. No one would dare to enter. Especially with my cousin Naomi standing outside. She might be a tiny thing, but one glance from her could slice a man in half.
"It doesn't have to," Chief Hawkins stutters. The man is in his mid-fifties and has been at the job for years now.
When he started, he had a lot more hair. It didn’t even bother to turn gray. He’s gone completely bald. I didn’t know the top of your head sweats, but his is glistening at this point. That rush of adrenaline of what’s to come is obviously coursing through him, growing by the second.
"We are only as strong as our weakest links. You know that," I tell Chief Hawkins.
"They are your responsibility, just as it is mine to make sure my men"—War glances at the closed door, his oldest daughter on the other side—"and women stay in line. It would be my head everyone would come for otherwise."
He's not wrong. At least at the moment. War is still the head of the family, but in time he will slowly step down. He has already started to make a few of those moves, handing different responsibilities over to people within the family.
War has done his best to clean up the Marino name. Of course you can't be all clean in this business. That's not how the world works. Someone still has to make sure the streets don't run full of chaos with gangs getting out of control. Drugs are killing whole communities.
No, you can't fully stop these things, but you learn to guide them, to keep them in check. That's our responsibility and part of the deal we have. An unspoken one that we all understand.
One of Chief Hawkins’ sergeants was helping cover up a new drug that was trying to hit the streets. It was a mess that we have to clean up, and right now we're plugging all the holes. This being one of them. Not only that—another family entered into our territory, one that this man helped.
We can’t have that. Disloyalty isn’t tolerated. Especially when it puts the safety of our family and community at risk. War has worked hard to polish up the Marino name, and he doesn’t appreciate someone lending a hand to try to tarnish it. There has to be consequences.
"I swear, it's handled. Clark is done for," Hawkins tells us. Idiot still has a glimmer of hope that he'll get out of his punishment. That won't be happening. Not when I enjoy giving it out and do it so well. It's why I'm standing here, after all.
"He is done for." I reach into the pocket of my slacks, pulling out the badge covered in blood and tossing it on his desk. "We had to handle it." Hawkins audibly swallows. "Now put your left hand on the desk," I order him. His brown eyes widen in fear. I relish it.
"Please—"
"Fight me and it will be your right hand. I'm being courteous."
"Careful, Hawkins. Eros isn't as patient as I can be."
"I think that comes with age, old man." War gives a slight shake of his head.
"Maybe so." He straightens his tie. "A good woman can give you that too." I suppose so in his case. The women in this family are rather persistent. Yes, that's the word I'll use for them.
"Hand." Hawkins lays his shaking hand flat on the table. With the cut he gets every year from the Marino family, he can suck it up. I reach into the front pocket of my suit, pulling out the hammer.
"Wait!" The real panic starts to set in.
"Not going to break it. I know you still need it." That's when he sees the glint of the nail. I don't drag it out like I would on others. He's taking his lick, and I'll give it to him.
I'm quick, with one smooth move already driving the hammer into the nail before he feels it pressing into his hand. He screams loudly for all to hear, but no one comes. I flip the hammer over, using the claw, I pull the nail back out, letting it hit the table, leaving a trail of blood.
That scar and the mark it leaves on this desk will be a visible reminder of what happens when you cross us.
"I'm glad that is handled," War tells him. "I'll see you at the New Hope benefit next week." With that, War turns to leave. His daughter fills the doorway as he passes through it.