Ruthless Reckoning - The Santiago Brothers, #1

The case could make her career. The man tied to it could ruin everything.

Detective Eugenia "Genie" Green has spent years proving she belongs in Springfield's police department. Smart, relentless, and determined to rise, she knows one mistake in a city where everyone knows her name could follow her forever.

Then four people are murdered in two weeks.

Each killing is more brutal than the last. Each victim is marked with a signature Genie can't ignore. And every clue pulls her toward the one man she has every reason to keep at a professional distance.

Rafael Santiago left Virginia to escape the gang ties that nearly destroyed him. He came home to repair the fractured relationship with his mother, not to be dragged back into the violence he fought to survive. But when the murders connect to the life he swore he'd buried, Rafa knows the killer isn't choosing victims at random.

And Genie knows he may be the only person who can help her stop the next one.

Working with Rafa could cost her the respect she's fought so hard to earn. He's dangerous, guarded, and tied to a past her department will never overlook. He's also the boy she once noticed from the safety of high school hallways—and the man whose quiet intensity now threatens every boundary she's trying to hold.

Rafa has spent years outrunning the worst parts of himself. But Genie sees too much. She sees the guilt he carries, the control he clings to, and the man beneath the reputation everyone else remembers. Earning her trust could help him stop a killer. Losing it could prove he was never worth saving.

As old enemies resurface and the murders strike closer to home, Genie and Rafa are forced into familiar neighborhoods now shadowed by fear. The attraction between them is reckless. The danger is personal. And the deeper Genie digs, the harder it becomes to know whether trusting Rafa will destroy her case… or save her life.

For readers who love dangerous redemption arcs, relentless heroines, forced proximity, and romantic suspense where the man she shouldn't trust may be the only one who can protect her heart.

 

The Santiago Brothers

Ruthless Reckoning
Ruthless Shelter
Ruthless Protector
Ruthless Pursuit
Ruthless Exposure
Ruthless Defender (Coming 2026!)