The Guardians Series Anthology V.1 - The Guardians Series, #4.5

In this electrifying series, passion ignites in the crossfire—and trust may be the most dangerous risk of all.

THE BEQUEST

One leap of faith can change everything.

Cheyenne Elias has inherited a child. A boy she doesn't know and doesn't particularly want; a boy whose mother was once Cheyenne's most hated person in the world. There are a million reasons to walk away: her anger, her past, her certainty that there is nothing benevolent in this act by a woman who almost killed her. But abandoning the boy to a system she barely survived is not an option.

Will Blackheart has lost everything. His SEAL team, his country, and—upon occasion—his mind. Worse, he's lost something that has the capacity to kill thousands. Left for dead in the Afghan desert, Will has risen solely to recover that which was taken...and to punish those who dared take it.

His only lead is the son of a dead woman; her only goal is to save a child. As they come together in a clash of anger, mistrust, and potent, unwanted desire, Will and Cheyenne must put aside their differences and navigate the endgame of a woman for whom nothing was taboo…
 

BLINDSIDED

Survival demands forgiveness.

Ruby Jones doesn't believe in second chances - especially for the boy who shattered her heart.  But when CIA agent Rafferty Blackheart unexpectedly returns to upend her life, walking away isn't an option.  Because Rafe isn't just her past–he's  investigating  the only lead to a bio-terror threat already in motion - and Ruby is caught in its crosshairs.

Rafe never expected to find himself standing before the girl he left behind.  But when his partner's final message leads him straight to the woman he's never forgotten  - and  a malevolent plot to rewrite humanity's future - there is no escaping the past that binds them.

Or the future that threatens them.

As the body count rises and the clock ticks down, Ruby and Rafe must form a tenuous alliance, one that moves past old betrayals and buried truths.  A partnership built upon forgiveness and bound by sacrifice.

Because if they fail, the future won't simply be rewritten.

HALLOWED GROUND 

Winner of the 2022 Daphne du Maurier Award for Excellence in Mystery/Suspense

Justice is cold comfort.

Private Investigator Ellie Broussard has only one purpose: to find and destroy the monster who stole her child. Her existence is one of darkness, a relentless hunt for vengeance that has become her sole sustenance.  But when she pulls a drowning boy from the Louisiana bayou,  light unexpectedly dawns.  And coming face-to-face with the boy's charismatic and impossible-to-ignore father turns her carefully controlled world inside out.  They are a complication Ellie simply can't afford.

Sean MacDougal knows loss all too well. A widower frozen by grief, his world begins and ends with the son he'd die to protect. But the woman who dove headfirst into danger to save his boy is fierce, haunted, and undeniably compelling.  The realization is unwelcome–and Sean is determined to keep his distance as he works to track down the stolen art cache he's in Louisiana to recover.

A stolen art cache Ellie has been hired to locate.  

Forced into an unwilling partnership to retrieve the missing art, Ellie and Sean begin to uncover secrets that refuse to stay buried. As trust takes root and desire catches flame, they're pulled into a far deadlier hunt—one where the rules are written in blood and a young girl's life hangs in the balance.

Because the killer Ellie's been chasing is closer than ever…and ready to strike again.