Nadika is just a college girl with big dreams, small paychecks, and a pen she hopes will save her one day. Between late shifts at Starbucks and deadlines that never wait, she keeps her life simple-and safe. Devonte is anything but. Quiet. Feared. Untouchable. A man built by Chicago streets and rules she doesn't understand. Their worlds collide on a rainy night, and what starts as a harmless ride home turns into something neither of them planned. Because Devonte doesn't chase. He claims. And once he decides Nadika is his... walking away is no longer an option. In a city where love is dangerous and loyalty is everything, Nadika must decide if protecting her heart is worth losing him-or if being claimed by the hustler is the only place she was ever meant to be.

𝐈𝐍 𝐖𝐇𝐈𝐂𝐇- Sage Monroe finally opened Sweet Tooth, the bakery she and her late grandmother always dreamed of-only to find herself next door to loud bass, loud weed, and an even louder man who owns the dispensary beside her. Cash Vaughn owns the whole strip, but Sage doesn't care about his money, power, or reputation. All she knows is he's bad for business... and somehow impossible to ignore. Cash doesn't trust anybody outside his bloodline, but Sage gets under his skin in ways nobody ever has. What starts as tension turns into something neither of them saw coming-until betrayal, kidnapping, and a deadly street war threatens to tear it all apart. And when the smoke clears, Cash has to decide if love is worth bleeding for... and Sage has to decide if she can survive loving a man built for war.

When a deadly crash on an icy mountain road claims the lives of Giselle and Sai Whiteford, their world stops overnight. Solani Kross-a compassionate social worker who grew up in foster care-and Saint "Spider" Whiteford-a feared kingpin who built an empire from the shadows-are left with the same unimaginable loss. Then the lawyer reveals Sai and Giselle's final wish. They've both been named legal guardians of two-year-old Isabella "Issy" Whiteford. To keep Issy out of foster care, they must sign immediately. To honor her parents' wishes, they must raise her together... in the home Sai bought for his family. Neither of them understands why Sai chose Spider-a man whose name carries fear throughout Pleasant Mount-to raise his daughter. Not even Spider understands it. His brother spent his entire life avoiding the streets, yet somehow believed the man everyone else judged was the one who would protect Issy with everything he had. Grief leaves no room for pride. Now two near-strangers must become roommates, co-parents, and the only constants in a little girl's life as she asks the same heartbreaking question every night: "When are Mommy and Daddy coming home?" As seasons change, bedtime stories replace silence, shared dinners become routine, and a house built for one family slowly becomes home to another. Somewhere between sleepless nights, preschool mornings, therapy appointments, and healing hearts, Solani begins to see the man behind the nickname... and Spider realizes the sunshine he never thought he deserved has been living under the same roof all along. But loving each other is the easy part. Learning to build a family from unimaginable loss-and protecting it from the life Spider thought he'd never escape-may be the hardest thing either of them has ever done.