Dr. Madeline McKinnon has just returned from a service trip counseling victims of Child Soldier recruitment in South Sudan to work for the FBI. She's been given a gun, a badge, and a rigid partner. Special Agent Jake Parker has been working for the Federal Bureau of Investigations for a long time and he doesn't appreciate Dr. McKinnon's tendency to doubt him. It's brains versus brawn as these two learn to work together to solve the most brutal homicides under the Bureau's jurisdiction. But, as they solve the case and work to catch the killer, they learn that not everything is what it seems. Even when it comes to your very own partner. Originally submitted during the Open Novella Contest 2021. Trigger Warning: Please be advised that this story contains violence, sexual themes, alcohol and drug use, and casual depictions of violence by characters whose jobs make them susceptible to detachment.

"It is your choice," he said, stepping so close to me that our lips were almost touching. "Either do what I say - or get another job." My heart stood still as I gazed up into his deep, dark, dangerous eyes... In a world where women's only role in life is to sit at home and look pretty, Lilly is determined to fight for her freedom. There's only one problem: a powerful man blocking her way.

[Wattpad Featured Story: Fantasy Hidden Gems] When we were children they whispered about beasts that hid amongst the shifting dunes, dark things with sharp teeth and loud howls and an insatiable thirst. Animals that gutted their prey and left intestines rotting in the sun and bones sprawled out across dried riverbeds. We listened with rapt attention and shivered despite the searing desert heat. But I'm not a child anymore, and I know better. The sand-dusted coyotes, the sleepy vipers-they're just animals, dumb and slow. I've met the real beast of the dunes, and he's nothing like they say. He wears the skin of a man, and the silks of a noble, and spins lies with a silver tongue sharp enough to make the earth bleed... And he holds my life in his blood-stained hands.

Amelia Allen feels stuck. To an outsider, her life must look beautiful. She has a steady job, a relationship, and several years of her twenties left to figure out what more she wants out of life. But nothing is as shimmery as it appears from the surface, and her boyfriend's increasing hostility leaves her feeling trapped within the confines of her own life---too scared to stay where she is but even more scared to run. Everything changes when a stranger disappears. When Amelia finds out that a girl she went to school with has gone missing, she decides to show up at the search party, only expecting it to impact her life for a couple of hours. But there she meets Henry, who's sweet and charming and impossible to stay away from. And as she gets pulled deeper into his world and the mystery of his cousin's disappearance, the entangled truths about everything around her start to emerge. Hearts are broken, dark secrets are exposed, and people's true colors are revealed. But amidst all of the chaos, Amelia slowly starts to find something else: herself. »»-----　♡　-----«« ✧ Started: June 7th, 2020 ✧ Completed: October 11th, 2020 ✧ Rewrite Started: August 2022 ✧ Rewrite Completed: October 2022 »»-----　♡　-----«« ♡ previously featured in @Romance's Featured Romance Stories list ♡

When the most popular Kpop idol on the planet falls to her death, an aspiring singer is thrown into the spotlight, attracting the attention of an obsessive fan who claims to know the truth. *** Kpop girl group Sweet Poison is undeniably the biggest girl group in the world, and lead singer Dalia the most popular idol on the planet. But at the peak of her career, no one expects the idol to throw herself off a thirty story building on what will become a historic day in entertainment history. Ruled as a suicide, her death shocks the industry and millions mourn the unexpected demise of their favourite celebrity. Just as suddenly, trainee Kang Jina is thrown into the spotlight when her childhood association with Dalia is leaked to the media. Stifled by the newfound attention and stress of her debut, Jina feels as though she'll drown under all the pressure. That is until she receives a most shocking letter from Dalia's sassaeng (obsessive fan) claiming that she was murdered instead.

Headstrong and independent, Jess Nichols doesn't need anyone's pity over the murder of her estranged father, least of all from the cop assigned to protect her family. As the investigation goes deeper, she turns to him to help her make sense of the family secrets it reveals. He proves to be exactly what she needs, but can she trust the feelings she has for him aren't fueled by the danger they are facing? 💕 Lieutenant Shaun King was just doing his job, part of the investigation into the mass shooting at the plastics plant. Now he's in deep, trying his best not to let love get in the way of protecting Jess and her family from danger. 💕 Protecting Jess is a completed contemporary romance novel about following your heart, staying true to your roots, and the power love has to heal.

Chicago, IL. January 1992. When Jenny Adler shows up to her first day at a new job, she hopes it can be as simple as it is on paper - a few short months of doing paperwork and answering phone calls before she moves on to the next thing. It was never supposed to be anything more than a mere stepping stone, never meant to be significant. But no matter how fast she runs, the past clings to her like a shadow and having to constantly see the woman she wants to forget forces her to confront the uncomfortable truths she's been trying so hard to ignore. Meanwhile, a new friendly face slowly coaxes her into opening up and for the very first time, she starts to believe that humans aren't as inherently broken as she thought them to be. What she intended to be just a tiny blot of ink on the pages of her life ushers in the beginning of a brand new chapter and makes her challenge her beliefs about what it means to be a woman in a man's world, if love truly can be found in the most unexpected and darkest places, and what to do when you realize that you've turned into the very thing you swore you'd never become. Their future was a tragedy waiting to be written, a tale of endings that came too soon after beginnings. But there was a life before the dark, a life so full and hopeful it later felt like but a dream. »»----------«« ♡ featured in @NA's general + historical fic reading list ♡ »»----------«« ♡ Started: May 17th, 2021 ♡ Completed: October 31st, 2021

Brooke Whittaker had all but forgotten Nicholas Williams after the "Great Christmas Disaster of 2010." But, when her father announces a business arrangement that will not only move Brooke and her family to New York City, but also forces Nicholas back into her life, tensions begin to rise once again. Follow the new generation of old money families as they navigate crazy exes, old friends, business deals gone wrong, a marriage proposal, and the biggest question of all: How much money will it take for Brooke Whittaker to fall in love with Nicholas Williams? Updates every Saturday

Billie Dupree is a walking contradiction, and it's driving Quentin Harrison mad. She seems so self-assured one moment and so vulnerable the next. His feelings for her are getting complicated. Billie is desperate to save her father's business. Quentin believes he has the solution, but can she trust the son of the man who is trying to destroy her father's billion-dollar company? © 2020 Charity Rue aka Ruechari

** WATTYS 2018 WINNER ** Big Tech meets Die Hard in this techno-thriller Kirkus Reviews calls "a clever, spirited tale with a brainy, nimble heroine at the helm." From IndieReader's 5-star (highest rating) review: "Bond weaves an entertaining tale filled with deceit, robots, Russians, and tech entrepreneurs that all combine to give the reader a reason to flip pages furiously to find out what might happen next." Deb Bollinger has no time for corporate training. Her company's top engineer at just twenty-seven, Deb has blocked off her day for the one project she truly cares about: the launch of Carebnb, an app that finds spare beds for the homeless. When she's told all employees must drop everything for some busywork exercise called Blackquest 40, it's an easy no. Trouble is, her bosses aren't really asking. Blackquest 40 is the mother of all corporate trainings. A near-impossible project to be completed in forty straight hours. No phones. No internet. Sleeping on cots. Nobody in, nobody out. Deb finds the whole setup creepy and authoritarian. When a Carebnb issue necessitates her leaving the office, she heads for the door. What's the worst that could happen? Armed commandos, HVAC-duct chases, a catastrophic master plan that gets darker by the hour - Blackquest 40 is a fresh take on the Die Hard formula, layering smart-drones and a modern heroine onto the classic action tale. Cover design and illustration by Ethan Scott.