As Detective Drew Lucy typed up the report on the Waterton case the pretty ankle slipped into his line of sight. It was shaped like trouble. The chief's sixteen-year-old daughter Millie was worried about her brother, Ike, who had started to disappear some nights. The chief could fire Drew for messing with family business, but Drew reluctantly agrees to tail Ike. The trail leads to a speakeasy and the mushrooming business of organized crime during Prohibition in Chicago. Clues from the Ebony Gardens murder point to the same gang, but the gangsters can smell Drew coming, and bullets are cheap. By the time Drew enters the seductive orbit of a mink-eyed vixen addicted to risk, he's in over his head. If he isn't shot full of daylight by gangster tommy guns, he'll drown in Bianca's perfumed embrace. It's enough to make a gumshoe readjust his fedora. ----- This noir flavored detective yarn is set 100 years back in time. It's a bit grittier than my usual breezy output. This story is basically clean and I did not flag it as mature. However, darker human failings (alcohol use, sexual desire, and violence) drive the plot. I don't dwell on those aspects, but it's definitely a story for grownups. The intended audience is new adult or adult. Winner! 2022 Amby Awards, Mystery and Thriller category. Winner! 3rd place in the Ballsy Tea Awards 2022, Action and Adventure category.

It was the summer of '93, and the weather was almost hotter than the location. But then again, what could be hotter than hell? The Ninth! Some would assume that the steam which rose from the broken sidewalks in front of the brick apartment building justified the neighbor hood's nickname, the Ninth Circle of Hell. The heat wave however, had nothing to do with why people associated Messalina projects with Dante's Inferno. No, that honor went to the infestation of dealers, crack heads, boosters, and hoes. Dope boys handled their business like it was legal, and everyone learned to look the other way. If they didn't learn, then they never got the chance to look again. Life in the ninth operated by the code of the wild, predators ate and prey got eaten. The drug dealers sat on the top of chain. Boosters, strippers and hoes fell somewhere in the middle, while the crack heads and the civilians clung to the last wrung. Everyone knew their assigned roles and no one ever deviated from the script. Cleopatra James, an unremarkable thirteen year old girl, understood better than anyone, her dictated place in the procession. But that didn't mean she accepted the role she'd been given to play.

Flash back to 1954. For seven months, Michael had been working many extra hours during the week, coming home late and even having to go into the office on weekends. Susan stayed at home, patiently waiting for his return each day. One evening, she called her widowed friend whose husband had died in Korea...and she heard her Michael's distinctive voice in the background...when he was supposed to be at work. After discovering his lies, Susan takes a stand that most women didn't take in the Fifties, hoping that Michael would come to understand his wife in an entirely new way.

Wattpad Editors' Choice, Winner of the 2020 Fiction Awards (for Best Plot Twist) and 2020 Mafia Romance of the Year. A chance encounter with an enigmatic Russian oligarch turns a young woman into the target of a criminal empire. Caught in a web of deceit, greed, and betrayal that stretches from the depths of Russia's gangland to the Kremlin's gilded halls, she is forced to forge a perilous alliance with an unlikely protector. From London to Moscow, this thrilling, sensual, and richly textured story transports the reader to the heart of a mafia empire - perfect for fans of dark romance and spine-tingling suspense. Genres: spy fiction | espionage thriller | political thriller | spy thriller | mafia romance | mafia thriller | romantic suspense | mystery | Dark mafia romance

BOOK TWO OF "THE ALPHA'S HEART" SERIES || MATURE THEMES Where once Calla wanted nothing more than to escape from her shifter captor and mate, she now finds herself willing to give her life to find him again. Desperate to reunite with her mate and free the human slaves, Calla once again finds herself thrown into the cruel Nortend wilderness. This time, however, she doesn't have Alpha Einnar's protection. And there are dark forces in this supernatural land that will stop at nothing to ensure that she never takes her place as Luna of the Onyx Craven Pack again.

[COMPLETED] [ 18+ WARNING. DARK WEREWOLF x HISTORICAL FANTASY ] Calla Voronín thought she knew her destiny. Marry her village's next leader and become the sacred Seer, a human blessed with the gift of precognition. And yet, when the infamous shifters of the North invade her homeland on the day of her wedding searching for gold, food, and women, Calla realizes she does not have as much control over her destiny as she thought. Like the icy and unforgiving nature of the northern continent, Alpha Einarr Fjerstäd treats those that he conquers with little mercy. Under the flag of the Alpha King, he holds no qualms about invading human villages and leaving nothing but ash and bone in his wake. But when his pack's longship lands on the shores of Calla Voronín's seaside city, the infamous Alpha stumbles upon a treasure far greater than any loot. Stolen away to her supernatural captor's frigid homeland, Calla is determined to do everything in her power to punish Alpha Einarr and return to her family. And yet, with every second spent amongst the legendary shifters and beside the man who claims to be her mate, Calla's resolve to escape weakens. In a struggle against her own desire, Calla must decide whether to forsake her werewolf captors or step into her role as Luna-- ruler of the Alpha's heart.

In Regency-era England, Constance is powerless to change her social status or find romance no matter how lonely she might be or how much her family might depend on her. But when she's locked in a werewolf Lord's bedroom on a full moon night, she'll have to discover her own strength, and learn who to trust before she and her reputation are torn to shreds.