Heather Long

Do you ever lie to yourself? I do. Making friends has been the cruelest choice I ever inflicted upon myself. I like to say I don’t regret it, and for the most part that’s true. I resent it.

When did we become the adults? When did we become the ones who had to make the hard calls? One by one, we’ve all left our teenage years behind. College brought new challenges even as Bound Hearts brought us more....

I was born into this world. Power and wealth are the keys to controlling it, but they aren’t everything. They are a means to an end when it comes to protecting the people I care about. I’ve known my destiny since I was old enough to sit at the table....

I’m Cash Morgan. Special Agent Cash Morgan. They trained me to track killers. To find the cracks in their masks, the patterns in their chaos. I was the quiet voice behind a badge, the profiler with a near-perfect record, the one they called when things got dark and twisted.

Grandfather tried to prepare me for everything… Yet, how could anyone prepare me for this? Kidnapping. Blackmail. Deception. Grief. Vengeance. The Royals have always been about blood. Blood lines, blood relations, and the spilling of blood. I didn’t ask for this war. I didn’t go looking for it.

Jake, Archie, Coop, and Ian were my best friends, and three of them still are - but they’re also now my lovers, my boyfriends, and pretty much the anchors keeping me from getting washed away. One thing is for sure, I’ll never forget my senior year. It’s the year everything changed....

Emersyn Sharpe doesn’t belong in our world. In fact, the very last place she should be is with us. But someone is hurting her. When she nearly died in front of us, we had to act. She doesn’t belong in our world, but I’ll be damned if someone lays a finger on her under my watch....

When it comes down to acclaim in the yearbook, my class rank would probably earn me my only entry, but probably very little else. I don’t wear cosmetics, do my hair, or really give a damn about my appearance in general. I don’t need to be cool....

Five years ago, I disappeared from the life I had and built this one. I spend my days and most of my nights on the line, helping my clients achieve their goals. They call me when they are in a jam or are getting ready to move on a target.

Madness runs in my blood or so my family history would suggest. For more than thirteen years, I've been driven by one quest. One desire. One goal. It's about more than just DNA and legacy, it's about a promise. One I swore I would never give up.

Our feelings for her were like wild animals finally freed from their cage. But my sparrow, she was the most brutal fighter of us all. She’d had to be. The battles she’s survived, she’s done in silence and alone. Not anymore. Never again....

One-hundred-seventy some odd days left in my senior year, and everything has changed. I went from untouchable to dating my best friends to making out to being betrayed....

My only connections were forged through the veil of a computer screen. I was their voice in the dark, their operator. I was their lifeline—until the day my past tore into my present, and they had to become mine.

When the year started, I had one goal - make my AP classes count and keep my grades up. Both my focus and my grades started wobbling. Dating my best friends came with perks like hugs, kisses, and invitations to dances, but it also came with cons in the form of vindictive posts....

My name is now Rick Drew. Fresh out of a facility they called a hospital and I called a cage, I wasn’t looking for redemption. I wasn’t looking for anything. Then I found her bleeding in an alley, and everything I thought I wanted burned to ash.

Family legacy dictates everything from type of education to suitability of friends to eligible marriage opportunities to the type of business I’m expected to go pursue. It’s more than just DNA, it’s also about birth order, gender, and unfortunately—the family name.

My name is Emersyn Sharpe. Until a few months ago, I was the lead performer for a traveling show finishing up a contract. I had been beaten, but never broken. Then they took me. I didn’t belong in their world. Still, they took me and I didn’t know why....

You know, I never imagined having one boyfriend, much less four. Jake, Archie, Coop, and Ian are still my best friends. They’re also even more entrenched in my life than I ever imagined. They’ve been my rocks, but I’m not the only one with issues....

Vienna doesn’t ask for loyalty. She demands it without a word. And I gave it—freely, stupidly. Even with Rick, her broken guardian angel, breathing down my neck. I should hate him, but the man can cook, clean, and kill with surgical precision. Besides, he loves her too. That’s enough for now.

Emersyn Sharpe was nothing like I expected and everything I could have ever dreamed of. She stayed and she changed everything. She put the guys in their place. She had fire and spunk, a ferociousness I wished I possessed....