But not the way one would think.

They shared a best friend.

What they did not do, however, was like each other.

You could say that it was a war to win the best friend title.

The only problem was, their best friend would never choose a clear winner. So they spent their teenage years fighting it out. What Audric didn’t know, though, was that Creole was desperately in love with him.

The same went for Audric. He wanted Creole more than his next breath.

But it was never the right time.

Then life happened, and it kicked them both in the teeth.

One second they’re acting, and the next the anger is real, and neither one of them can stand to be near the other.

For years, they fight it out, one-upping each other to the point where neither one of them can be in the same room with each other without things going to hell.

Then one day their best friend dies, and they have to figure out a way to live without her.

There’s no fighting anymore, at least verbally. Physically, however? They let their bodies duke it out the fun way.

But in the end, neither one of them wins.

One, he needed to stay the hell away from Silver Donahue. Two, he didn’t think there was a chance in hell that he could.

He tries, though.

For a solid year, he does his best to be dismissive to the point where he appears cold and threatening.

But when Silver finds herself in danger, he forgets why he was giving her the cold shoulder to begin with.

The thing is, Silver didn’t forget.

***

Silver Donahue was so deeply in love with Piers Webb it was disheartening. Especially knowing he didn’t like her back.

She’s determined to live her life, but with Webber always on the edge of her existence, she knows it’s futile.

But she tries.

The thing is, there’s no way you can ignore Piers Webb when he’s aiming that dark and deadly gaze your way.

She’s determined to keep him at a distance, until one night she has to pick him up on the side of a deserted road in the middle of nowhere. That one moment of need on his end is all she needs to realize a few things.

He’s as scary as he wants her to believe, and killing a man and disposing of a body is a daily practice for him.

She should run so far in the opposite direction, because he has so many red flags, even a toddler wouldn’t be able to ignore them.

But she’s always proven she makes bad decisions.

But Piers Webb is going to be the best bad decision she’s ever made.

At first, Searcy Hodges is just a passing fancy.

A look but don’t touch kind of girl.

She has a bad attitude, an even worse bedside manner, and a chip on her shoulder the size of Texas.

It would be wise to stay away, even if that attitude of hers really does great things for him.

But how is a man supposed to stay away when her temper is just that spectacular to experience?

He’s literally watched Searcy make one of her customers cry and not care.

She’s the poster child for ‘don’t do this if you want to stay in business.’

Yet, everyone keeps coming back.

And she keeps shelling out the attitude.

He’s a grown man. He shouldn’t get as much enjoyment out of watching the woman struggle.

He should be figuring out his own life, not wanting to dig into hers.

But the moment she breaks down in his arms and asks him for help, setting aside the attitude and exposing her vulnerability, he finds it impossible to say no.

He’s a Truth Teller. A biker with a hero complex. A paramedic and a former SEAL.

It’s literally ingrained in his psyche to help, and it’s painfully obvious that Searcy could use everything he has to give.

And while he’s solving her problems, he’ll make her his along the way.

She’ll never see it coming.

For two years, he played the long game.

He slowly insinuated himself into her life, and the moment that she needed him, he swooped in like the knight in shining armor that he only pretended to be but most assuredly wasn’t.

He’s no real knight.

In fact, he’s the villain in everyone’s story but his own.

He lives life the way he wants to live it, and damn anyone and anything that gets in his way.

He may appear like an upstanding anesthesiologist at work, but the moment he gets out of those scrubs and into his jeans, biker boots, and leather cut with the Truth Tellers emblem at his back, he morphs into his alter ego.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde ain’t got nothin’ on him.

He’s been putting on a front for two years, and just when he has Aella Cowan right where he wants her, he closes down every possible avenue of escape.

He thinks he has a future fight on his hand, but Aella proves that she’s not quite as sheltered as Chevy thinks. She’s perfectly happy being the old lady of one of the scariest members of the Truth Tellers Motorcycle Club and couldn’t care less if he spends his nights doing questionable things to despicable people.

As long as she has breakfast with him every morning, what does she care how he spent his night?

If anyone on Earth should know that, it’s Milena Semyonov.

She’s suffered blow after blow, and the hits just keep on coming.

Just when she’s sworn off being happy, that maybe being numb is the better way to navigate life, she meets him.

Cutter Carson Clayborne.

The man that finally shows her how a real man is supposed to treat her.

Just when she didn’t think life could get any worse, the man that abused her as a young, impressionable teen is back, showing her that life can, in fact, get worse.

When she’s ready to quit, Cutter is there, making sure that she knows that he’ll be there, whether she wants him there or not.

He is her husband, after all. And the unlikely pair have an understanding that they’ll stay married for two years, make a baby, and join two crime syndicates in unholy matrimony.

Cutter has other plans, though. He only agrees to the original plan to make her his.

He won’t ever give her up. What’s his stays his. And there’s not a man on the earth that’ll ever touch Milena again. Not with Cutter alive and able to take out anyone that tries.