While young doctor Adam Morrow resigns himself to an uninformed existence, world-weary assassin Ian Abbott struggles with a life he never asked for. When the two strangers meet by chance, the attraction is immediate. And deadly, as Adam walks in on Ian in the middle of a hit. The situation spirals out of control once Ian discovers he and Adam share a connection far more profound than either imagined. Shocked by the discovery, Ian makes the hasty decision to kidnap him. Overnight Adam is torn from his promising career and a family who believes him dead. Things go from bad to worse when he finds himself reunited with a mother he never knew who is now head of a covert and shadowy group of killers for hire. Forced into joining their ranks, with Ian as his reluctant trainer and handler, Adam is given a series of impossible tasks to complete. To survive, he must fight with everything he has to keep his life, his sanity, and his very soul from being swept up in a violent and chaotic world even as he battles his unwanted and complicated feelings for Ian. For his part Ian, a man with dark secrets of his own, has a past he isn't ready to share with Adam even as the other man worms into his life in more ways than one. The two grow closer and lines blur -- between good and evil, friend or foe, enemy or lover. But something, or someone, plots against them, determined to do everything in their power to keep them apart. Even if it means destroying them both.

The Dead Don't Lie

“Have I made myself clear?” Ian demanded.


“Yes,” Adam replied, hoping his answer sufficed.


Ian loosened his grip, stepping back from him. Seizing the opportunity, Adam struck, reaching for the heavy pot by his hand. He swung at Ian with the last of his strength. It worked, catching him unaware.


Ian let him go, stumbling back from the blow. While he was distracted, Adam ran for the door, getting his hand on the knob before Ian had him by the neck. He hurled him back toward the bed. Adam hit the mattress with his lower back, falling to an undignified heap on the floor.


“That was stupid,” Ian raged, towering over him. “Try that again, and you’ll have a broken wrist to go with that ankle.”


Ian turned to the mirror to inspect the damage, wiping drips of cold coffee off his face. He grimaced, appearing more annoyed than hurt as he fingered the swelling bruise forming.


Chapter 17