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

“You too, Ian,” Mei insisted, waving him over.


Ian groaned, but joined them without further protest. It burned like straight fire. Adam coughed and sputtered as the others laughed and the weird tension eased.


“Welcome to the club,” Vince proclaimed as he patted him on the back, sliding a second drink into his hand. The rest of them raised their glasses in a toast, while Ian noted his every move.


It was just before six A.M. when Adam wandered downstairs to meet Ian for his first training session. He threw open the double doors in a huff, annoyed and disappointed to find himself alone in the vast, empty gymnasium. Ian was nowhere in sight. While waiting, Adam took note of the various equipment and weights located at the far end of the room. On the other side, a large sparring mat and a few benches.


Chapter 18