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

“But you’ve wanted to,” Ian countered.


“Then come on, finish your martini, and we’ll check that one off your bucket list.”


Adam smiled uneasily. “Bucket list, huh?”


Ian flashed a grin in return. “It’s a short, lonely life. Let’s make the most of it.”


Adam swallowed the last of his drink, the alcohol bolstering his courage. “Do I get to lead?”


“Not tonight,” Ian retorted as he reached for his hand.


Adam made a face as Ian led them out onto the dance floor center, pulling Adam into his arms. Adam fought back the lump in his throat, finding solace by burying his face in Ian’s chest. Together, they settled into an uncertain rhythm, Adam guided by the thudding of Ian’s heart as they gravitated closer. Their boldness was spurred on by the music and the scant distance between them as Ian folded him tight in his arms. Adam closed his eyes, waves of self-consciousness urging him to run.


Chapter 23