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

Ian glanced over, finding himself eye-to-eye with an older man of forty-five, give or take. A little shorter than himself, heavier, and starting to gray. He smelled of expensive aftershave as he leaned in close, offering to buy him another drink. Ian nodded, and they made small talk, not even bothering to exchange names.


“You want to go somewhere?” He asked after another round.


Ian agreed, swallowing the rest of his Jack and Coke, tipsy when he stood. The arm around his waist tightening, steadying him even as he fought the urge to shake the other man off. Something was wrong. He was far too drunk for the few drinks he’d consumed. The man led Ian outside to the parking lot’s far corner, tucked far from the building and hidden.


“Come on, I’ll drive you back later.”


The tone of his voice made Ian hesitate. He paused, shaking his head, turning back to the bar, his limbs protesting even that small effort.


Chapter 81