Showing results for "Vicious" in Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Retired PR boss Agatha Raisin is enjoying life in her pretty Cotswold village of Carsely. It even seems likely that the attractive new vet, Paul Bladen, has taken a shine to her. But before romance can blossom, Paul is killed in an accident with Lord Pendlebury's horse. Only the circumstances are rather suspicious.

The Obsidian Order only cares about three things: secrecy, loyalty, and power. Every man born to the founding families is bred for this purpose, to serve the society and its objectives. As a result, we are the elite. Untouchable. Unbreakable. If we make it through the Trials. I will, as long as my obsession doesn't get the best of me. This girl… If the Order doesn't kill me, she'll be the death of me. Because I won't give her up. She's mine.

Imogen Hardy hit the dirt hard and often when in the presence of Kane Jessop, not because she was so besotted with him and clumsy that she fell at his feet, but because he put her there. Usually with a hard shove or a swift swipe of her ankles. He was a vicious and unruly child; then a boy, now a man. He is in every bad memory Immy has ever had. He consumes her thoughts, her nightmares, and reluctantly, her dreams; even now, years after she fled.

Lina Schultze is a pawn. A shiny piece of plastic I’ll use in my plan for revenge. I’ll seduce her. Claim her. Then flaunt my acquisition in front of her ex, Lawrence Wellington—The man I plan to destroy. Once my mission is complete, I’ll send Lina packing. She’ll be the easiest and most … pleasurable part of my vengeance. Charming her away from a man old enough to be her father won’t be an issue. And if it comes down to it, I’m not above using force.

He's forbidden, off-limits, yet I'm irresistibly drawn to him. Niall Fitzpatrick, my brother's best friend, has always been there, from childhood on the streets. I never saw him as anything more than a loyal friend until one fateful night. In a haze of alcohol and desire, we crossed a line that should've remained untouched. Since then, everything has changed. Our insatiable need for each other knows no bounds.

They say the devil goes by many names, and I know four of them: Ciro, Hale, Zaid, and Lucas. My father was once a powerful player in the Chicago underground, but six years ago, he left that life behind. The past always finds you, and mine finds me on my wedding day when four brutal, dangerous men drag me from the altar in a hail of gunfire. Four men who used to be four boys. Four boys I cared about. Four boys I left behind. They’re not the same boys I knew though, and whatever we may have once been to each other, it doesn’t matter anymore.

The stories were all wrong—Hook was never the villain. For two centuries, all of the Darling women have disappeared on their 18th birthday. Sometimes they’re gone for only a day, some a week or a month. But they always return broken. Now, on the afternoon of my 18th birthday, my mother is running around the house making sure all the windows are barred and the doors locked. But it’s pointless. Because when night falls, he comes for me. And this time, the Never King and the Lost Boys aren’t willing to let me go.

When the stranger who got me out of a mess in Springwood turns the town into a slaughterhouse in my name, I do the only thing I can do. I run. Not far enough, though, because I can feel him in Akron, looking for me. But he wants to take me home, and I can’t go back. Not after what he did. Especially when I know that more than anything, he wants me home with him. But when his words betray how he really feels, instead of violence from the monster of Springwood I get something completely different. Will I be tricked into going home after all?

Lucrecia: All I have in the world is my sister Mae. We were adrift, on our own until a guy from Black Reign, one of Lake Worth’s most infamous MCs, spotted us and took us in. Rycks isn’t cruel, but he’s hard on us. We have to earn our keep, but then everyone does. Me? I dance for the club. I get a secret thrill from it -- until Mae is kidnapped by enemies of Black Reign, and Rycks sends me to Palm Beach -- straight into the hands of Salvation’s Bane.

As eager as Beatrice, Duchess of Kesgrave, is to meet her husband’s newly discovered illegitimate half sister, she does not want it to happen like this: in the keeper's house at Newgate. Yes, that Newgate, the abject prison filled with squalor and misery to which Verity Lark has been consigned for murder. Found standing over the slain corpse of an old tormentor with a still-warm pistol in her hand, she is obviously guilty. It is an open-and-shut case with little for an unduly curious duchess to investigate. Except it all seems a little too simple and straightforward.

The Obsidian Order demands not just survival but submission. Every trial, every secret unearthed, binds me deeper to this clandestine world where power is currency and loyalty is conditional. Yet beneath the surface, a rebellion simmers within me. And Delilah, my obsession, my bride, is the reason. I vowed to protect her, to fight for her. But can I defy the very Order that shaped me? For my little raptor, I'd take on the world. Because she is everything.

The plane circled in the dark. Down below, Joe Pickett could just make out figures in the snow and timber. Joe knew that he might be their next target. The Cates clan's history with the Picketts is about to come full circle. Game warden Joe Pickett struck a fierce blow against them when the life of his daughter April was endangered. But it wasn't a killing blow, and he'd always wondered if there'd be a day of reckoning...It seems now Joe will find out.

They told me bad things happen in threes, and they did. But what comes next? My troubles are only beginning, and those I thought I could trust might be the ones who end up breaking me. But I won’t give up. They might think I’m just a pawn, but I’ll beat them at their own game. If I want to win, a vicious queen I’ll become.

My name is Emersyn Sharpe. Until a few months ago, I was the lead performer for a traveling show finishing up a contract. I had been beaten, but never broken. Then they took me. I didn’t belong in their world. Still, they took me and I didn’t know why. They promised to protect me and to keep me safe, but they had to know I’d run. They had to know.

I told her my secrets and she told me gilded lies. The words that dripped from her lips like honey were nothing but empty promises. Her betrayal blindsided me. Posie had been my constant. My anchor. My calm. Until she wasn’t. Now she’s my enemy. Before I could even the score, she fled to the other side of the country where she thought she was safe from my wrath.

The horror of waking up from the best dream ever and remembering you're a monster is indescribable. My soul is screaming for mercy, for forgiveness, for redemption…but I know I'll never get it.

Living alone in New York, I never felt safe, but I couldn't leave. I was here to find the man I'd lost seven years ago. I had no idea that he'd already found me. I had no idea that he was watching me, controlling my every movement. He's no longer the rebel kid from across the tracks. Now, he's heir to the most brutal bratva the city has ever known. I'm in love with a monster, and he's watching my every move.

On a river deep in the Mexican jungle stands the colossal villa Xanadu, a wellness center that’s home to an ardent spiritual group devoted to self-help guru Paul Bentzen and his enigmatic wife Kali. But when Paul mysteriously dies, his entire estate—including Xanadu—is left not to Kali, but to his estranged niece Sveta. Shocked and confused, Sveta travels from New York City to Mexico to pay her respects. At first, Xanadu seems like a secluded paradise with its tumbling gardens, beautiful people, and transcendent vibe.

When I give an order, I expect it to be obeyed. She's too smart for her own good, and it's going to get her killed. Against my better judgement, I put her under the protection of my powerful Russian mafia family. So imagine my anger when the little minx ran. For three long years I've been on her trail, always one step behind. Finding and claiming her had become an obsession. It was getting harder to rein in my driving need to possess her... to own her. But now the chase is over. I've found her. Soon she will be mine.

William Neal, who called himself "Wild Bill Cody," was seductive and skillful at separating love-struck women from their money, and ultimately, their lives. Apprehended by police, Neal, who proclaimed himself “better than Ted Bundy,” pleaded guilty to three murders then insisted on representing himself at his death penalty trial. But the psychopathic killer found himself up against the incredible courage of his one surviving victim.