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

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Every part of Adrian Ivanov is pure, unable to ignore, male virility. He’s arrogant. Protective. Sweet and intensely attentive. On rare occasions, outright vicious. If only his soul weren’t tortured over who he is and what he has become. It makes him hide it all from me, proclaiming the truth will ruin us. No matter how much I insist anything he confesses won’t deter my heart, his ghosts won’t allow him.

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.

My villain, my monster, my vicious Knight… I’m supposed to be a secret. No one can know my true identity. Or that I’m a dead girl walking. But I caught the attention of the one guy my parents warned me to stay away from. Thorne Ivanov reigns supreme at Raventhorn University, home of the Knights, one of the most powerful secret societies in the world. An heir to its leader, Thorne is as devastatingly handsome as the dark villains in movies you're not supposed to like—but you do.

Cain, Hunter, and Cristiano were heirs to some of the richest and most powerful families in the world, men who might as well have been kings. Ten years ago, they took an interest in me. Or at least that’s what happens in the fleeting memories I still have left after the car accident. I never expected to see them again, until the day a ruthless Chicago crime boss and two of his closest friends came to watch my show and then decided they wanted to see more of me. By the time the memory of their faces returned, I already knew I wouldn’t be able to forget them.

The cost of freedom may be high, but never so costly as the loss of freedom. I can't control myself around her. Except, I have to. She's the daughter of the man I work for. Which means that Mia Romano is off limits. But that doesn't mean I'm not going to protect her from the arranged marriage her father is planning for her. When an attack on the family home sends the Romano family into a tailspin, I know I'm going to have to work even harder to protect the terrified Mia—and hope I can conceal my growing feelings in the process.

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.

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.

I came here expecting to face my bullies with an iron fist. I played their games and won. Now that I’ve earned my place, at the academy and in their home, I should feel safe. But with every past there is a shadow and mine is drawing closer with each step I take.

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.