Showing results by author "Meli Raine" in All Categories

It all started with the bereavement flowers with my name on them. Not the best way to wake up, right? I work in a flower shop. I know a funeral arrangement when I see one. I know a killer when I see one, too. And one is standing in my hospital room right now, straight behind the man who saved my life. I can’t tell anyone the truth, because that’s the fastest way to really die. So I do the next best thing. I “lose” my memory. I fake my amnesia. Pretending not to remember a brutal attempted murder has its perks.

Shot in the head by a brutal assassin during a case of mistaken identity, poor Lily’s been in a coma for over a year. When she emerges, her killer is right in the room, standing next to the man who saved her life.

Five years ago, Jane helped presidential candidate’s daughter Lindsay after an unspeakable crime. Now it’s Jane who stands accused, caught at the heart of a presidential candidate’s scandal that threatens her very life. As people in her life turn up dead, she swears she’s innocent, but forces around her continue to make her look like the betrayer - and possibly, the murderer. Can her bodyguard, Silas, save her? Better yet - can he trust her as the two fight an attraction that could put them both in danger? Or is Jane not who she seems?

This isn't how my life is supposed to end. Then again, a case of mistaken identity got me here. No one is ever who we think they are. Especially my kidnapper, a man whose entire life is designed to deceive. Powerful people want my rescuer to die. I'm just a lure. A pawn. An object. But objects hold meaning. Emotions attach themselves without logic. Like love. I now know that Duff will do everything to protect me. If he gets here in time. And if I can hold on long enough. Because my body can only handle so much. Pushed to the limits, it's finally giving out. Giving way.

Lily is hiding something, a secret so big, she came out of a year-long coma and her first instinct was to lie. Who does that? Someone who is afraid. No - not afraid. Terrified. And it’s my job to take that fear away. My partner and I have spent countless man-hours hunting down the cold-blooded killer who did this to her. Meanwhile, Lily’s spent her waking hours recovering. Getting stronger. Getting smarter. Staying beautiful. Never get involved emotionally. That’s my dictate. Never get attached.

When a mysterious job offer brings Carrie Myerson back to the town where her father was set up for a federal crime, she returns - to face a past more dangerous than she ever imagined. And a love more passionate than she ever dreamed. Drug crimes, kidnappings, set-ups and betrayal all unfold as Carrie and her ex-boyfriend, local police officer Mark Paulson, untangle the complicated web of deceit at the heart of her past.

The son and stepdaughter of rival drug dealers, Chase Halloway and Allie Boden know the odds are stacked against them, but love doesn't care about odds. Chase Halloway knows he'll take over his father's empire when old Galt Halloway's done, but he has dreams. Plans that have nothing to do with the drug ring his father's so carefully built since Chase's mom died years ago. Untamed and unmoored, when he sees Allie for the first time he realizes maybe the future doesn't have to be so lonely.

Four years ago, presidential candidate's daughter Lindsay thought Drew betrayed her, but now he's back to prove himself. Will she let him? The guy who did nothing while three of his friends violated her on streaming video. Not one damn thing. As her parents reveal the real reason she's been released, and Lindsay's life continues to be in danger, she doesn't know who to trust. And if she gets it wrong, she’s dead.

Four years ago, I lost my virginity on live, streaming television. Too bad I wasn’t awake for it. Three of the four guys in the video shared me. But that fourth guy, who did nothing? That was my boyfriend, Drew. And that was the last time I saw him. Until today, when my father - now on a path to the White House - hired him as head of security for my new team as I return home after four years of “recovering” in an undisclosed location that involved white lab coats, needles, pills, and damage control.

On a rainy night, I drove my overstuffed junker car back to a town I never expected to see again. And when I needed a rescue by the side of the road, a six-foot-tall piece of hot, unfinished business named Mark was what the universe sent me. Three years earlier, I’d fled town (and Mark) to follow my wrongly convicted father to his federal prison, working crappy jobs to stay afloat and visit him every second I could. But now, Dad’s dead, and I’m mysteriously offered the best job of my life at the college where his life blew up when he was accused of a crime he didn’t commit.

I lie for her. I hunt for her. I kill for her. And above all, I betray my mission for her. Our training taught me to be a sociopath. A machine. A pawn.

The future isn’t real. The past isn’t real, either. Only the present is, solid and full, flying at our faces, our bodies, our hearts and souls at breakneck speed as we work to take it all in. As we work to protect others. And, finally - ourselves. We’ve started to break the bonds of Stateless, a system as rotten as the one it seeks to destroy. But systems are organisms with one brutal goal: to survive, whatever it takes. Kina has to do the unfathomable to save a different system, one she created out of empathy and love for children we rescued from the only home they know.

It's not against any formal rule for us to sleep together. It is, however, strictly forbidden to have feelings for each other. I can't do one without the other at this point. Which means I am doomed. When you don’t know who you can trust, reality distorts, reformulating to meet whatever needs its masters demand. Just like me. Just like Kina. Except everything is different now that we know who we really are. But there’s a second reality. This one can’t be manipulated. Solid and true, it takes our mission, our training, our orders, turning them into nothing but secrets and lies.

When you’re born without a trace, no one knows you’re a weapon. I lie for her. I hunt for her. I kill for her. And above all, I betray my mission for her. She doesn’t know why. She doesn’t care why. I do. Treason comes in many forms. Love is one of them. Our training taught me to be a sociopath. A machine. A pawn. Nothing more than a tool for a larger goal, without attachments or feelings. Our teachers forgot one important detail: Pawns shouldn’t have hearts. Yet we do.

Turns out there was a second video from that awful night four years ago. Mine wasn't the only tape. Too bad mine wasn't the worst. Drew can’t protect me no matter how hard he tries, but the roles are flipped now. I have to help him, but I’m not wired that way. Not anymore. Three men think they’re above the law. They’re right. But I’m willing to go beneath the law to make sure they never harm anyone else. Their threats don’t scare me. When you have nothing left to lose because someone took it all away, you create the most dangerous creature imaginable: me. Game over.

Four years ago, Lindsay experienced the unspeakable right before me, and I couldn’t stop them. But that’s all changed now. When her father, Senator Bosworth, contacted me to ask - demand - that I protect her, it was a second chance. A shot at redemption. An opportunity to right an unspeakable wrong. Controlling Lindsay as she seeks her revenge on the monsters who hurt her won’t be hard. Containing my own out-of-control feelings for Lindsay and keeping up this ruse of cold-blooded distance will be; even harder than admitting to her what really happened that night four years ago.

I didn’t do it. I never betrayed my friend. Last year, I was kidnapped along with presidential candidate’s daughter Lindsay Bosworth, forced to help her assailants, my mother implicated in one of the biggest political scandals in American history. I've been cleared of any wrongdoing, but that doesn’t matter. Once you’re tried by the media, you’re guilty as sin. The truth doesn’t get the public’s attention. But shame? Shame sells. And everyone assumes you’re tainted.

I need to prove Jane is innocent despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Mirrors, smoke, and lies can conjure a truth that isn't real. Money, bribes, and power can twist reality. What we call proof is all an elaborate magic act. So is love. It's all about what you believe. Who you believe. And I believe Jane. I love her. But it might be too late. Or, worse - it might all be an illusion. If proof is just a magician's sleight of hand, then we're caught in a sick trick. A deadly one. One that doesn't end with applause, but with a bang.

I did it. I admit it. I fell in love with Silas. My bodyguard. My protector. My new informant. We’re playing a cat-and-mouse game. I’m not sure whether I’m the cat or the mouse, but I can definitely tell I’m in a trap. A trap with no way out. I’m not who everyone thought I was. The truth is out there, finally turning the lie about me inside out. I am the shameless little lie. It’s finally been revealed, and now even more people want to kill me.

Everything I know about my life is a lie. The more I dig into my father’s death, the more I find myself in peril. Mark turns out to be a liar, someone I thought I could trust. He’s not what he seems, and worst of all, a part of me can’t let go. My boss might be an international drug lord disguised as a dean at one of the top five universities in the country. Like anyone’s going to believe me if I try to out him? But I can’t help myself.