Mine to Protect

She built her life helping women escape dangerous men. Then one began making her feel safe.

For six months, family-law attorney Emma has documented every gift and warning note from the watcher she refuses to report. In disciplined handwriting, each note reports: danger removed, no threat, nothing owed. She should be terrified. Instead she sleeps better. Once, she catches herself lifting her coffee toward the dark window in a private salute, and the trust in that gesture appalls her.

Then she hits a man with her car in a rain-soaked crosswalk. The stranger wakes without his recent memories, but he speaks her name before anyone tells him. A former special forces operator driven to guard her before he understands why, he installs a deadbolt and sleeps on her hallway floor while her abusive ex circles closer.

He could be the only man capable of hunting the stalker Emma has never reported. He could also be the man behind the disciplined handwriting and every boundary quietly crossed in her name. If she sends him away, does she reclaim her safety or lose the only thing that lets her sleep?

For readers of H.D. Carlton and RuNyx: fully open-door heat, obsessive protection, and a dark HEA with an unreformed hero who does not apologize for crossing every line to keep her.

The deadbolt can keep danger out. It cannot tell Emma which side of the door her protector belongs on.