It was the night before Christmas, and all through the house, not a creature was stirring…nope. No. Nuh-uh. That’s a lie.
The moment that Caro wakes up, she knows that she’s not alone.
One thump-thump from the living room and she quickly moves into action.
One 9-1-1 call later, and she’s ready to defend herself.
Only, she gets more than she bargains for when she steps out into her living room and comes face to face with a living, breathing nightmare.
And isn’t it just fitting that the man that saves her by coming down the chimney with a large black gun in his hand is named Saint Nicholas?

* * *

It seemed like the start of a bad joke.
Saint Nicholas comes down the chimney on Christmas Eve night, but he isn’t there to bear gifts. He’s there to take out the trash.
When he lands on his silent feet, he has no other choice but to put himself in harm’s way.
One look at Caro’s terrified face, and he can’t stop himself.
He steps in just as the bullets start flying, saving the damsel in distress and taking a bullet to the shoulder for his trouble.
But one thing he can say is, heroes always win the girl.
And Caro is the best Christmas miracle of all.

Lynnwood Thatcher Windsor has lived a lot of lies. Seen a lot of good men go down.

But he will not stand by and watch as the world he’s built from the ground up burns to ashes before his eyes. Even if he has to build an army to combat the problem he sees brewing around him.

One step at a time, he carefully lays out his plan, building layer after careful layer until everything is where he wants it to be.

Every part is impeccably played, his pawns are in the perfect place, and then she barrels into his life, totally scattering every single piece he’s set in motion.

The bad thing is, she doesn’t even realize how badly she’s messed up until she’s roused the beast.

* * *

The day that Six Ines Broussard met Lynnwood Thatcher Windsor was the worst day of her life.

First, she has a public breakup with a man she’s not even dating. Second, she has to deal with a black-tie event that she’d rather gouge her eyes out than to go to. Third, she then has to sit at a table for hours on end with the one man she despises.

Just wanting a break, she thinks she’ll lose herself for a few hours and do what she loves to do best—spend time by herself and go for a walk in the middle of nowhere, spot some birds, and get a little sun. Only, her day doesn’t go nearly as planned.

She walks right into the middle of hell. And at the center of it? Lynnwood Thatcher. The mayor. The man that she took one glance at on the night of his inauguration and dismissed as boring. A total stick in the mud.

Only, he’s not so boring shirtless, in the middle of nowhere, doing things that are very illegal.

At first, she’s appalled. Then her interest gets piqued. Stuck-up suit is hot! And he has tattoos. Oh, and let’s not forget one hell of a mouth on him!

Then he goes and kidnaps her, and she realizes that nobody is quite as hot as you thought they were when they’re now holding you hostage.

Don’t ever, ever, ever go near that boy. Not unless you want to be a single mother at seventeen. That boy is Bad with a capital B.

The words that my father spoke to me when it came to Trouper Aoki didn’t scare me like they probably should.

In fact, they only made me intrigued all the more.

When it came to Troup, there was just no resisting fate when it came to the two of us.

Even at eighteen, when we went our separate ways with the promise to come back to each other once we were done pursuing our careers, I knew he would always be it for me.

And color me surprised when eight years after making that pact with Trouper, we were once again reunited. Only this time in an undercover FBI investigation—me, the FBI officer, and Troup call sign ‘State’ as a military liaison.

Trouble always finds him. You’d do better to run far, far away.

Truer words had never been spoken.

From the time Troup was a young boy, he’d been in some kind of trouble.

So it only goes to show when he winds up in the FBI investigation with none other than Beckham Spurlock, his high school sweetheart, things are bound to go wrong.

Only, he has no idea how wrong until things go bad. Really, really bad.

All it takes is saving her by hurting another for him to see the wrong side of a jail cell.

To make matters worse, he has to live the next fifteen years in prison knowing that his son will grow up without him. And the woman he loves will likely move on to a man that isn’t so much trouble.

The first time I saw her was across the room at a bar. I had no idea at the time that she was only sixteen. All I knew was that she was beautiful, she was sending me do-me vibes from across the room, and I was fresh off a deployment where there’d been nobody but men for nine of the longest months of my life.

The second time that I saw her was at a court hearing that would decide how long I’d be sent to prison for. She was a cute little curly-haired blonde with wide, expressive eyes, a banging body, and the reason that I’d gone to prison in the first place.

The third time I saw her was through a glass divider of the prison visitation room as she waited for her stepfather, my lawyer, to tell me how sorry he was that he lost my case. Especially when I’d been the one to kill the man that was about to kill his daughter.

The last time, the time that I decided enough was enough, was when I saw her at my bar eight weeks after I’d been set free.

Unlucky for her, I’d stopped being a good guy about two seconds after those bars closed behind me twelve years ago. Now all that was left was a shell of a man that didn’t see the good in anything. Anything except for her.

Live-in property & pet caretaker needed. Six-year minimum. Background check required. Generous compensation. Marriage of convenience required.

The moment that Wyett Villin read the ad on her local community’s page, she knew that it would be perfect. It didn’t matter how big the house was, what kinds of animals she had to take care of, or what the compensation was. She didn’t give a flip as long as it got her out of her childhood home and away from the person that she despised the most.

Only, she had no clue that by accepting the position, she would be agreeing to watch over the mini-mansion and two large dogs of Hunt McJimpsey, computer hacker extraordinaire, sexy nerd, and convicted felon of Souls Chapel, Texas.

She’d meant to make her life easier, not complicate it more.

* * *

Hunt McJimpsey was careful. He knew exactly what he was doing and practically planned every single step that he took to make sure that he always had his tracks covered.

But one single mistake costs him five years of his life, and if he’s going to go down for the crime, he might as well make it spectacular.

Three years into his prison sentence, he’s a changed man, and definitely not for the better.

He’s harder, angrier, and even more brilliant and conniving than before he went in.

He thinks that by keeping up with his dogs’ babysitter, his property caretaker, and reluctant wife, that he’s only doing his due diligence as a responsible person. Only, what starts out as curiosity for his property turns into genuine like for the woman that is caring for what means the most to him.

When an opportunity to get out of the hellhole known as prison arises and the only thing he has to do is join a motorcycle club and sign some of his free time away to help those less fortunate, he jumps at the chance.

Not only because he’s ready to get the hell out of prison, but because he’s ready to meet the woman that he’s been falling for, one visit a week, for the last three years.