Showing results by author "J. L. Beck" in All Categories

They say there is always a calm before the storm. A time when you think you’re safe, protected from the destruction that you know is going to come eventually. Harper was that calm. And I? I was the motherfucking storm. As kids, we were best friends. She was the light to my darkness. I used to protect her from her bullies, and now I’ll become her most feared one. Seeing her for the first time after three years was like a bucket of ice water being poured on me. It chilled me to the bone, making me irrational and angry.

Shattered. Broken beyond repair. I’m the shell of the woman I used to be. The deeper I fall from reality, the worse things get. Only there’s one person who refuses to let me derail. Romero Pierce. Calloused. Sinister. Lethal. He’s my father's second in command, and so goddamn handsome it’s disgusting. Assigned the duty of being my babysitter, aka personal bodyguard, he thinks he can protect me, but I don’t want his protection. What I want is security, safety, freedom. Everything changes when I choose to leave and find myself in the very town where my father grew up.

The second was the night my mother told me she was marrying his father. I didn’t know his name then, but I do now: Hayes Ambrose. Captain of the swim team. Popular, gorgeous, the guy every girl wants, with a smile that’s hiding a million secrets.

They call me a playboy. Society’s pretty pet. What they don’t know is I’m so much more. My only directive was to keep her hidden, and safe. After everything she’s been through I’m the last person to offer comfort and care. I have little experience with either. Both of us have been broken by our pasts. But mine is catching up to me, and I would deal with it as I usually do: with total decimation. But that puts her in the crosshairs, and that’s unacceptable.

It was such a shame that she was in the wrong place at the wrong time. She knew we would come for her. We had seen her delicate face that night, hidden in the shadows, and she had seen what we did, her gasp of horror giving her away. She was perfection, beauty, and oozed goodness, but that would...

The bet was simple. You draw a name from the hat. That's the girl you have to seduce. The girl you have to make fall head over heels in love with you. It wasn't hard for him to do, in fact, it was something he did all the time. He was known for breaking hearts. Sex was just that, sex. And it didn't take him very long to get a woman on her back. And then he drew her name: Jules Peterson. His former best friend, first kiss, and first love. She shattered his heart into a million pieces three years ago. She left him right when he needed her most.

They call me a monster. Murderous and hateful. Beautiful but broken. Nothing can calm the ever raging storm inside of me. As the ruthless leader of the Doubeck family, there is a certain standard of brutality, I have to uphold. Then I meet her. Beautiful, innocent, and so very afraid. Valentina is a rival family's daughter, and the little temptress has purposely tangled herself in my dark web. She seeks me out, needing my help, but the price for what she wants will be steep.

Fear. Rage. Pain. I’ve endured it all. Seen it all. I’m the bad brother, the evil one—the psychopath. I wasn’t born this way. I was made this way. Neglect, abuse, trauma, and pain really mess a person up. Then the day I never thought would come finally does. It’s time for revenge.

I’ve always been the good girl. The preacher’s daughter. The town’s saint. The one who never strays from the rules. Until one reckless night changes everything. Calder Bishop is the monster I’ve been warned about my entire life. Heir to the most feared family in Black Hollow Creek...

It was such a shame that she was in the wrong place, at the wrong time. She knew that we would come for her. We had seen her delicate face that night, hidden in the shadows, and she had seen what we did, her gasp of horror giving her away. She was perfection, beauty, and oozed goodness but that wasn’t going to save her from us. No one could ever find out our secret, which meant we needed to get rid of her. But killing her wasn’t an option and scaring her into silence wasn’t as easy of a feat as we expected.

They say the truth will set you free. That’s a lie. The truth got me locked in an ivory tower, a victim of my new husband’s rage. If I’m going to survive, I’m going to have to make Enzo fall back in love with me.

He promised me one night and I took it, never expecting anything in return. Then a few months later, I see something I shouldn’t have and fate brings us back together again. I didn’t mean to see it and I wasn’t snooping. I just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, but that doesn’t matter to them. I’m a liability. Now Lex is everywhere I am. Following me, watching me, and making sure I don’t tell anyone what I saw that night.

They call me the mediator. The charming one who can stop a fight right in its tracks. Except, I don’t want to charm, or smile, or dance. I’m tired of society picking off my family one by one. It’s time to burn, to punish, to destroy. In order to take down the council once and for all, I need someone on the inside.

Rivals since before birth, there has never been a time when my family hasn't hated the Lockwoods and their daughter Harlow. But she made it personal, no longer just a rivalry between our parents. Now she's here, at Bayshore University, without her family's protection. There's nothing to stop us from getting our revenge on her, no one to tell us enough is enough. And so my brothers and I have devised a plan. We'll break her, have her falling at her knees for us in no time, and then we'll send her back to her family with a warning: Cross the Bishops again and you'll pay.

Everything I knew was a lie. Everyone I loved betrayed me. Everywhere I go someone wants me dead. I’m no stranger to being alone. Even in my darkest hour, I knew I could count only on myself. Now, I have nothing and for the first time in my life I have to let someone else save me.

After losing her mother to cancer a few months prior to graduating, Bree Forbes was finally able to take some time away and enjoy her college days. That all changed in the blink of an eye the moment Bree came home for break. She didn't expect to find her dad strapped to a chair, a gun pointed at his head.

Grace was his first love, his forever, and then he lost her. He’d spent years watching from afar, knowing he could never have her again. The violence, the hate, and pain owned him. It took all the good away. It took her away. The mafia was the only thing that could curb his violent tendencies. Choosing to let her go was the hardest thing in his life, but he wanted her to be happy, safe, protected. Then everything changed. The moment someone tried to hurt her he knew he had to step in. Grace might not have been his, but she would always be under his protection.

She thought her life had changed in the blink of an eye the moment she came home to see her father strapped to a chair, a gun being held to his head. It was my life that changed that day, not hers. The blood of my enemy ran through her veins, and no matter how much she wanted to save me, she never would have. I am a monster. I can't be saved. I would consume the world in a blaze of fire before my need for vengeance was ever fulfilled.

Darkness surrounds me. Who am I? I don’t remember anything. Every memory of my life is gone. I wake in a hospital not knowing my own name. I don’t know these people who claim to be my parents, but they take care of me, they show me pictures...and introduce me to my fiancé? I guess I was living a perfect life before my accident. I had it all, so I try to remember. I try to keep living my life, but I can’t shake the feeling that something is off. I’m noticing things that are not adding up. I’m catching people around me lying, and I know something is terribly wrong.

Two years ago, she ruined my family’s life. Maybe she thought it was only a little lie. That she did the right thing, that the worst was behind her, that no one had gotten hurt. Oh how naive the black-haired beauty was. Fate has finally brought her back to me, to Blackthorn Academy. Once upon a time, I was obsessed, consumed with the need to make her mine. Now I just want revenge, and I’ll do whatever I can to get it. You see, the beautiful, sweet Willow doesn’t realize the mistake she’s made yet. She doesn’t realize that she’s entered the lion's den and there won’t be any escaping her fate.