Not even the king of Los Angeles’s underground can stop me from loving Celeste. Arturo Flores could make me disappear with a snap of his fingers, and nearly did. Limping away from a beatdown when I was seventeen didn’t change the fact that his daughter was worth the pain. Running into her in my tattoo shop twelve years later, she still makes my blood run hot with a glance. But I’m not that clueless teenage boy anymore. And Celeste isn’t the only one I want. Leo is a temptation I crave, but in our world, admitting desires like mine could get me killed. The gangbanger is as ruthless as he is beautiful, yet he can’t see anything beyond Celeste. That hurts like hell to admit, but I would sooner die at her crime lord father’s hands than let either of them get hurt. I’m prepared to let them have each other when Leo comes to me with an offer. One that could connect the three of us in a way that flies in the face of the world we live in. His proposal ignites a fire in my veins. If it fails, we’ll all get burned, but for a man with nothing to lose, I’m just desperate enough to take that chance.

They say love is a battlefield… My family’s ties to a certain set of crime lords are more tangled and volatile than the wires in an IED. They’ve called on me to disarm a situation ready to explode, but in spite of all my training, I’m not sure any of us are getting out of this unscathed. That’s especially true when I find out the black-ops mission I’ve signed up for is commanded by none other than Sadie Watts, the girl who left me in the dust so many years ago I should be over it. But I’m not, and seeing her again, especially in such close quarters, is a distraction I can’t afford. I know what I’m out here fighting for—my brothers; my sister; the USA—but as we close in on our target, I start to wonder if it’s not her I’m fighting for too.