Showing results for "Rachel Van Dyken" in Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Pretty things aren’t meant to be broken. But I broke her, and now we both have to pay the price. I’m her nightmare. I’m her savior. And now that I have her signature on an ironclad contract, I own her body and soul.

I never thought my father would ask this of me, to become the second generation at Eagle Elite University, to rule with an iron fist, and to take care of anyone who gets in our way. But ever since the incident - ever since him - there's been a war in our little clique. After all, a house divided cannot stand.

A dark mafia tale of love and redemption by Rachel Van Dyken, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Eagle Elite series....

For Tracey Rooks, life with her grandparents on a Wyoming farm has always been simple. But after her grandmother's death, Tracey is all her grandfather has. So when Eagle Elite University announces its annual scholarship lottery, Tracey jumps at the opportunity to secure their future and enters. She isn't expecting much - but then she wins. And life as she knows it will never be same…

Twenty-four hours before we were to be married, I offered to shoot her. 10 hours before our wedding, I made a mockery of her dying wish. Five hours before we were going to say our vows, I promised I'd never love her. One hour before I said I do, I vowed I'd never shed a tear over her death. But the minute we were pronounced man and wife, I knew. I knew I'd only use my gun to protect her. I'd give my life for hers. I'd cry. And I would, most definitely, lose myself to a dying girl - a girl who by all accounts never should have been mine in the first place.

I grew up knowing it would happen one day. Believing that I would fall into my father's footsteps and become a monster of my own making. So I fought it. I lived. I loved. I teased. And then one day...I destroyed. And realized I loved the pain. Obsessed over the feeling. So I cut again and again and again. She saw my rage, my madness, and tried to stop me from destroying myself, and I hated her for it, pushing her away past the point of no return.

Part of a world I loathe. Part of a family who hates me more than I hate myself. Living with a girl who reminds me of my darkness. I'm. In. Hell. Also known as the Cosa Nostra. My life was over the minute I stepped off that plane. Son to a murdered mob boss. Heir to a throne of murder and lies. My name is Dante Nicolasi. And there will be blood.

For ten years the Cosa Nostra has ruled with an iron fist in Chicago—their reign is about to end, and I’ll be the one to bring them down. I’m the Grim Reaper of the Sicilian mafia, and I bow to no one, not even her, so when she asks me to teach her to fight, when she tells me she wants to be made, I give in just so I can piss off the bosses.

I'm a werewolf King who chose to step down out of grief for my mate. For centuries I've been alone, choosing to live a life of modesty despite the wealth surrounding me. I deserve to be punished. I crave things I have no business craving. And it is manifesting itself in a way I'm terrified I won't be able to control any longer. Especially since she arrived: a vampire orphan - beaten beyond recognition. My blood calls to her in a way that makes no sense. I'm a wolf. She's a vampire. The two don't mate.

All is lost. All. I don't recognize myself in the mirror anymore. My thoughts are filled with hatred and dripping with rage. I've lost my soul. She took it to the depths of hell with her and haunts me with images of what could have been. Sixty lives are mine to take. Sixty lives stand in the way of my vengeance. Sixty lives, plus one more. Mine. When the last drop of blood falls - mine will be spilled.

I was born under fire and swore to protect her until my dying day, I just never knew that one day, I'd be the very monster I was protecting her from. She didn't know it was me. She didn't know that I had no choice and would do it again and again to save her. I may as well have given her the mark on her finger. The one that shows where her loyalty must lie. Because we don't sin in silence. And eventually, you have to pay up what you owe.

Cursed, numb, rejected, scorned, wicked, sinister, dark, and twisted...this is Tex Campisi's legacy. He killed his father in cold blood and lost his soul right along with him. He craves war more than peace, and he's about to take his place in history as the youngest capo dei capi in the Cosa Nostra - that is until someone stops him, saves him from himself. But the only person able to do that is Tex's best friend's sister, Mo Abandonato, and she just ripped his heart out and asked him to hold it in his hands while she put bullets through it.

I will do anything for my family, and as the heir to the Campisi Mafia throne, I fall on my sword and do what's expected of me—it wasn't an accident that I was given the name King. I marry the girl I love—who's already in love with someone else, and because I'm a masochist, I make him her personal bodyguard. After all, who better to protect the woman I love than the man she loves? I have seven days after our wedding to own her—body and soul. Seven days to show her everything I feel.

Chase Winter let the love of his life slip through his fingers and into the hands of his best friend and Mafia boss of the Abandonato family. Now that he's been given a second chance to right a wrong, he refuses to let his own selfishness stand in the way. The only problem is that he's not fully in possession of his heart. So when he is asked for a favor by Mil De Lange - the girl who's innocence he stole and who is heir to the worst of the worst Mafia families in the United States - he says yes, not realizing that that one yes has the power to destroy them all.

Nixon Abandonato made his choice. And now he has to pay the price. Tracey is the love of his life, but being with him has made her a target of his family's enemies. The only way to keep Trace alive is convince the world she means nothing to him. Trace Rooks has fallen irrevocably in love with the son of her family's sworn rival, and she knows in her bones nothing can tear them apart. Until Nix suddenly pushes her away and into the arms of his best friend... But Trace isn't ready to give up on a future with Nix.

I'm supposed to be the strongest of them all. Ash Abandonato, ruler, assassin, made man, brother, friend - instead, I hurt everyone I touch in hopes that they'll feel even a sliver of the pain that bears down on my shoulders. And it's all her fault, Annie Smith. I daydream about her death. And then I close my eyes, and I see her soft smile. I feel her touch, her kiss - it was a mistake what we did that night, but I can't take it back, and now she's under my father's protection - my protection.

Trust. Loyalty. Family. The tangled web of mafia life. We grew up together. Me, Eden, my brother Tristian. He was always the safe bet, the sure thing, the good guy. And me? Well, I was the Casanova, the killer who flirted with anyone and anything, breaking Eden’s heart again and again. We both loved her. Mind. Body. Soul. Until I gifted her to my brother as if she meant nothing, when she meant everything to me. Tristian was safer. Better. Could give her the life I never would be able to. But things changed. We changed.

He is a killer, a rapist, a monster and knows only pain and survival. That is until the capo's sister walks into his life and changes everything. She's a light who makes his darkness darker; her smile makes his heart turn to ice, and he can't escape the fear her seductive looks instill - knowing it's only a matter of time before he fails again and takes her for himself.

My estranged twin brother, Julian, was always the wonder boy - and soon-to-be CEO of our ruthless father’s corporation. My mother and me? Left behind. Now, years after tearing our family apart, my father dares to ask me for a favor? Pretend to be Julian while he fights to survive a tragic accident. It can save the company. Nobody will be the wiser. It’ll be our secret.

There are two sides to every story, and theirs isn't pretty, but then again, what's pretty about the Mafia? Trace Rooks, that's what. But she wants only one of them, and he'll kill the other before he lets him have her. The only problem is that they're cousins - and she may just be their long-lost enemy. Whoever said college was hard clearly didn't attend Eagle Elite University. Welcome to hell, also known as the Mafia, where blood is thicker than life, and to keep yours, you must keep your friends close - and your enemies even closer.