Novels by Joanna Jade

Zayden's POVI got my angle when the man stepped over the stones.Two seconds. That was all it took. He was calm and confident with his gun lowered at Nico's skull.I fired. Twice. And he dropped without a sound.My ears were ringing, and the clearing smelled of smoke and stone dust and something warm and metallic that I didn't want to name.Nico lay on his side with one arm stretched toward Rosa, fingers inches from hers. I dropped to my knees beside him and pressed two fingers against his throat. His pulse was thready, but it was there. Blood soaked through his jacket and down the side of his ribs."Nico." I shook him once. "Domenico. Look at me."His eyelids fluttered. His eyes found mine, glazed, wet."Zayden," he whispered.Then his head fell back, and he was gone.“Fuck.” I muttered.I turned to Bella. She was on her knees beside Rosa, both hands pressed to her chest, as though she could push the life back in. Her dress was dark to the waist. Her palms were slick. Her face was a

Bella’s POVI glanced around. "Where?"She reached into her coat and pulled out a small burner phone. She set it on the table between us.The phone rang.Serafina pressed a button. The line clicked open."Isabella.” Hiram’s voice came through."Marcello." My fingers dug into my knees. "Where are you?""I'm not coming.""What do you mean? I did everything you asked." I said."Did you?""Yes.”Marcello chuckled. “You know, Bella, there’s something I’ve always admired about your husband. His confidence. The way he walks into a room as though the entire world belongs to him. The way he believes he can anticipate every move his enemies make.”I swallowed hard.“But I am smarter than that." He continued. “Did you really think you could catch me against my will?”"Catch you?" My stomach turned. "What are you talking about?""I told you not to fuck with me. I told you not to fuck this up. And still, here we are. Did you really think you could trap me?""I'm not trapping you." I denied it. "I

Bella's POVI had spent almost an hour driving. The road to the chapel was empty.I checked the rearview mirror every few seconds, though I knew what I'd see. No headlights. No black cars. Only the dark ribbon of asphalt unrolling behind me, and the cypress trees leaning in on either side like people trying to listen.Thirty minutes behind, Zayden had said. For my safety.It was a good plan. I told myself that again and again, and I couldn't stop running through the ways it could fail. A trap. A knife. A man in the back seat I hadn't checked. Hiram laughing at me across a table while I begged.I made myself breathe. In. Out. The steering wheel was damp under my palms."Bella." Zayden’s voice came through, low and close, as if he were sitting beside me. I flinched, and then I exhaled so hard it shook."Are you okay?" He asked."I'm fine," I said, although I wasn’t."Where are you?"I read the last signpost. He murmured it back to someone I couldn't hear."Nico's behind you," he said. "

Bella’s POVMaria had me sit on the edge of the examination bed while she wrapped the cuff around my arm. The room smelled of antiseptic and the lavender soap she kept by the sink."Your blood pressure is just fine," she said, reading the numbers. "But how are you? How have you been feeling?""Much better." I nodded."No dizziness? No sickness this morning?"I managed a smile. "A little. It passes."She nodded and turned to the cabinet, then set a small paper cup with two pills and a glass of water in my hand. "Swallow these. They're good for you and the baby."The baby. It felt so weird to hear that.I swallowed them dry and handed the cup back. Then I downed the glass of water. For a moment, I just sat there, listening to my own breathing. A tiny human, and I still hadn't said a word to the man who'd helped make it.Maria watched me from across the room. She'd been Zayden's nurse for years, and she had a way of looking at people that made lying feel like a waste of effort."Have you

Zayden's POVBella pressed the speaker button, and Hiram's voice filled the dark."Well?" It was soft and unhurried, the voice I'd have known anywhere. "You said you wanted to talk, Isabella. So talk."My wife's fingers held the phone steady. Mine weren't. I curled my hand into the sheet and held on."I got your present," she said. "The one you sent to my home.""Wonderful." I could hear the smile. "I hope you liked it. It took a lot of effort.”"Why would I like it?" She shook her head. “It was…gruesome.”"Because he treated you like garbage, didn't he?” He paused, almost gentle. "I got you justice, Bella. Something your husband couldn't give you."My brow rose before I could stop it. Bella's eyes cut to me, sharp, and she shook her head once. Don't. I clenched my jaw and swallowed every word I wanted to say."Micah isn't innocent," she said evenly. "I know that. But he didn't deserve what you did to him."Hiram exhaled, and then he laughed, low and amused. "Cut the crap, Bella. You

Bella's POVI didn't share a bed with Zayden. I couldn't. I knew he was pissed at me, but at the same time, the feelings were mutual.He didn't come to look for me or even ask where I was, and that is when I knew the thought of the plan had upset him so much that I wasn't even enough for him to let go of his pride.But that didn't matter; I was going ahead with the plan whether or not he approved. I wasn't just doing it for the thrill of it. He was wrong; this was my battle as much as anyone else, so I was going to do whatever it takes to save myself and my baby – our baby.The next morning, I called a meeting with every single person who was present the previous day. Except for Lucia; she had gone back home."Why have you gathered us all here, Bella?" Tomás asked, slightly frustrated. "I only see Zayden based on appointments or in emergencies, and it seems like none of that is the case here."I didn't say anything at first, then I exhaled slowly."I called you all here today to let y

The article was still open on her laptop at eleven that night.Tessa sat cross-legged on her bed, the screen glowing in front of her, and read it properly this time, line by line, the way she read everything at work.Roman Blackwood, CEO of Blackwood Hotels, has been shortlisted for Businessman of the Year 2026 after a year of unmatched growth.Expansion into three new cities. A flagship property in Chicago. A quote from an industry analyst calling him the most disciplined operator in luxury hospitality. Beneath the headline, the photograph she had been avoiding: black suit, level gaze, not a trace of warmth.She scrolled down to the last paragraph.Blackwood declined to comment on his personal life.Tessa's mouth twisted.She read the whole thing again. Then once more, looking for anything she had missed, a name, a hint, a reason it should matter to her. There was nothing. It was just an article about a man who had built an empire and had apparently never lost anything.She closed th

The wine was his third glass, and the cigarette was his fourth.Roman sat in the dark of the living room with one leg stretched out, the glass dangling from his fingers and smoke curling toward a ceiling he couldn't see. He had not smoked in years. He had started the winter after the divorce again, quietly, in rooms where no one could see, and he had never told anyone. Alec would have had a lot to say about it. He took a drag and let it out slowly.Today’s events replayed in his head. He had yelled at Sabrina. And the memory sat heavy in his chest.She had been somewhere she wasn't permitted. She had overstepped. She had stood in the one room in his hotel he had kept shut for over a year and said it felt like someone had died there.He had every right to be angry. But none of it explained why her face kept coming back to him.He didn't understand why it bothered him.He took another drink and sat in the dark for longer. The knock came at half past ten.Roman exhaled before moving t

Sabrina sat in her office long after everyone else had gone.The lights in the corridor were dimmed. The hotel was quiet. She could hear her own breathing, the faint hum of the building settling into night.She packed her things slowly. Laptop. Folder. The half-empty coffee cup she'd forgotten about hours ago. Her hands moved automatically, but her mind was somewhere else entirely.Roman's voice echoed in her head. The way he had looked and spoken to her like she was nothing. Like two good weeks meant nothing.She walked out of her office and down the corridor toward the elevator.Halfway to the lobby, she saw them.Olivia stood by the reception desk with her bag and tablet. Roman was beside her, jacket over his shoulder, reading something on her screen. They were speaking quietly.Sabrina slowed.She could have turned down another corridor. She almost did. Then she straightened her shoulders and kept walking."Olivia."Olivia looked up. "Sabrina.""I'm leaving. Good night." Sabrina s

Two weeks at Lockwood & Co. had taught Tessa three things.The first was that the coffee on the fourteenth floor was better than the coffee on the twelfth, and no one would tell her why.The second was that Garrett Lockwood did not believe in the phrase good enough. He believed in do it again, sharper this time, and I want it by five.The third was that Tessa Quinn, after a year of believing she had nothing left to give, was actually good at this.She had started to learn the rhythm of the place. The morning stand-ups. The way the senior team argued without raising their voices. The unspoken hierarchy of who spoke first and who spoke last. She had made mistakes — a client name spelt wrong in a draft, a meeting time she'd written down incorrectly — but she had owned them, fixed them, and not made them twice.By the end of her second week, people had stopped calling her the new one. That morning, she sat in the boardroom with a notebook open in front of her and her heart beating a litt

Two weeks laterBy the end of her second week, Sabrina had stopped getting lost.She knew which elevator stuck on the third floor, which receptionist needed coffee before eight, and which chef would sulk if the breakfast numbers were wrong. She knew the shape of the hotel now, and she liked it more than she had expected to.She had also learned to cross the lobby at exactly the right pace whenever Roman was in it, which was neither too fast nor too slow, and always with a folder in her hand.Last week, she thought she saw Roman smile when a client commended her for her ‘exceptional service and diligent character’ right in front of him. But like every other smile with Roman, it was short-lived, gone like it never came.But what Sabrina didn't see was Roman's office that same evening.Her first weekly report sat open on his desk, and he had read it twice.Complaint response times had dropped by half. The breakfast numbers were accurate for the first time in months. Two staff members he

Tessa kicked off her heels at the door and let out a long breath.“She lives,” her father announced from the couch, his voice rough and slightly wheezy. “Daniel, come and see. She wasn’t fired on the first day.”“I heard,” Daniel called from the kitchen. “I had money on lunchtime.”“Very funny.” Tessa dropped her bag on the table and sank into the chair across from her father. Her feet ached, her head ached, and the Q4 brand strategy deck was still glowing in her mind like a bad dream. “I survived. Barely.”“Was the boss as bad as you said?” Her father asked.“He’s worse.” She laughed tiredly. “He watched me from his car while I was having coffee, Dad. And then asked if the coffee was worth wasting his time.”“That’s how Garrett is,” Daniel said, shrugging.“Like you even know who Garrett is.” Tessa rolled her eyes at him. Her father chuckled, which turned into a cough. Tessa leaned forward, but he waved her off.“I’m fine. Go on. Did you make any friends?”“Not really,” Tessa said,