Helen West Casebook Novels & Stories

The wheat has yet to ripen when my Grandma, Julia Simmon, appears to me in a dream. "There will be a plague of locusts in the autumn. Sell off the produce and raise fish to ensure the family has income." I, Vanessa West, convince my parents to harvest the wheat for grain and feed before irrigating the fields to raise fish. Then, a severe drought strikes and the fish die, leaving my family drowning in debt. We're at a loss to know what to do. Then, Grandma appears in my dreams again. "There are gold bars buried under the oak tree on the hill at our old home. Selling them will sort out our debts and leave you with money to spare." After telling my father, Alan West, this, he digs up a whole crate of white powder. The police happen to be staking out the area. They have him arrested, thinking that he means to buy the drugs. For the amount he gets caught with, he faces life imprisonment. My mother, Hannah Smith, is unable to bear the sight of this and faints on the spot. Again, Grandma appears to me in a dream and offers guidance. "Dr. Hank Vance at Central Hospital can cure her. If you don't hurry, she'll be in danger!" Desperate to save my mother, I threaten Dr. Vance with my life, and he agrees to operate on her. Then, my boyfriend gets into a car accident and urgently needs treatment. However, he succumbs to his injuries due to my asking for Dr. Vance. In the meantime, Mom doesn't receive treatment in time. As she is dying, Mom weeps, asking me why I ruined the entire family. Then, she passes away on the operating table. My boyfriend's parents think I am responsible for their son's death, and they stab me 18 times. While being rushed to the emergency room, I see Grandma again. However, she is grinning maliciously as she plunges a knife into my heart, mimicking the stabs I got from real life and giving me a ruptured heart. I died without understanding why Grandma's appearances led to my family's end. I open my eyes and find out that I've returned to the day Grandma told me to sell our crops.

When I'm eight months pregnant, my husband, Levi West, becomes a donor to help his ex-girlfriend get pregnant. He even brings her and their illegitimate child home, wanting me to serve them. I refuse, and he calls me inhumane. "Audie's lost her husband—what's so bad about her wanting to have a child? You're a woman, too! How can you be so cruel?" I leave the house in anger, but Levi doesn't care. "Where can a country girl like you go when you're so heavily pregnant? You're going to come back and beg me to take you in again!" I head to the hospital to get an abortion. Then, I return to the countryside and rear pigs with my grandmother. Later, when Levi sees my flat belly and asks to see our child, I throw a handful of ashes in his face. "There you go. It's all there."

The day before the semester began, my childhood friend Daniel Carter asked if he could borrow my private jet. Thinking he'd finally changed his ways, I agreed without a second thought. A moment later, he transferred a single dollar, calling it rent because he couldn't stand the thought of freeloading. The quirky amount said more than words ever could. I smiled and accepted it. On the first day of school, I kept things low-key, taking a cab back to campus. But when I arrived, there it was, my private jet parked right in the middle of the quad. The jet had been decked out in bubblegum pink, and students crowded around, their eyes shining with envy. My heart leapt. For once, I thought Daniel had finally figured it out. Beaming, I braced myself for his surprise. But as I drew closer, my smile froze. Sitting barefoot in the pilot's seat, my seat, was Clara West, the campus' queen bee.

Benedict Cole’s undercover mission had failed. Only his twin brother, David Cole, returned. I was devastated, nearly driven to madness over losing my husband. Holding Benedict’s police badge, I tried to slit my wrists nine times, but I was always rescued just in time. As my consciousness faded on my tenth attempt, I overheard a conversation between my mother-in-law, Helen, and David. “El has tried to commit suicide for you ten times now. How long are you going to keep this act up? This woman is head over heels for you. Just stop lying to her already!” David’s expression hardened as he flatly refused. “David took a bullet for me. It is only right that I take care of his wife.” “El’s from the countryside. She’s tough. Once Melissa becomes pregnant and has a child to live for, only then can I reveal that I am actually Benedict.” The bathtub was dyed red with my blood, but the pain in my heart was far greater than the sting of my wound. It turned out that it had all been a lie, a deception meant only for me. My grief-stricken suicide attempts for love were nothing short of a clown’s tragicomedy.

I was on vacation with my mother at our country vineyard when a message arrived from Ava, my husband's personal secretary. He was the new Don of the Falcone family. The photo showed a woman, bruised and naked, curled up on the floor of a cold cellar. It was followed by a voice message, her tone arrogant: "Helen, is this what you peasants do? Claw your way out of the mud just to leech off the Don?" "Don Lorenzo just acquired this estate, and you have the nerve to let your blind, ill-mannered mother wander in here to freeload? As the Don's personal secretary, it's my job to uphold the Falcone family's dignity." "This is the price for trespassing on the Don's estate!" I froze, my eyes lifting to the other side of the long table where my mother was sipping her red wine, perfectly safe. I zoomed in on the photo. The moment I saw the details, my heart seized. On a pale hand was a familiar ring. It was the heirloom the Falcone Madre never took off. I immediately dialed Ava's number. "Ava, are you insane? That's Lorenzo's mother!" A careless, almost flirtatious laugh came from the other end of the line. "The Don may consider you his property, but he never agreed to take in your dirt-poor family."

"This brutally romantic mafia love story will grip you!" ~#1 New York Times bestselling author Helen Hardt Arranged-marriage, age-gap, Mafia/cartel romance Capo to the Luciano Famiglia was my birthright. The cruelty needed to succeed in this life has been beaten into me since I was a young boy. My father, Vincent Luciano, taught by example and with the slap of his hand. My independent streak took me down paths my father would never have gone. With our enemies gaining strength, it is my idea to attempt an alliance with an unlikely bedfellow. The Roríguez Cartel and the Luciano Famiglia are improbable partners, yet even Vincent Luciano can’t deny the possible benefits. The only way to solidify the deal is for me to marry Catalina Ruiz, the eldest daughter of Andres Ruiz, a top lieutenant in the Roríguez Cartel. Catalina is young, beautiful, and thinks she understands the path she is being forced to follow. There is no way for her to know the monster she is about to wed. A man doesn’t become a made man at thirteen if he is capable of love. That emotion is beyond my scope of expertise. Saving the famiglia is my goal. And once this alliance is made, ours will be but the first of the brutal vows exchanged. Have you been Aleatha’d?

Diane Jacobs has survived her life by learning how not to react. Raised in a family where obedience is mistaken for grace and silence is rewarded, Diane moves through the world quietly observant, restrained, invisible by design. Control has always belonged to other people: her father, her family, society’s expectations. Then Eddie West notices her. Their first collision isn’t physical. It’s psychological. In a room full of people, Eddie makes a spectacle not of love, but of dominance using another woman to send Diane a message she never consented to receive. From that moment on, Diane is no longer unseen. When Diane unknowingly steps into Eddie’s world as his Personal Assistant, the power imbalance becomes unavoidable. Eddie is controlled, obsessive, and deeply intentional. He does nothing without purpose including hiring her. What begins as professional proximity becomes a slow, suffocating game of awareness, restraint, and unspoken desire. Eddie never crosses a line openly. He doesn’t need to. His control is in silence, implication, and patience.

All Apple LeRoux wants is true love. A human girl from a small town, she grew up knowing that werewolves and other supernaturals are dangerous. She wasn't expecting to fall for one. When Apple leaves her abusive family to move to Crescent City, she finds herself encountering all sorts of new experiences in a town where supernaturals mingle with the common population, and a human is easy prey. During an eventful job search, a twist of fate has Apple unknowingly arriving at Sterling Incorporated, the biggest werewolf pack on the West Coast. Hoping to get an internship or entry-level job, she is mistaken to be the Alpha's new Rental Luna, leading to problems of a different sort when she meets Alpha Sylvester. But there is more to her story than she knows. Her mother was keeping secrets of her own, secrets which will come out and change Apple's life forever. Will Apple and Sylvester find their happily ever after? Or will a life full of danger and mystery tear them apart?

“I have failed you as a mate and as your leader, Anna.” He cried out in pain, his wolf restlessly wailing, reaching the surface, and running back once realizing that nothing had changed. “But this worthless husband of yours swear by this day to avenge your death in the most brutal way possible. And after that, I’ll come meet you wherever you may be.” ~ After brutally losing his mate in a planned rogue attack, Hunter, the Alpha, and controller of one of the most powerful Packs in all of the East and West becomes the terror he promised the corpse of his late mate to be. Things keep going as planned and he is very close to attaining the werewolf king position that would enable him wipe out everyone that contributed to his mate’s death, when by the engineering of the Moon Goddess, he meets orphaned and abused Annable who is surprisingly the exact replica of his late mate, the worse fact is that she is in love with someone else. Now, his well-calculated plan is suddenly bundled with uncertainty, jealousy, a love triangle, and the desire to live and love.

Sebastian, Knox, Damien and a host of other names he has been called over centuries but only one stuck, the name Grey. Walking the earth an alpha werewolf with the fire of the sun flowing through his veins. His Immortal life, devoid of meaning till the day he met the white wolf running through the woods, his mate, Lana. She gave him a life and together they built the great pack of the west a sanctuary for lone wolves. Demons of the underworld carried rumors of a power capable of destroying everything it touches. Erebus the master of the underworld learnt of his existence, A werewolf weilding power that could destroy even him. Erebus sent his most loyal servant with a charge to destroy the alpha. They attacked, tearing apart the whole pack in an attempt to destroy him. He survived but his pack didn't, Lana didn't, leaving him all alone once again. He swore on the ground of his fallen pack to destroy Erebus the god of darkness. Little did he know that fate had other plans for him...