Nine Minutes

I'm a nationally certified animal trainer running the Lion King, Caesar's final assessment. I've barely stepped into the enclosure corridor when the steel guillotine door slams down behind me. My wife's laughter crackles over the loudspeaker. "Everyone, we're doing the ultimate challenge today! We're locking the so-called number-one animal trainer in the Lion King's enclosure and taking bets on whether he wets himself in ten minutes!" Caesar crouches low and rumbles a warning. I reach for my tranquilizer gun but stop cold. The liquid isn't the right color. In a phony sing-song voice, the veterinarian, Hugh Archer, says, "Lucian, I forgot to mention, I swapped your tranquilizer darts for pepper spray so you won't hurt Caesar by mistake. "You two are so close. Just win him over with love!" I look at Caesar, his eyes bloodshot from the stimulant, and it clicks. Hugh still resents that I stopped him from touching a tiger with his bare hands a few days ago. I tune out the trash blaring over the loudspeaker, pull a remote from my pocket, and hit the button. It's the master switch for the electric fence gates around every predator enclosure in the zoo. If I don't make it out, no one does.

**Perfect Blind** *She pretended to be her blind twin. Then she watched her brother-in-law die. The killer tested her—held the bloody head five inches from her face. She didn't blink.* **But what he didn't know? She's not just pretending. She's hunting him too.** --- Jiang Yan has spent three months learning to be her blind twin sister: the walk, the voice, the empty stare. She breaks into Lin's apartment seeking a diary—evidence of a murder Yan committed ten years ago. Instead, she finds a body. A killer who knows sign language. And a "dead man" who won't stop breathing. Trapped in a locked room with two strangers and one lie, Yan must play the perfect blind woman while uncovering the truth: her sister isn't blind, her father isn't dead, and the murder she confessed to never happened. **In this family, everyone wears a mask. The only way out is to see through them all.** --- **Perfect for fans of:** - *The Silent Patient* (unreliable narrator) - *Gone Girl* (toxic sisterhood) - *Behind Her Eyes* (identity games) **Tags:** #PsychologicalThriller #TwistedFamily #BlindPOV #ShortRead #DarkSecrets --- **Word count:** 10,000 words | **Chapters:** 10 | **Reading time:** 45 minutes *Every chapter ends with a twist. The final page changes everything

Nicolette Moore. A name law enforcement agencies across the world know. Though no one's ever seen the face of the world's greatest thief and hacker, everyone knows who she is by name.Nicky. She's an absolute genius. Once upon a time she wasn't the best person in the world. When her family was struggling she made some bad choices to help them through it, but when she tried to get out she got pulled in deeper.Ryder Stevenson. He's the son of the director of the FBI, and an FBI Agent himself. He's the one who brings in Nicky to get her protection from the people chasing after her. He's also the one, who gets assigned to protect her.Neither one of them like each other, and they can't go five minutes without getting in a full blown argument. She's constantly ditching him only for him to show up later and prove to her he's not that easy to get rid of. They're stuck with each other whether they like it or not.But he doesn't know who she really is. What will he do when he finds out?An FBI Agent protecting THE Hacker. The one the FBI have been after for years...this just screams chaos.

The only audible sounds for the next few minutes were the platters of rain against the window and our heavy breathing. I saw him walk his naked ass to the bedside drawer, returning with a document in his hands. "What's this?", I questioned as I reluctantly took it from him. "A contract you need to sign to live." I grew silent as I read through the document. "If you sign that, you're going to be mine and mine alone. I'm going to have you whenever I want, and do with you whatever I please. In return, your father gets to live." *** Sofia's miserable life even darker when she is forced to be the payment for her father's debt to the most ruthless Mafia Lord in the city. Enzo had just one taste of her from a one night stand, and now he can't get her off his head. To keep her close he makes her sign a contract - BE MY SEX DOLL, AND IN RETURN, YOUR FATHER GETS TO LIVE. How long will the lustful contract hold? How will Sofia survive when she's suddenly exposed to the dark rollercoaster of Enzo's underworld? Will she keep being his private prostitute, or will there ever be an unlikely spark of love and desire?

Rocco Falcone, who is the Falcone family's Don and my so-called husband, hangs up on me for what feels like the 99th time. Having been diagnosed with leukemia, I haul my ravaged body into the family lawyer's office. "I'm here to file for a divorce," I said. … When Rocco hears about it, he barges in with my family ten minutes later. The moment he enters, he slaps me. "Did you use the emergency line just to ruin Sofia's big night? Are you out of your mind?" Lily Marone, my mom, snatches the diagnosis right out of my hand and skims through it. She chuckles dismissively. "Did you fake being sick just to get attention? How many lies have you told since you were a kid, Claire?" Sofia Moretti holds Rocco's arm with tears in her eyes. "Forgive me, Claire. I shouldn't have taken the position. Please stop hurting yourself and Rocco." I wipe the blood from my mouth and turn back to the lawyer. "I have no family left. Please hurry with the divorce paperwork. I need it settled before my cremation in three days."

I was born 5 minutes after my brother Ciranda marking the beginning of my misery. My Parents only wanted one son, instead, she got two, not two sons but a daughter, a weakling as what they always describe me to be. My twin brother Ciranda was the prince to my mother and I was what she called the Seranda. That is my name "Seranda". Seranda Copper with no title as princess or prince like my brother who was called crown prince Ciranda Copper. My parents treated me the same as the servants, they would always say “You are just like them, so why not treat you like them?” My brother had sunny golden hair, golden tan skin, bright green eyes, and a body to die for, he was the dream guy of every girl. He had the perfect body, he was the perfect child. I on the other hand had dark brown hair, dark brown eyes, pale skin, and a body not so much to die for, I looked nothing like the misses of wealthy and prestigious families like my own. I was more like the maid starved for weeks by her cruel master. What is worst than being auctioned by your brother as a whore to the human mafia and losing your purity to him. Vengeance is all I want.

Sapphire's face went covered in sweat as she saw the video. Immediately there popped a message getting her stilled in a matter of seconds. "If you want to see the truth with your own eyes, come to the paradise apartment flat number 505." She scurried to her car and asked the driver to drive, giving him the location. Opening the envelope that was delivered to her, she took out the key with trembling fingers and put it in the keyhole to twist it. The entrance unlocked and her pulse quivered her throat. Tiptoeing, she rubbed her palms to her long skirt to clean the sweat and gingerly open the bedroom door. And..... Few minutes later... "My love, I have been dying not being able to see you. Where did you go without informing anyone? If not for the jammer installed in your mobile..." Carlos shook his head and his lips landed on her neck. He bit her, sucked her there with a yearn of passion making his mark. "Do not do such crazy things." His breath was ragged after the bite, covered with desire but at the same time with a kind of control and power. Moving closer, he shifted her head up and then kissed her in wantonness, lust and most importantly in an undying love. PS This book has two parts in it. (sequel and prequel)

Love For The Wicked Book Three. In my eyes, the world is a huge sandbox created for the big boys. Girls, money, business… and I always strive to come out on top until my father gave me an ultimatum. I needed to find a wife, or I’d lose my rights to the family business. I found the perfect woman for the scheme I devised, of course. She was beautiful, feisty, the picture-perfect wife to make my father believe I was done playing games. In return, she needed a favor, the kind that takes nine months to deliver. The rules were laid out meticulously, from the no touching to fake falling in love. After a year, we would part ways amicably with no hassle, no demands, and no regrets; after all, it was all just a game. As my plan took its course, it dawned on me that playing house was a game I never should have played. She started to grow on me, from that sexy little pout to the late nightcap, the endless dirty banter, and even the fights we had. I realize I enjoyed having her around. Trouble is, how will I make her believe I am not playing games anymore? That I don’t want her to be just my contract wife, that I don’t want twelve months with her but more?

I was nine months pregnant when a man ambushed me, dragging me to the rooftop and repeatedly stabbing me. He had a grudge against my husband for replacing him. Meanwhile, my husband, a rescue team leader, was frantically coordinating efforts to stop his depressed ex-lover from burning down a rental apartment. I never called for his help. In a previous life, I had desperately called him, and he had abandoned his ex-lover to rush to my side. As a result, my child and I survived the attack, but his ex-lover perished in the fire she ignited. My husband seemed unfazed, even booking a VIP delivery room for me. Yet, on the day I was to give birth, he bound me and brutally stabbed our newborn multiple times. "You were in on this plot, weren't you?" he snarled. "Those wounds? They're nothing! You weren't even close to dying!" "Oh, you like being stabbed so much? I'll give you exactly what you want!" Suddenly, I found myself back on the day of the kidnapping. This time, I decided to let him go save his precious ex-lover.

Warning: Not a standalone book. Book 2 of The Southern Werewolves Pack “Do not grieve at my grave for I am not there.” Cohen Kingsley, the former Alpha of the Southern Werewolves Pack, returns to his pack in an effort to find the body of his mate, Mira, who died nine months ago. Accompanied by his pack, family, and friends, Cohen sets out to find the missing body of his mate. Soon, he realizes all those things he learned about his mate, he's barely scratching the surface. Mira's life was more than just being tortured and experimented by her step brother, Damien. Without knowing the consequences of involving himself and everyone into her past life, Cohen put everyone at risk. Their investigation about Mira's missing body soon comes fruitful and at the same time, trouble follows. He realizes that there is still another big threat lingering around. A bigger threat than the battle against Damien Kincaid. But, it's already too late to back out as they're all already involved deeply into the mess. With the help of his allies, old and new, they unearth the oldest secret of all. The existence of the world's oldest species that nobody knows has ever existed.