Showing results by narrator "Iggy Toma" in Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Annette Marie presents Book One in the Guild Codex: Warped series. Make sure to check out the companion series, The Guild Codex: Spellbound and The Guild Codex: Demonized, available now.

I was known as the traitor's daughter. When I was five years old, my father was tortured, branded with the letter Z, then beaten and left for dead. The grueling punishment for his crime was a reminder to all others who dared threaten the Russian's reign. I was the young girl left behind. A living piece of the traitorous puzzle the Russian leader tried so diligently to ignore - until I grew up. No longer could he deny how much my existence had always been intertwined with his. And in order to survive the life I was thrown into, I was forced to learn my place inside of it.

Lorenzo Gambini is bored. So f--king bored. Most people either annoy him or avoid him, afraid to face him. Figuratively. Literally. With his face partially disfigured, scarred, he looks every bit the monster the stories make him out to be: the notorious Scar. They say he's a sociopath. Maybe he's a psychopath. Whatever path he's on, people tend to stay far away from it. Until one day, a young woman bumps right into him - a woman just as fed up with life, but for much different reasons.

Ari had a game plan for life: shoot people. Get money. Hang out with fellow criminal friends. He saw absolutely no reason to change that plan until one dark night in Memphis, when a little girl reached out to him with pocket change and a desperate plea for him to help her. Adopting an abused little girl off the streets was, needless to say, not part of the plan. Ari had no idea what he was doing with an eight year old. He especially didn’t know how to juggle taking contracts and raising a little girl.

Once upon a time, there was a girl who stopped believing in fairytales after her innocence was stolen. Morgan Myers is tired. So damn tired. Most people either push her around or brush her off, and she's not putting up with it anymore. Determined to reclaim the life that had been stolen from her, she puts her trust in the last person she ever expected to: the notorious Scar. Morgan sees a side of him that few people seem to know - the man, not the myth. Lorenzo. And what she sees, she likes, a lot more than she thought she would.

Growing up gay in the White House hasn't been easy for Rafael Castillo. Codenamed "Valor" by the Secret Service, Rafa feels anything but brave as he hides in the closet and tries to stay below the radar in his last year of college. Once his family's out of the spotlight, he can be honest with his conservative parents about his sexuality and his dream of being a chef. It's definitely not part of Rafa's plan to get a new Secret Service agent who's a walking wet dream, but he's made it this long keeping his desires to himself.

Nico De Lucci's biting opinion of her is seared into Ivy's brain. Not that she should care. No way is she giving Nico the power to whittle away at her self-confidence. Confidence she fought so hard to achieve. Obnoxious. Mr. Satan.

Agent Kit Morris. Has a nice ring, doesn't it? It's a big step up from "wanted criminal" or "that weird con-artist guy with weirder psychic powers", both of which recently applied to me. But my promotion to MagiPol agent comes with a few drawbacks. First, supremely talented and effortlessly gorgeous Agent Lienna Shen won't agree to a dinner date with me. Second, my new assignment has pitted me against a guild with very bad taste in pets. Third, those pets are demons, and those demons want to kill me.

I left the FBI because of a personal relationship that blew up in my face. He was the one and I let him go. I knew my brother—his best friend—had feelings for him, and I couldn't get in the way of that. Now, I'm living in a small town and working for a detective agency trying to stop a serial killer before they strike again. I focused everything on my job and let my love life wither in the process. But the case is a hard one to crack and backup is called. That backup? Matthew Hale, FBI agent, behavioral analyst, and my first ever true love and real heartbreak.

Reporter Maddy Banks doesn’t realize what she’s getting into when she makes arrangements to have an anonymous interview with an assassin. Her life in Paris was safe, with a devoted if slightly smug boyfriend and a career that was slowly taking off. When she first meets the man calling himself Constantine she can’t see him and his voice is disguised. Even so, she feels a distinct, erotic pull that horrifies her.

Maybe I have an overactive imagination, but the hot guy next door totally gives off serial killer vibes. Why else would he know how long it takes to bleed out from a wound? Yeah, ok, so I asked, but it was research. Being an author definitely makes for some odd questions (someone had better clear my browser history when I die, that's all I'm saying). It's not like I'm stalking my hot neighbor or anything—there's nothing wrong with watching him out my window. Although I might have my own stalker (and not the cute harmless kind), which is kind of terrifying.

Roman thought he had accounted for every variable in the book. Success was right at the edge of their fingertips, until he realized they had walked straight into a trap. Now, the Rainbow's Seven is fractured and at their lowest point yet, defeat right around the corner. Roman and Bang Bang are locked up, leaving Wyatt in the driver's seat. Leadership never came natural to him, but Wyatt knew he had to step up if he wanted to save his partner and his friend.

Staying away is Kyou’s number one rule when it comes to protecting the sexy real-estate developer. Kyou has a routine. A system. He guards Brannigan Genovese, hacks for his family of choice, and drinks far too much caffeine for any living being. Only a few things can completely disrupt his routine to cause him trouble: Brannigan buying up real estate from the Irish Mob, Kyou’s band of brothers figuring out who Brannigan actually is, Ivan, and feelings for one Brannigan Genovese. Oddly enough, it’s the feelings that get Kyou in the most trouble.

Wyatt Hernandez is working a dead-end tech job at the Miami Science Museum, struggling to support himself and his sister. Roman Ashford is working different "jobs" and raking in the cash. But one job promises the biggest reward yet. In order to complete it, he has to assemble a crew: the Rainbow's Seven. Roman is at six out of the seven when he goes to Wyatt for help, knowing how skilled the freckle-faced man is behind a computer. He explains it's a heist that would have them traveling the world, promising riches beyond belief. If they succeed.

I've heard the whispers on campus of what a player Teddy McCallister is. Most girls on campus are vying to be the one, but guys like him don't settle down. When he overhears that my tuition has been pulled and I'm going to basically be a college reject, he makes me an offer I can't refuse: be his fake girlfriend until graduation so he can get his inheritance. It seems simple enough.

I wasn't prepared for her . . . She just got me to pay three times as much as I wanted for a company I'll buy and destroy. She knows who I am. The bratva doesn't scare her. Intelligent, brave, and unstoppable. I'll make her mine. She doesn't know it yet, but we're soulmates. I'll take her to her limits. Then give her all her heart desires.

Duke is born into the world a hired killer. Then one fateful night, the unthinkable occurs and in the most tragic of moments, a promise is made. That promise is kept for almost fifteen years, until he comes face-to-face with a target he never expects and a future he never sees coming. Kelly spends his days in a classroom, while his nights couldn't be more different. For over a decade he has watched Button Man's back from behind a computer screen. When the past collides with the present, Duke and Kelly must prevent it from destroying the future.

My printsessa thinks she's taken a regular job for a regular lawyer. She doesn't know the devils that lurk below the surface now that she's in my world. The bratva world. Innocent, sweet, and trusting. All the things I am not. All the things I never knew I wanted.

I've never let anyone into my life. At least not like her. Not until her. She sees a side of me that isn't the bratva monster everyone else believes. Now that she knows, she's mine. Mine to keep and protect. Mine to please. In return, it's her love I crave. She's my soulmate.