BLACK SHEEP
Author: Zara Cox
Series: Dark
Desires, #2
On Sale: March 14,
2017
Publisher: Forever
eBook: $4.99 USD
In
a family of cold-hearted black sheep, I, Axel Rutherford, am the blackest.
My
father has hated me since the day I was born. The feeling was mutual. In the
shady underworld that was my legacy, Cleo McCarthy became my light. She was
beautiful, passionate, and my whole world. So naturally my father had to
destroy us. First he sent me away. Next he claimed Cleo as his own. But now
I've returned, and nothing will stop me from taking back everything that is
rightfully mine.
He
was the love of my life—when my life was still my own.
We
were young enough to believe we would last forever, Axel and I. But neither of
us realized how cruel life—
and
our families—could be. Now I'm trapped in a gilded cage: desired by Axel, who
must never know the full truth, and controlled by his father, who would sooner
see me dead than free. And I wouldn't even care, except that it's no longer
only my life at stake.
Cleo
Gunpowder & Lead
For far longer
than I care to remember, I’ve held the power of life and death in my hands.
Between one breath and the next, the responsibility was thrust on me. A
permanent state I had no hope of escaping. Not if I wish to keep the one
remaining parent I have, my mother, on life-supporting machines rather than six
feet under with my dead father. Machines that stay on or could be turned off in
an instant, depending on which move I make in this deadly game of chess that is
my life.
At twenty-six,
I should be putting my actively pursued, proudly earned interior design degree
to good use. Instead it’s a front for my real vocation as Finnan Rutherford’s
companion. A career I didn’t choose but find I’m now irreversibly immersed in.
I had to learn
the game fast or risk losing my life through apathy. It’s a good thing I’m a
fast learner. I discovered that I’m an even better student with a loaded gun
against my temple.
I’ve stood over
too many graves and seen the risks Finnan takes with others’ lives not to have
learned my lesson. So now I comply. I obey. I smile through the ravaging pain
and the blood-red rage in my heart.
And I plot.
Revenge is the
only thing that sustains me. It keeps me breathing, helps me place one foot in
front of the other, and steers my compass true.
On the worst
days, I wonder if everything I’m fighting for is even worth it. Those dark days
I yearn to give in. But I can’t. Not yet. Not if I want my mother’s death and
countless others’ on my hands. Having finally accepted the responsibility of my
birthright, I’ve also accepted responsibility for those in my care. I do this
for the dozens who don’t know that me staying on my knees is the only way they
get to breathe.
Checking out
would be the cowardly. Although I haven’t ruled it out completely as a last
resort. For now, like the six prom dresses I tormented myself over choosing
from what feels like a million years ago, I’m keeping my options open. The
grim, otherworldly humor behind the sentiment almost makes me smile.
The oil-smooth
door swings open behind me, wiping away every last trace of phantom humor. In
the den where countless lives have hung in the balance, I fight the shiver that
trembles up from my ankles.
In the half
hour since my return from New York, he’s kept me waiting in this room that
reeks of violence and corruption. A deliberate act meant to establish my
weakness and his power.
“You failed me
again, my angel.” The accusation is softly voiced in a deadly rasp.
I force my
spine not to stiffen and take a breath. My gaze rests on the view of the
immaculately kept Connecticut mansion grounds and encroaching dawn for an extra
moment before I turn around.
Finnan
Rutherford, the man everyone thinks is my adopted father but is as far from a
father figure as the moon from the stars, regards me from his impressive
six-foot plus height. Despite the early hour, he’s fully dressed in a tailored
white shirt and navy three-piece suit, his Oxford pinstriped tie neatly
knotted. Not a hair out of place. Like his four sons, he’s built of strong
Irish stock with a square jaw, thick shoulders and smoky gray eyes always set
with narrow-eyed focus. For the longest time, I was terrified of that stare,
couldn’t imagine that he didn’t see into my soul and read the intentions in my heart.
But I’ve learned to contain that emotion when in his presence, much like I
contain all of my emotions these days.
I stride
forward, slowly, and pause against his desk, my own gaze direct. “I warned you
this plan would fail. You didn’t listen. Don’t blame me now that my predictions
are coming true.”
One dark
eyebrow lifts. “Are you saying you weren’t the right person to handle this?
That I was I wrong to think I could trust you to get it done?”
I swallow the
kernel of terror that threatens to break free. I know better than to answer in
the affirmative. “I’m saying I would’ve done things differently. Sending me to
him almost every night for two weeks reeks of desperation,” I say with a shrug,
even though my heart is hammering. Finnan doesn’t like his faults pointed out.
But I’m done dancing around the issue. Or subjecting myself to another long
night involved in a staring contest with Axel Rutherford.
THE
DARK DESIRES SERIES
BEAUTIFUL LIAR, #1
BLACK SHEEP, #2
WICKED S.O.B, #2.5
(August 8, 2017)
ARROGANT BASTARD,
#3 (September 12, 2017)
Zara
Cox has been writing for almost twenty-five years but it wasn't until nine
years ago that she decided to share her love of writing sexy, gritty stories
with anyone outside her close family (the over 18s anyway!).
FOLLOW
FOREVER ONLINE
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