Zeus Townsend has always held it together for his brothers. Being the oldest of four, Zeus was not only their older brother, but a father figure after the jailhouse murder of their father nearly fifteen years ago. However, with the Assan Brothers gone for good, Zeus is able to start building the life he sacrificed for the sake of holding his family down. Three years later, he has done exactly that: his position as connect has brought him wealth, he has the woman of his dreams by his side, and for the first time since he was younger, he's happy. Unfortunately for the eldest Townsend Brother, happiness can only be short lived. In a twist of events, Zeus’ blissful existence is ruined by a secret that was supposed to be taken to the grave. Forced to move on without the love of his life, Zeus is convinced that he’ll never love again until he meets the mysterious Quincy Burton. She's the best thing he never knew he needed, yet their connection goes deeper than between the sheets. She's an Assan Sister and while her intentions are pure, her bloodline isn’t. While Zeus focuses on starting over, his brother, Hasani, and sister-in-law, Gia, are newlyweds maneuvering marital problems made for veteran unions. When it comes to remaining faithful to his fiancée, Hasani Townsend has come a long way from the remorseless adulterer he once was. Too bad for him, his history is known to someone who threatens to not only take down his family, but ruin his marriage before it even begins. One drunken night at his bachelor party is the first nail in the coffin of their dying marriage. Two fatal gunshots change the trajectory of their entire relationship, placing a deep crack in an already shaky foundation. Three years of relationship building is destroyed at a discovery made by Hasani, causing him to wonder if he wasn’t the only one sneaking and creeping. However, for all of their marital lows, Hasani and Gia remain connected through their ability to push aside their issues and be the rock each other needs when life gets tough. But with all of their secrets and lies coming out, Hasani has to decide whether he's going to tough it out and remain with the woman he loves, or if it’s best to walk away. Born into the Luchesi Crime Family, Gianna Luchesi was raised with access to guns, money, and power. Instead of relying on her family name to create her legacy, Gia goes to medical school and uses her position as a front for her real job, which is running a lucrative arms business from New York City. While her position as an arms dealer brings her joy, Gia is constantly at odds with Hasani when it comes to her future. Hasani is supportive in every way possible, but aside from his past transgressions, he wants her to play it safe when the life she has chosen for herself is anything but. However, when an enemy targeting the Townsend Brothers places a bullseye on her back, Gia has no choice but to insert herself and everyone bearing her notorious last name into a war for the ages. Gia remains strong on the business side despite her personal life suffering. Her marriage to Hasani has taken several blows over a short amount of time due to enemies who wish to see her suffer, but when Gia discovers that the fatal blow was delivered by someone who was supposed to have her back, Gia has to save her marriage before Hasani throws in the towel. When a Heartless Thug Holds Me Close 4, a true love story, is filled with earth shattering secrets, volatile lies, and a reminder that like ghosts, real grudges never die.

“I need to make sure Yara’s really for me. She’s seen the good, had my back through the bad, and I need to know if she’ll stick around for the ugly.” Still reeling from Quade’s near-death experience, Yara handles being the girlfriend of a savage with kid gloves. She showers Quade with the affection he’s been missing while in exchange he gives her the loyalty she’s always craved. Fair exchange quickly becomes robbery when Quade demands more from Yara than she’s able to give, and sends her straight back to the dark times of her childhood. The monsters that haunted Yara’s childhood have nothing on Quade’s wild side, a side of him he’s always been able to suppress but never tame. When their relationship takes a devastating turn, Yara has to decide whether or not love will be enough to salvage a relationship that’s falling apart by the seams. Quade has always lived life recklessly, with his acceptance and encouragement of death a rare trait, but in the eye of the very thing he’s always welcomed with open arms, he finds a new reason to live for: Yara. Her beauty, kind heart, and smart mouth have given him a new reason to live, and only as he accepts it his life is put on the line. Yara helps nurse him back to health, which proves to be a high point in their relationship until they reach the ultimate low. Quade’s inner demons come out to play, demons that he hasn’t relived since he lost the first woman to ever love him unconditionally—his mother. With his actions speaking louder than his words, Quade has to fight one of the toughest battles of his life with an enemy equally as lethal as he is. If he loses, he stands to lose the very woman to make him breathe again. Known jokingly to everyone as an aspiring Griselda Blanco, Cash starts making serious money moves. She’s got a distributor in her pocket, her clientele is expanding, and the styling business she’s been dreaming of is nearly ready to launch. Cash goes from being a kept woman to keeping up with the Joneses, and for everything she has, only one thing is missing: a relationship with Savion Townsend. In order to keep their situationship thriving, Cash piles one lie on top of the other to the point where she doesn’t know what the truth is anymore. And once those money moves turn bloody, Cash finds out exactly how ruthless the game can be when she goes from being the one holding the gun to the one staring down the barrel of it. The second installment of When a Heartless Thug Holds Me Close weaves a story of being stuck on the wrong side of love. Will Quade be able to mend his relationship with Yara? Can Cash command the game and Savion’s heart? And most importantly, when given the opportunity to start over with a man that offers everything Quade has without the baggage will Yara accept, or does her love for Quade run deeper than she imagined?

The cards have fallen where they may and in the final installment of When a Heartless Thug Holds Me Close, this true love story may come to a tragic ending if the Townsend Brothers are unable to dead their beef with the Assan Brothers once and for all. The confidence Yara restored in herself has come under fire after Ghetto’s vicious attack on her, leaving her body as well as her mind under duress. However, she doesn’t have to fight this uphill battle by herself because Quade is there for her, kissing her scars and healing old wounds that threatened to reopen. With the budding romance between her and Quade being placed in jeopardy, Yara returns the favor by becoming Quade’s solace throughout a war for the books. Her loyalty to Quade is enough to keep him from teetering over the edge, but when tragedy strikes the Townsend Brothers, Yara’s love might not be enough to tame Quade’s wild ways. Quade Townsend has always kissed death on the lips, played a game of tug-of-war with it, and thinks of it as a badge of honor to end his premature life. Fighting against the Assan Brothers has made him a friend of it as he gifts casualties of war over as fast as his deadly trigger finger can allow. But what happens when death stakes a claim to someone he loves and in return promises to return back for seconds after a bullseye has been planted on another? Quade finds himself trapped between guarding his life so he could have a future with Yara and sacrificing it for the sake of family. After making the decision with a heavy heart, Quade discovers that a new life is on the line and even if he manages to save it, his days with Yara will certainly be numbered. After being entangled in a bed of lies, Cash wakes up to the reality that her relationship with Savion is no longer salvageable. Her fears are confirmed after the betrayed Townsend Brother teaches her a hard lesson on the game she's never likely to forget. Cash quickly falls out of love with the game as she had once fell in love with it, vowing to go on the straight and narrow to pursue her styling business. She's finally achieved inner happiness at the thought of a life filled with normalcy when Savion returned offering her the opportunity of a lifetime. Unbeknownst to Cash, this deal comes with the return of an old flame that never quite ignited. Torn between a promising future with Mr. Right and her undeniable feelings for a heartless thug, Cash has to decide if she's going to go with her head or her heart.

"After watching my mother be beaten in the name of love, I always dreamed of having my own perfect love story void of pain. One where my very own Prince Charming would sweep me off of my feet. And then I met Quade, who showed me that love should be everything but perfect.” Yara Samuels has experienced her fair share of hurt in life. Growing up in a home ridden with domestic violence, Yara was taught at a young age that if it isn’t painful, then it isn’t love. It takes watching her mother be beaten to death by her stepfather for young Yara to learn that love taps shouldn’t send you to the grave. All grown up, she searches for a man who knows how to love a woman with his heart and not his fists. After years of looking, Yara believes that she finds the embodiment of this philosophy in her boyfriend, Amir, until she discovers that while he may provide physical peace, the mental isn’t there. With her sense of self-worth challenged, Yara is content with loving Amir when Quade comes hurtling into her life. The youngest of the infamous Townsend Brothers, Quade isn’t your run-of-the-mill hustler. A walking oxymoron, Quade has a baby face with a heart bred cold courtesy of the streets. Quade has been given the gift of sticky fingers, a trap king philosophy, and a trigger finger that hasn’t missed a target yet. When his aim leads him straight into the path of Yara while in the midst of a hit, Quade's heart melts and he's drawn to the mysterious Yara, who for some reason unbeknownst to him, can't stand him. Never one to back down from a challenge, Quade pursues Yara with the same recklessness that he handles business, and it makes for the start of a memorable love affair. Beneath her expensive clothing and designer handbags, Yara's best friend, Cashmere, is a woman tired of being kept at the expense of her sanity. While putting on a brave face for the world, Cash hides her frustration with her boyfriend behind her Chanel sunglasses. There's nothing picture perfect about the couple, and with each of Vito’s antics worse than the last, Cash finds herself seeking a backup plan in the event that her days of being a hustler’s princess are cut short. When Cash is greeted with an opportunity to secure the bag, she jumps at it immediately and finds herself on the path to becoming the queenpin that the streets have been begging for. What's standing in her way? Savion Townsend. Cash has got it bad for one of the Townsend Brothers, but between forming her own empire and her complicated relationship with Vito, Cash has to decide if she's willing to risk it all in the name of love.

**** THIS IS A COMPLETE NOVEL! NO SEQUEL, NO CLIFF-HANGER! *** When Alex’s daughter’s father, Q, is murdered in cold blood, Alex is left picking up the shattered pieces of her life. Instead of crumbling like she has in the past, Alex decides to avenge him by getting revenge on Ahab Miller, the infamous club owner. She plans her revenge by any means necessary even if it means exploiting one of her closest friends, Shalaya, a woman with nothing to lose. With not a penny to her name and her rent almost past due, Shalaya Adams is in a situation no single mother wants to find herself in: crashing and burning for the enjoyment of her son's father, Mar, who wants nothing more than to gain custody of their son and whisk him away to another happily ever after that doesn't involve her. Her luck takes a turn for the better when she meets a handsome stranger who's looking for a fresh start. Everything starts to go her way when she gets a strange request from her best friend, Alex, asking her to date Ahab Miller. What Shalaya expects to be climbing into bed with a cold-hearted monster turns into a sensual love affair unlike any other. But what happens when Ahab isn't the monster Alex has made him out to be? Shalaya is forced to make the decision of a lifetime. Will her allegiance remain to Alex or will she turn her loyalties to Ahab and end up between his sheets?

Still battling the grief of losing her parents, Heart is one of the youngest kingpins running the streets and she uses her power to start a war with Spade. Just like her name, Heart only sees red as she tears through the streets knocking down Spade’s pawns like only a real queen would. However, with her soldiers dropping left and right, Heart is forced to take on an unlikely ally: her long lost cousin, Ace. Cunning and mysterious, Ace takes on a new identity and finds himself breaking bread with Spade, his father and enemy. The road to hell isn’t easy, but he soon discovers that in Spade’s world it’s called Headquarters, a large building in the middle of the hood holding the secrets to Spade’s organization. Forced to wear two faces, Ace teeters the blurred lines of being the faithful soldier and the scorned son. Bitter and angered by her sudden replacement, Diamond’s eyes are only set on revenge: revenge for the embarrassment of being tossed aside by Spade, revenge for being replaced with someone younger and prettier, and most importantly, revenge for her love being rejected by Spade. With a new alliance formed with King and Ace, Diamond may have the key to Spade’s undoing or possibly the last piece of her undoing. Once one of the most respected lieutenants in the hood, King has been exiled and not only has his pride been stolen from him, but a piece of him that can't be replaced. As King comes to term with this sudden life change, he wonders if his condition will ruin any chance he had of reuniting with Heart or will he be able to his queen rule the streets as her king? Once divided by separate goals, Heart, King, Diamond and Ace have now come together to right the wrongs caused by the king of the streets, Spade. Will they be able to overthrow Spade or will he defeat them again and this time have no mercy?

Life has been anything but easy for twenty-year-old Nubia Monroe. After witnessing her parents’ execution at her tenth birthday party, Nubia hasn’t been the same. The lavish lifestyle that came with being the daughter of the notorious Apollo Monroe was snatched from under her feet, forcing her to become the foster child her evil aunt never wanted. After years of dealing with her uncle’s hand problem, Nubia goes from a plaything to a punching bag for her husband, Vincent. Believing that Vincent is the best thing to happen in her life since the death of her parents, Nubia suffers in silence until she meets Maine. A notorious hustler by day and ruthless hustler by night, Jermaine “Maine” Emerson is as savage as they come. Born a child soldier in Sierra Leone, Maine was given the opportunity for a new life in America working as a hitta for Sampson, a distributor for the Solares Cartel and an infamous gangsta known for his heartless antics. Maine’s first mission: kill Apollo Monroe’s family, including his daughter. With a heart made of steel, Maine slaughters her family relentlessly, but there is something about ten-year-old Nubia that gives fifteen-year-old Maine pause. He spares her life, and the two never cross paths again until Maine catches Nubia being beaten on the street by her husband. Although he has everything he could ask for—money, cars, and his pick of women—Maine is drawn to the broken Nubia and the mystery she brings. As he tries to repair her broken spirit, he has no idea that he's responsible for it. In the middle of Nubia and Maine's battle of the hearts, is Nubia’s best friend, Shahani. After losing the love of her life in a gunfight, the kept Shahani takes refuge on a pole, rebuilding her life one dance at a time. She meets the suave and charismatic Donovan, who takes her from dancing and introduces her to the world of pimping. While Donovan is focused on building his empire, Shahani has other dreams in mind, one of which is opening her own hair salon. She's content with building with Donovan until a chance encounter with Sampson leaves her sleeping with the enemy. Again.