Before the bar, before Bunny, before the basement that became a sanctuary—there was the war that broke him.
Matt was a Special Forces operator on his final mission: extract a trafficking victim from a compound deep in hostile territory. The intel was solid. The team was elite. The extraction should have been clean.
It wasn't.
He came home with scars that didn't show and the cold knowledge that he was exactly the kind of monster he'd spent his career hunting. The bar was supposed to be a fresh start—a quiet place to pour drinks and forget. He named it The Lost Hours for all the time he couldn't get back.
But the past doesn't let go that easily. And years later, when a blood-soaked woman with hollow eyes walks through his door asking for a job, he'll recognize her immediately. Not because he's seen her before—but because he's seen himself.
The war never ended. He just found somewhere quiet to wait it out.
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Matt was a Special Forces operator on his final mission: extract a trafficking victim from a compound deep in hostile territory. The intel was solid. The team was elite. The extraction should have been clean.
It wasn't.
He came home with scars that didn't show and the cold knowledge that he was exactly the kind of monster he'd spent his career hunting. The bar was supposed to be a fresh start—a quiet place to pour drinks and forget. He named it The Lost Hours for all the time he couldn't get back.
But the past doesn't let go that easily. And years later, when a blood-soaked woman with hollow eyes walks through his door asking for a job, he'll recognize her immediately. Not because he's seen her before—but because he's seen himself.
The war never ended. He just found somewhere quiet to wait it out.
Genre: Romantic Suspense