JOEL We're the cream of the Navy SEAL crop. Mercenaries who operate in the morally gray areas of the law, contracted to do what the government cannot. We're Sweetwater Security, and we've just been assigned to a babysitting gig. But when I set eyes on the brat who's to blame for this, my curiosity is piqued. She's a little liar, and I'm nothing if not a man who seeks the truth. Unfortunately for her, I see right through her thin, icy veneer to the anxiety lying like bedrock beneath her cool exterior. She's hiding something - something big. And I'm going to break her apart, piece by beautiful piece, until those walls she's worked so hard to build come crashing down, and she can no longer hide behind her false sense of security. By the time I'm done with her, she'll be nothing but shattered fragments of her being that I have the pleasure of putting back together the way I choose. She'll be mine, and I'll do with her as I please. STELLA I condemned my soul to hell at the tender age of fourteen, and I've been haunted ever since. But the only evidence of my corruption is rotting somewhere in a forest outside Detroit. And now, fifteen years later, I'm forced to face off with an arrogant mercenary who believes he can save me by digging up the skeletons I've buried deep. He thinks my torment is worth exploring for his own sick satisfaction. But he's not the only one seeking my dark depravity. He's not the only one who wishes to rip open old wounds and leave them to gape wide for the world to see. Will I be strong enough to evade the danger he's unearthing? Will I fall prey to my past and join my skeletons in hell? Or will my bodyguard be there to pick the pieces up when I finally crumble?