Justice served. Honor restored. Team reunited. After a long battle to discover the truth, the men and women of Hard Ink have a lot to celebrate, especially the wedding of two of their own—Nick Rixey and Becca Merritt, whose hard-fought love deserves a happy ending.

As Nick and the team shift from crisis mode to building their new security consulting firm, Becca heads back to work at the ER. But amid the everyday chaos of demanding jobs and their upcoming nuptials, an old menace they thought long gone reemerges, threatening the peace they’ve only just found.

Now, for one last time, Nick and Becca must fight for their always and forever, because they know that when true love overcomes all the odds it lasts hard ever after.

Laura’s readers voted for who would have their wedding in this book. Nick and Becca won even though we wanted all of them to get married in this one.

Becca has to return to work and Nick doesn’t want to let her go. They have been together everyday for so long that normal, just doesn’t seem normal anymore. Before she starts her day she asks Nick to tattoo her after work. Nick takes that ball and runs with it, she is getting more than just a tattoo that night.

Memories of Tyrell Woodson’s attempt to abduct her hit her as she was leaving for the day. A tall, bald nursing assistant named Ben startled her. Not Woodson, just bald like him, no tattoos. She was okay. He wasn’t there.

Nick’s proposal had me in tears, as did seeing all the Hard Ink gang together again, celebrating something that means a future.

I laughed when the choose the venue for the wedding with a date just three weeks away, you know what people are going to think about that.

Nothing every comes easy for any of these wonderful folks. So I got really concerned when Becca started seeing and not seeing Woodson. Recognizing her own PTSD from that incident was a big step forward, but was it only that? One of the scariest and emotional scenes is in the excerpt below.

I did a lot of crying in this one as well as laugh at the antics of planning a wedding on short notice. I hate that this is the last of the Hard Ink books. I love this crew Beckett, Marz, Shane, Easy, Charlie, Jeremy, Kat, Emily, Sara, Jenna and of course Nick and Becca. There are a few surprises in store for us as well, thank you Laura!

The unfailing love and devotion to each other. The dedication of the team, it’s all there. Family.

I hope we will see them visit in Laura’s new series with the Raven’s MC coming soon.

5 Contented Purrs for Laura!

Nick nailed Becca with a stare. As he watched, she made a valiant effort to button up just how upset she was, and that made him worry even more. He knelt down in front of her, his hands on her knees. “What’s going on?” She shook her head, and his heart fucking broke as he saw her struggle to find her voice and hold back the tears.

Kat grasped something from Becca’s lap and held it out to him. “Someone left this in front of Becca’s locker at work today.”

Frowning, Nick accepted the small, floppy, black-and-brown stuffed animal into his hand. He guessed it was supposed to be a German shepherd, and the damn thing was missing a leg. It looked like someone had cut the back leg off and stapled the opening closed. What the hell?

“Look at the neck, Nick,” Kat said, her voice serious.

He flipped it around, and that was when he noticed that the animal was so floppy because the head was connected to the body only by a thin strip of material along the back. He might not have thought much about that if someone hadn’t gone to the trouble of spray painting the torn opening red. As if the neck had been slit. “Sonofabitch,” he said, hot prickles running down his back. “Talk to me, Sunshine.”

She heaved a deep breath. “I found it at the end of my shift,” she said. “I went to get my stuff, and this was sitting upright on the floor in front of my locker. I thought someone had left me a present until . . .”

“This is fucking twisted,” Kat bit out.

The words echoed Nick’s own thoughts. Twisted and threatening. The removed leg was clearly meant to communicate that the person knew Becca’s dog had only three legs, which made the threat personal and specific.

“Did you talk to security about this?” he asked, making sure to keep his voice even.

Becca shook her head. “I was so freaked out, I just wanted to get out of there.”

“I didn’t know about this until just now, or I would’ve brought us home earlier,” Kat said.

“I’m sorry,” Becca said, turning to Nick’s sister. “I just wanted to forget about it for a few hours.”

“I know,” Kat said. “You don’t have to apologize, but I’m worried about this.”

Nick nodded. “Can you think of anyone at the hospital who would do this? Who would have a problem with you?”

Laura Kaye

Laura is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of over twenty books in contemporary and paranormal romance and romantic suspense, including the Hard Ink and upcoming Raven Riders series. Growing up, Laura’s large extended family believed in the supernatural, and family lore involving angels, ghosts, and evil-eye curses cemented in Laura a life-long fascination with storytelling and all things paranormal. She lives in Maryland with her husband, two daughters, and cute-but-bad dog, and appreciates her view of the Chesapeake Bay every day.