By
USA Today Bestselling Author
Heather Long

The mute twin.
The strange brother.
The broken one.

I’d been called so many names over the years. None of them mattered. My mirror cared more than I did. But he never treated me as less. None of them did. My brothers were the Vandals. They didn’t always understand, but they never judged and they always had my back.

I would always have theirs.

They were my life until Starling came to us. Quiet. Hurt. Broken. Those words were tossed around along with stubborn, fierce, impossible, and beautiful. I’d studied her from afar for years, but to have her close changed everything.

Trust. Acceptance. Understanding.

She colored in all my missing pieces. My other half needed her too. We all did. She fought her way back to us, continues to fight to stay, and more she fights for us.

She belongs.

My name is Rome Cleary. Starling is ours. She has always been a part of us, even when she didn’t know our names. We will always come for our own.

NOTE:
DANGEROUS RENEGADE is a full length mature dark, new adult romance with enemies-to-lovers/love-hate themes. The dark romance aspects of this tale continue. Please be aware some situations may be uncomfortable for readers. Trigger warnings can be found in the foreword should you require them. This is a reverse harem novel, meaning the main character has more than one love interest. This is book six in the series.

If you haven’t read the previous books in this series, STOP, go back and read them. This book starts where the last one left off.

Rome and Emersyn are gone, vanished, not a clue left behind. Their phones and weapons left behind prove this was efficiently done. But by who?

They had been surrounded and to keep Rome from being hurt Emersyn agrees to wear a shock collar. They demonstrate it once and Rome is very compliant. The thing is they think they have Liam. Now Rome is very effective playing Liam, they are twins after all. They are being treated well, but they are given no clue as to what they want or who is giving the orders.

Kellen is drawing Adam in to help with the operation Noel Warrick had headed up. Instead of continuing with Adam at a location few know about, he brings him to the clubhouse since finding Rome and Emersyn takes priority.

Ironically, it’s Adam who finds the key to locating them and with Lainey’s help getting them back becomes reality. But not without cost.

This is just a part of my favorite scene.

Liam was here. The bruises on his face weren’t as pronounced, but he distracted from a lot of that by stripping off his hoodie and his shirt.

When Adam entered my line of sight, my attempt at no reaction failed. Wasn’t he supposed to be lying low? Now he was here too? I started to stand, but the guy to my left— they didn’t offer names today and I hadn’t asked— gripped my arm.

“Let go of my fiancée,” Adam told him in a cold voice. “Or I’ll break that hand off.” He didn’t appear armed with anything more than attitude and disdain. Both added a depthless layer of threat. Not once in my life had I ever been afraid of Adam. Not even at his most caustic with Lainey.

Right now? I didn’t envy the men standing on either side of me. Death stood in front of me and Hell was right behind him.

Brixton approached, his gaze traveling from me to Adam and then to Liam. “Mr. O’Connell, you have a fight. I suggest you get to it.”

The look Liam sent to Brixton seemed to unsettle him more than anything else had since he’d taken us. The guard gripping my arm had loosened his hand, but it was still there.

Adam apparently, had no patience for the conversation either. He struck like an adder, his fist snapping forward. At first, I expected the blow to land on the guy’s face and for bones to crunch. Instead, Adam struck the man’s throat, leaving him gagging as he released me and doubled-over, trying to catch his breath.

“Better,” Adam stated coolly as he held that same hand out to me. He dipped his gaze like he gave me a once over. The gagging guard dropped back, but Brixton and the second guard both stood their ground.

I really hoped Adam knew what he was doing. Grasping his hand, I let him pull me to my feet as the buzzer sounded on the fight.

Shifting his posture, Adam wrapped an arm around me, but didn’t move us away. I glanced from our audience to the ring. Liam moved like a lethal predator, not even slowing as he struck the guy. A fist to his face, a kick to the guy’s knee, then around him and down, he rolled into him and slammed him against the far side of the cage.

There was definitely an audible crunching sound before the audience roared and the music blared. The bout was over.

“I hope he’s not that fast in bed,” Adam commented, and I swung my head to look at him. “Cheating on me with a three-second wonder can’t be that much fun.”

“Maybe it’s what he does in those three seconds that would blow your mind.”

The corners of his mouth twitched. “I’ll take your word for it.”

Brixton cleared his throat. “Mr. Reed, I don’t recall inviting you to this negotiation.”

“When you took my fiancée, you absolutely invited me. You’re going to release her now…”

“I’m afraid that’s not open for discussion. Mr. O’Connell—”

“— can’t do a fucking thing for you.” Adam gave him a thin smile, sharper than a knife’s blade. “He’s always been kept at arm’s length from the king because of his ties to the 82nd Street Vandals. You can pull a rat out of the gutter, but you certainly can’t dress it up or take it out into polite society.”

What the hell was he doing…?

“My fiancée might enjoy slumming it up with the vermin, but I assure you, they will never give her what she truly craves or needs.” His gaze seemed fixed on Brixton. Raw anger ripped through me. I wanted to trust him, but this was…

Then I saw Lainey. With Milo.

Her lips were flattened into a thin line, and her eyes blazed. All the sounds around us seemed to fade. The roar of the crowd, the music, the slapping of skin— both the couples fucking away in some of the corners and the fresh fight in the arena.

“O’Connell is a pretender. You want access, you need an actual Bishop.”

Brixton quirked an eyebrow. “That would be you?”

“For more than five years. I know far more than the king would probably like to admit.”

“And you’re just going to help us? Just like that?” The scoff in Brixton’s voice didn’t have to be imagined. I wanted to move away from Adam, but he kept his arm firmly around me.

“No, not just like that.” Adam paused for a beat then glanced down at me. “For her. The one decent light in all of this. She doesn’t come from a family of whores, thieves, or murderers. She certainly doesn’t belong here… not getting this filth on her.”

“Subtle, Mr. Reed,” Brixton said in a clipped tone. “But bargaining for your fiancée—” He managed to make the word sound like slut, impressive. “That doesn’t lend much weight to your offer.”

“No?” Adam traced his fingers against my bare arm. “I owe the king very little and O’Connell a small amount, and like I said… my fiancée here.”

If he said my fiancée one more time…

“Reed,” Liam said in a harsh voice.

“Hush, O’Connell, the grownups are talking.” He didn’t even look at Liam. “Be grateful I’m not castrating you for putting your dick in her. She seems happy enough with it… for now.”

I was so utterly fucking lost.

Brixton’s frown deepened.

“As I was saying,” Adam continued, every word enunciated with a kind of flawless execution of those who were trained from birth to monitor every syllable that passed through their lips. It was both arrogant, unyielding, and a raw challenge. “You need a Bishop. You need someone with access and a personal stake. The king wanted me dead. So I owe him no loyalties.”

What was happening right now?

“This involves O’Connell?”

Adam gave a shrug. “He could have killed me. He didn’t. That buys him forgiveness for a lot.”

“And apparently her bed.” Distrust and dismissiveness were combined in Brixton’s tone.

“Not your concern.” Adam gave me a squeeze. “Here is what I’m prepared to offer you. Release her and O’Connell— I’ll stay in her place.”

I snapped my head to look at him. “Adam—”

He dropped a kiss on my lips that startled me enough to shut me up. “Behave,” he instructed. “You can take your lover and go. That’s all you need to do right now. Be glad I’m letting you have him.”

The automatic urge to slap him warred with the need to shake him, and I could barely do either with my wrists in cuffs.

Without taking his gaze off me or relaxing his grip, Adam said, “Do we have an agreement?”

Brixton hummed a sound. “This is very convenient.”

“Not really,” Adam stated as he lifted his head. “At this point, there are a half-dozen weapons fixed on you. It will be messy, cost quite a bit to clean it up, but you can agree— perhaps even get something out of the deal.”

“Or?” Their captor asked in an inquiring tone that suggested he didn’t quite believe him.

“Or you can die… like your man there.” He nodded, and I turned to look almost as swiftly as Brixton did.

The guard who’d been choking was lying on the ground, not moving. Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth, and more… was spreading on the floor beneath him.

How…?

“Decision? I’d really like to get my fiancée home.” The possessiveness every single time he said that seemed to be delivered home on the point of a blade. I swore he was inflicting it on Lainey.

It made me hate him a little, even if the reason for it seemed unrelated.

Maybe.

Brixton’s phone rang, and it solidified what Rome and I had thought. He wasn’t the one in charge. Answering it, he spared me a look, then past us to Liam. Noise from around us rushed in, shouts from the gaming tables, more sounds of fights in the ring.

The conversation wasn’t a long one. “Very well. Uncuff her. You will take her place, which means you get the shock collar as well. If anyone tries to interfere with us leaving, she will be the first target to go down. You are not the only one with resources here.”

That was it?

“So we understand, all of you will die if so much as a hair on her head is disturbed.” They sounded like they were discussing the weather and it was insane. Adam couldn’t be—

“Ow,” I snapped as the guy trying to take off the handcuffs gripped my arm to turn me to him. A second later, he was on the ground screaming, following a sickening crunch of his arm bending at an unnatural angle.

Keys in hand, Liam faced us and unlocked the handcuffs. “The collar now,” he ordered with a glare at Brixton.

“Mr. O’Connell,” Brixton said. “I haven’t agreed to let you go.”

“I haven’t agreed to not kill you either,” Liam countered.
Heather Long. Dangerous Renegade (Kindle Locations 1819-1890).

With Emersyn and Rome back in the fold, the renovation of the clubhouse resumes in full force. Doc continues PT with her and now Jasper.

Liam continues trying to get information on this new entity. The thing is they really knew nothing about Liam or Emersyn for that matter. There’s also the ‘Rats’ that need to be dealt with.

There is so much going on and so much information without substance, leading to a very surprising ending. I truly didn’t see any of this coming.

5 Contented Purrs for Heather!

Heather Long

USA Today bestselling author, Heather Long, likes long walks in the park, science fiction, superheroes, Marines, and men who aren’t douche bags. Her books are filled with heroes and heroines tangled in romance as hot as Texas in the summertime.

From paranormal historical westerns to contemporary military romance, Heather might switch genres, but one thing is true in all of her stories–her characters drive the books.

When she’s not wrangling her menagerie of animals, she devotes her time to family and friends she considers family. She believes if you like your heroes so real you could lick the grit off their chest, and your heroines so likable, you’re sure you’ve been friends with women just like them, you’ll enjoy her worlds as much as she does.