I shouldn't have agreed to this. What was I thinking? Appearing on a local news show? Just because something happened to me? But here I am. And then I walked past his room. He's a giant—no softness, all muscle. And a rich beard that made me want to rub myself all over it. He made me see stars, literally, because the second time I saw him, I tripped. Or I would've, but he caught me, and the cameras were rolling. Soon, that clip will be trending because he wasn't just another guest on the show. He's Brett Broudou, the Kings' newest football star.

I shouldn't have remembered him. He was just a guy who walked through a restaurant. I didn't know his name. We never made eye contact. There was no connection between us at all. But I could feel him. The tingle down my spine. The command in his presence. The snap of tension in the air around him. That was the first time I saw him, and I was captivated.

Pine River was supposed to be a new start for me. And it was, especially attending school with my three overprotective cousins, who were the triplets at the top of the social hierarchy. Except they weren’t alone there, and the first day when I came to school, I saw him. Scout Raiden. Tall. Lean. Tattooed. Mesmerizing. He was a golden god with dark and piercing eyes—looking like he wanted to eat me up. The feeling was mutual, and that was a problem.

He told me to go away. I did. I followed his instructions. I left with the new family. They were from the right side of the tracks, and I tried to become one of them. I really did, but I failed. When someone died, someone that I loved, I couldn’t keep pretending everything was fine. It wasn’t. This privileged world he gave me wasn’t privileged. There were problems. He just never told me that he created them, that he had sent me into a world he set up for me. It was all a lie, but it was lie that I was going to expose. Or I would die trying.

All of Dale's brothers help with their bounty hunting business, all except her. Wanting out of that life, she left for college, but on her first morning back home for the holidays, she’s back to chasing after a bail jumper. When she realizes the jumper is her ex-boyfriend, Jax, Dale gets dragged into helping him evade her brothers so he can win an underground fighting competition. Jax has to win the competition to help his sister, but soon sparks fly between Jax and Dale.