Showing results by publisher "Podium Audio" in Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Did you know roughly twenty-seven percent of child abductions are carried out by an acquaintance or family friend? Who better to lure you away than someone you know and trust? With every day that passed, the likelihood of my being found grew smaller. I never imagined I’d be one of them—my face tacked to a bulletin board at the local grocery store and a statewide search issued on my behalf. Even harder to fathom was that I’d ever be one of the lucky few who made it home after enduring years of captivity.

He was my first crush. My first love. But he broke my heart. He tore us apart so brutally that an ocean, never mind a state line, wasn’t enough distance between us. But for all he ruined me, I still love him. Despite the women and the lies, it never died, but that didn’t mean I’d take his BS and roll over for him.

Waitressing isn't a calling; it's a way to pay for my art degree. Until Killian Smith walks into the bar and turns my world upside down. It isn't that he's drop-dead gorgeous. Rich. Powerful. It's that he's unhinged. I know the dead look in his eyes. I've seen it before. And he sees me too. Every night is some twisted game of cat and mouse and he's drawing closer to catching me. Until one night when I step into a back alley and I'm a witness to a Bratva murder.

If I wrote an autobiography about my life right now, I’d call it Blackmailed by the Billionaire. Ruthless, callous, and self-serving are the nicest words to describe the powerful CEO who wants what’s mine. He’ll use any method at his disposal to emerge victorious—including coercion. Too bad. He’ll soon learn I’m not like the others he’s manipulated to bend to his will. Those bully tactics won’t work on me. He has nothing of worth to offer. Until tragedy strikes and, like a vulture, he swoops in and rips apart my life.

I always knew marriage for me would never be to a man of my choosing. As a young girl, I was all too aware of the power I wielded in a world where men were supposed to be the superior gender. To the underworld, I was just a mafia princess. To my family, I was an equal. To my soon-to-be husband? Well, that was yet to be determined. But I prayed Enzo Bianchi was ready for me because I was damn sure prepared for him.

In the idyllic town of Middle Falls, Oregon, a peculiar phenomenon unfolds—those who die but are not prepared to move on open their eyes again at a pivotal juncture in their past lives, all memories of their first life intact. That includes Hattie Kildare. After dying in 2008, Hattie awakens as a teenager in 1943, back in a world gripped by the chaos of World War II. Amidst the echoes of conflict and the specter of loss, she is reunited with Jimmy, her beloved first boyfriend lost to the war in her first life.

Living alone in New York, I never felt safe, but I couldn't leave. I was here to find the man I'd lost seven years ago. I had no idea that he'd already found me. I had no idea that he was watching me, controlling my every movement. He's no longer the rebel kid from across the tracks. Now, he's heir to the most brutal bratva the city has ever known. I'm in love with a monster, and he's watching my every move.

In this life, you were taught vulnerability would get you killed. Distractions led to mistakes, and mistakes led to your death. What happened when the one that made you vulnerable was also the distraction? Evie captivated us all from the beginning. All it took was one look from those big brown eyes, and we laid down everything to protect her—including our lives. We finally got the family we wanted, and then Evie discovered our secret. A secret she wanted no part of. If I learned anything from my brother, Luca, it was to fight like hell for the ones you love.

To the rest of the world, I'm broken. Unfixable. But when he looks at me, I know what he sees. A woman, not a doll. A fighter, not a victim. A survivor. Maybe, he sees underneath that. Maybe, just maybe, he sees what I was always born to be—a predator. They took my innocence from me. They stole my adolescence. Now I'm going to reap upon them what they sowed in me. Vengeance. This woman hasn't just been scorned... the hell I'll rain down upon them will look like child's play.

I've wanted one thing for as long as I can remember—someone to love, a family, and a happily ever after. I finally found it with the least likely person across the street. Our life together has been dipped in espresso and given a massive jolt forward, but we couldn't be happier. That is, until someone threatens that happiness and I'm forced to respond in order to protect my family that's barely begun. I didn't mean for this relationship to begin bathed in blood, but I will do anything to protect the love I've waited decades for.

People call me weird, crazy even, but I only want to help the souls who are trapped in between and the loved ones they leave behind. Until my good intentions get me locked away and leave me broken and traumatized. So much so that I swear to never talk to a spirit again. A road trip through the country—driving away from a home that has nothing left for me—and a night spent in the arms of tequila, help me find myself in the embrace of a strong and handsome fisherman with ocean blue eyes.

As the Russian contingent and government tyrants begin to lose power, they turn to bioweapons in their fight against the resistance. Infected mosquitos carrying a modified strain of Malaria are released into the rural water supplies and the results are devastating. Battling a growing Russian military presence along with displaced gang members, the patriots now must suffer the ravages of this ancient disease. Can they survive and more importantly, can they win?

I'm used to women chasing me, but she's the first one to knock on my front door. Like the gentleman I pretend to be, I let her in—with plans to seduce her, to get her to yield to me. Then she tells me her life is in danger and asks for my protection in the form of marriage. It'll be nothing more than a front, a guise to mask our intentions. Yet the lust burning in me is real. So is this unusual possessiveness. And my bride-to-be? She's either a good actress... Or she desires me with a fierceness I've never seen.

He was the talented bad boy everyone wanted. I was the irrelevant geek everyone hated. He was the sun...drawing all of us in. I was a black hole...taking up space. He was destined to be a star. I was destined to remain an insignificant no one. Until he made me believe I was special...and then he destroyed me. I never thought I'd see Phoenix Walker again after he broke my heart, but fate had other plans. One tour. Eight weeks. Forty shows. Countless opportunities to make him pay. The world thought he was a god...but I know the truth.

It was supposed to be easy: one night of sin with a beautiful stranger to forever cut ties with my Bratva past. But I didn't pick a stranger. I picked him. Hades Drakos, the dark prince of the Drakos Mafia family, is a lethally beautiful psychopath with a trail of broken hearts and bloodshed in his wake. Oh, and he's my client. It doesn't matter that our one night was under darkness, disguised by masks. He knows my secret sin. He knows it was my first time. And now, he'll use that to trap me as his own personal Persephone.

In a lab deep in the heart of China, a brilliant engineer had a breakthrough. It was the most powerful AI ever created. Ma Young believed the Jade Dragon could combat the world’s most dire challenges. There was just one problem...the president of China had other ideas. Was this their chance to conquer?

When a well-loved family of five are found dead sitting around their dining table with an untouched meal in front of them, it sends shockwaves throughout the community. Was it a murder suicide, or was someone else involved? It's one of DCI Whitney Walker's most baffling cases, and even with the help of forensic psychologist Dr. Georgina Cavendish, they struggle to find any clues or motives to help them catch the killer.

Brutal, formidably gorgeous, and head of a vicious Bratva organization. They call Gavan Tsarenko a king. I call him a tyrant. But now, the man with the gun-metal gray eyes and scarred past has come to conquer me. You see, I screwed up. I traded my good-girl status for a bad grad-school prank that went horribly wrong. And now, for six months, I'm Gavan's. My enemy. My monster. My dark fantasy.

After the events of The Import, Riker finds himself on the wrong side of his former employers, an elite mercenary group called QS-4. To escape with his life, Riker agrees to take on a job even they can’t touch: protecting a wealthy young man with political connections and possible ties to a terrorist organization. Riker quickly finds himself sucked into a world of fast cars, big money, and no consequences. But his client isn’t interested in making his job easy, and a chance encounter with a beautiful heiress makes things even more complicated.

A man hides among the broad leaves. He's almost feral. There are secrets in his cabin. Desire, too. Carter doesn't want to care about beautiful June. He doesn't want to care about the mysterious and sensual man who's almost part of the wilderness. Scorching chemistry draws all three of them deeper.