IW

Charlotte “Charlie” Bradford has always known her older brother has dangerous enemies. She just never expected one of them to come looking for her. At twenty years old, Charlie is about as far removed from the LAPD as possible. She has no badge, no police training and absolutely no interest in getting involved in Tim’s cases. To her, Tim isn’t Sergeant Bradford, decorated officer or former soldier. He’s just her ridiculously overprotective big brother. The man who practically raised her. Who taught her how to throw a punch before she could drive. Who still demands a text when she gets home safely and threatens any man who looks at her for slightly too long. Charlie has spent years insisting she doesn’t need protecting anymore. Then Elijah Stone takes her. It happens fast. One moment Charlie is going about her normal life. The next, she wakes somewhere unfamiliar, injured, without her phone and staring directly at the man Tim Bradford has every reason to hate. Elijah doesn’t want money. He doesn’t even particularly want Charlie. He wants Tim. And everyone has a weakness. For Tim Bradford, it’s the twenty-year-old little sister he spent his childhood protecting. Elijah intends to use Charlie as leverage, forcing Tim to choose between his badge, the people he loves and the one person he has never been capable of thinking rationally about. Except Charlie isn’t the helpless civilian Elijah expected. She may not be a cop, but she was raised alongside Tim Bradford. She knows how to stay calm when she’s terrified, how to watch instead of react, how to leave clues behind—and exactly where to hit someone if she gets one opportunity to run. While Mid-Wilshire desperately searches for her, Tim is rapidly losing the battle between being a cop and being Charlie’s brother. Because every hour she’s missing brings back the same promise he made when they were children: Nobody hurts Charlie while Tim is there to stop it. But this time, he wasn’t there. And if Elij