MERCILESS

They have 72 hours to close a case.
They have four years of unfinished business to survive.

Marcus Webb doesn't believe in second chances.

He believes in patience, precision, and knowing when to walk away -
which is why, when Lena Vasquez left four years ago for all the right
professional reasons, he let her go. He understood her logic. He respected
her choice. He has spent every day since not thinking about the woman
who chose her career over him, and failing.

Now she's sitting across a conference table from him as opposing counsel
in a 72-hour arbitration. Her client has been lying to her. His evidence
could destroy her case - and he showed it to her anyway.

Because some things matter more than winning.

Lena Vasquez is the best litigator she knows. She has rules: no conflicts,
no compromises, no going back. She left Marcus because she had to.
She has been right about that every day for four years.

She is considerably less right about it in a conference room at midnight,
drafting a joint legal filing in handwriting she can't distinguish from his.

He let her go once because he loved her.
He's done letting her go.

MERCILESS is a full-heat, second-chance dark romance featuring a controlled
alpha hero who has been waiting four years, a heroine who left for the right
reasons and came back for better ones, a real-time 72-hour countdown, and
an HEA. Book Two of The Ashford Rivals trilogy. Can be read as a standalone.

Perfect for fans of Kennedy Ryan, Helena Hunting, and Ana Huang.

Standalone Reader Note
MERCILESS is written to function as a complete standalone. A reader who has not read RUTHLESS (Book 1) will have full context for Marcus and Lena's story. Dominic and Sera appear as supporting characters, and their dynamic is summarized naturally within the narrative.
However: readers who read RUTHLESS first will have stronger emotional investment in Dominic and Sera's appearances, which is an incentive to read in order. Both entry points work.