Protective Behavior

Detective Mark Thibedeau is perfectly happy doing his job in Internal Affairs and going home to his cat. Still, when his assistant wants to set him up on a blind date, he can't help but be intrigued.

Dr. Ryan Campbell loves the frenetic pace of working in an emergency department. He likes his life and doesn't need anyone. But that guy his colleague wants him to meet does sound pretty interesting. It's instant chemistry when they meet—and instant chaos.

That chaos isn't just phone calls interrupting dates. When a patient comes into the ED rapidly bleeding out from a gunshot wound, Ryan suddenly finds himself in possession of evidence that could very well put two white cops in jail for killing an innocent black man in cold blood. Not sure what else to do, Ryan takes the evidence to the only cop he can trust—Mark.

Now Mark is investigating a delicate case, and Ryan is a material witness, and putting their fledgling relationship on hold is the least of their problems. Dirty cops stalk Ryan and his colleagues. Higher-ups question Mark's investigative integrity at every turn. Worse, he's tugging at threads of a citywide systemic problem of cops getting away with racially motivated murder.

And there are cops with blood on their hands who will gladly kill to keep that system running.

CW: Racially motivated violence, white cop-on-black civilian violence

Protective Behavior is the fifth book in the Bad Behavior series. For fans of Layla Reyne and L.J. Hayward, this is an action-packed spinoff of the popular M/M romantic suspense series.