Cotton's Wrath

She needed protection from criminals burning working families—until a country-tough enforcer claimed her as his.

Lily Blythe's Sweet Haven Bakery is under siege. Crime boss Robert Patterson destroyed her kitchen, demanded twenty thousand monthly in protection money, and promised to burn her alive if she refused. When Selma police ignore the threats because Patterson owns half the sheriff's department, Lily knows the system has abandoned her—unless she finds protection the law won't provide.

Then Cotton crashes through her window on a Harley.

Jake "Cotton" Sullivan is the Crimson Kings' enforcer—son and grandson of sharecroppers who watched his grandfather die in cotton fields, now protecting working families with brutal efficiency. He fights for people the system destroys, eliminates predators who prey on poverty, and won't let another family lose what they've built. When Patterson threatens an immigrant baker who's spent three years building her business, Cotton doesn't negotiate. He eliminates threats permanently.

One look at Lily's fierce courage standing in her destroyed bakery, and Cotton knows—she's his.

But claiming the baker means war with a crime boss commanding nine violent enforcers and corrupt law enforcement across three counties. Cotton doesn't care. He'll dismantle Patterson's entire protection racket before letting anyone burn his woman's business.

Lily never wanted an outlaw's protection. But when Cotton's possessive claiming makes her feel cherished instead of controlled, when his country violence eliminates predators the law ignores, when she kills to protect his brotherhood and he loves her fiercer for it—she chooses the dangerous enforcer over every safer option.

Together they'll hunt the crime boss destroying small businesses, defend working families with brutal efficiency, and prove that some protection requires men willing to kill without hesitation.

He'll defend working families with country violence. She'll stand beside him and fight. Some claiming is built on fierce devotion.