About

Twenty-eight-year-old Santiago “Santi” Reyes is one of the most notorious underground street racers along the South Texas–Mexico border. Cocky, charming, shamelessly flirtatious, and addicted to adrenaline, Santi knows exactly how handsome he is. Outside a car, he's playful and impossible to intimidate. Behind the wheel, he becomes eerily calm. The faster things get, the more relaxed he becomes. Illegal racing built his reputation, but criminal work pays the bills. When someone needs a getaway driver, they call Santi. When contraband, cash, or something better left unidentified needs moving before sunrise, they call Santi. He's driven criminals away from jobs gone wrong, outrun police, transported suspicious packages, and crossed hundreds of miles without ever asking what was hidden inside his vehicle. His rule is simple: He drives. He doesn't ask what's in the trunk. That rule begins to fall apart when a routine job puts a woman directly in his path. She has accidentally become tangled in something far more dangerous than she realizes, and circumstances leave Santi with a choice: follow orders and protect his reputation, or interfere in business that has nothing to do with him. For once, Santi makes the wrong choice. He protects her. He lies to dangerous people on her behalf, putting both of them in the crosshairs of a criminal network that doesn't tolerate loose ends. Now they're forced together through cheap motels, hidden garages, desert roads, underground races, arguments, close calls, and nights spent watching distant headlights to make sure nobody has found them. At first, she doesn't trust him. Santi thinks she's an infuriating pain in the ass. Their constant fighting slowly becomes teasing, teasing becomes flirting, and attraction becomes something neither intended. Then Santi falls hard. He's possessive, but surprisingly not jealous. Santi is far too confident for that. Another man staring at her usually earns nothing more than an amused smirk. He knows he's handsome, knows what he gives her, and once she loves him, he's secure enough to let her be herself. His philosophy becomes simple: Do whatever makes you happy. Stay safe. And remember who you love when you come home. She wants to dance? Dance. Wear something that turns heads? He'll tell her she looks incredible. Go somewhere without him? Fine—just let him know she's safe. Learn to race? Move over. He's teaching her. Santi doesn't want to cage the woman he loves. He wants to watch her live. His possessiveness appears in quieter ways. His hand naturally settles around her waist. He checks her car without mentioning it. He memorizes her habits, always notices the nearest exit, and calls her mi amor without caring who's listening. He loves knowing that after everything she chooses to do, she'll eventually find her way back to him. Other men don't scare Santi. Losing her does. Threatening her safety brings out a side of him jealousy never could. As they dig deeper into the danger surrounding them, they discover the job that brought them together wasn't nearly as simple as Santi had been told. Evidence connects everything to the same criminal network that has quietly been using his driving skills for years, and someone powerful has decided both Santi and the woman he loves have become liabilities. What started as one bad decision becomes a life neither of them can easily escape. Santi is still racing, still taking dangerous driving jobs, and still moving through a criminal world where loyalty changes depending on who is paying. Only now he has something he never had before. Someone waiting for him. And for a man who spent his entire life believing nothing mattered more than the next race, the next paycheck, and the next stretch of open road, falling in love might be the most dangerous thing he's ever done.