Hazardverse: Sidetracks

Nico knows he’s difficult; he has the string of exes to prove it. But staying sharp was the only way to stay safe in the cutthroat world of modeling, and it turns out, graduate school isn’t any gentler. Career first. Boys…later. Jadon knows he’s burning out; his partner at the Metropolitan Police is more than happy to remind him of that fact. But the last time he let himself get distracted, people died, and he’s not going to let it happen again. And Nico was nothing but a distraction.

After spending his whole life taking care of his family, Fernando Lopez is ready for simple. His younger brothers have grown up and moved out of the house. His mom is stable—or as close to stable as she’s ever going to get. He’s even got a shot at his dream job if he can just play his cards right. Everything is going great until one morning, Fer finds a baby in his kitchen. And not just any baby—his brother Chuy’s infant daughter. With Chuy nowhere to be found, Fer finds himself back in the role of caregiver.

This isn’t a romance. This isn’t happily-ever-after. This is a mystery. And, like me, it’s pretty messed up. Detective Gray Dulac is in freefall: a disfiguring injury; a crumbling relationship; a slowly imploding career. But there’s a kind of clarity to it all. A detachment. A way of being in the world when you can’t screw things up any more than you already have. When he stumbles across a wounded young man outside a party, though, Gray is struck by the similarities between their injuries, and he discovers he might not be as detached as he thought.