Jaime Quintero of the APS Seven moved to Whimsy, Florida, from Puerto Rico after her father’s death when she was just six years old: grieving, not knowing a word of English, and wondering where she fit into this new world. Meeting the Armstrong twins, whose mother was Puerto Rican, and their friends helped an enormous amount—but when a small kindergarten girl with copper red curls and big blue eyes skipped up to Jaime to welcome her, wearing a gorgeous grin and holding a big red apple gift in her hand, it was game over.

 

Jaime fell head over heels in love with Alyssa Riker that day.

 

Now, almost thirty years later—just as Jaime finally claims Alyssa for her own—the feisty femme art therapist finds herself the target of a dangerous hate obsession. Stung by Alyssa’s rejection of him, Ivan Olsen wants nothing more than to eliminate the APS butch whom he calls “the woman stealer,” promising Alyssa he will shoot and kill not only Jaime, but anyone else who gets close to her. Frightened, Alyssa tries to stay away from everyone she loves to keep them safe, but Jaime—the Physical Security Risk Assessment team lead for APS—refuses to let her, vowing she will hunt down Ivan Olsen and make him pay for every ounce of fear her woman has suffered because of him.

 

When Alyssa falls into an insidious trap set by Ivan, Jaime and the rest of APS race to find her against the clock when they see the truth of Ivan’s plans for her. But an unlikely rescuer gets to Alyssa first and deliberately puts herself in harm’s way to rescue the tenacious art therapist, little dreaming the two of them have uncovered a larger plot—one that strikes at the very heart of Whimsy itself.

 

TW: This work of fiction contains a scene of disciplinary spanking and other instances of light BDSM that some readers may find triggering.