Love, like fire, is a chain reaction.Boys with Matches is a collection of short stories from Flint and Tinder. It includes the following:"Heat"Jim visits Emmett at the psychiatric hospital. This story is a prequel and takes place before Ember Boys."Sparks"A series of vignettes leading up to Valentine's Day. This story takes place between Ember Boys and Queer Fires."Fuel"Jim and Emmett go to the beach."Oxygen"Jim and Emmett explore new territory in their relationship. This story takes place between Queer Fires and The Whole World Tinder."Boys with Matches"Jim and Emmett go on a road trip to check out prospective colleges. This story is set after The Whole World Tinder. Please note that the first four stories were distributed previously in various formats."Boys with Matches" is exclusively available in this collection.

The price for the truth might be their family.When Theo and Auggie return home—safe and sound and miraculously alive after being dragged into a murder investigation—all Theo wants is for life to get back to normal. No more murders. No more investigations. Nothing, in other words, that might put Auggie in danger.But when a girl from school goes missing, Theo finds himself reluctantly drawn into looking for her. Shaniyah was his former student, for one reason. And, for another, no one else seems interested in where she's gone. Worse, her disappearance seems to be linked to a break-in at Theo and Auggie's house.The search, though, quickly becomes more complicated than either Theo or Auggie could have expected. Shaniyah, they discover, had been conducting an investigation of her own, looking for another missing student. And the path to learning the truth about both disappearances, Theo fears, leads back to the Cottonmouth Club.

With friends like these, who needs enemies?Private detective Luka Meer doesn't get the most glamorous cases, but he knows the underbelly of St. Louis better than just about anyone, and he's got a bad case of white knight syndrome.In these four stories, join Luka as he helps friends, family, and even the occasional client. He'll have to face down dirty cops, crime lords, embezzlers, and more, but hey—it's all in a day's work. And if he's lucky, he might even be able to pay his rent.This collection includes:"The Eye of the Crow""The Hundred Times""The Dog That Barks""A New Ocean"These stories were previously released to the author's patrons.

We might not be doomed to repeat the past. But it's pretty likely.When Dashiell Dawson Dane receives a phone call from his nemesis Vivienne Carver (okay, one of his nemeses), he's caught off guard—to say the least—by her request: help solve the murder of her brother, who disappeared almost thirty years ago. His gut tells him to say no. But with Bobby preparing to move out of Hemlock House, Dash sees the perfect opportunity for them to spend more time together, whether Bobby likes it or not.The local police seem convinced that Vivienne was responsible for her brother's death—an opinion shared by some of her family. But the more Dash investigates, the more convinced he becomes that Vivienne is being set up. Secrets have been accumulating for decades, and the most dangerous lies, Dash knows, are the ones we want to believe the most. After all these years, answers might finally be within reach—and someone is willing to kill to...

Blackmail. Breakups. Boys. Trouble always comes in threes.Life is different for Jack Moreno. Good. Definitely good. Well, better, anyway.He's back in school (although classes are harder than he expected). And his dad is healthy (which means he's worrying again about things like Jack's curfew and, oh yeah, grades). And he's got a great girlfriend (who might, justifiably, be running out of patience with him). And Holloway Holmes is his friend (even though it's the kind of friendship that leaves Jack wanting more). So, life is good. Better. Definitely.Except when it comes to money. With his dad still struggling to pay a mountain of medical bills, Jack jumps at the opportunity to make some extra cash. After all, helping a fellow student deal with blackmail isn't exactly new—just a few months before, Jack handled a couple of blackmailers on campus. With the help of Holmes, of course.Only something is different this time. Something...

As the Jaegal Empire moves to war against the city-state of Apsia, an unknown player begins to manipulate events, and long-hidden secrets come to light that threaten not only the outcome of the war, but also the fabric of reality itself.As the Jaegal Empire moves to war against the city-state of Apsia, an unknown player begins to manipulate events, and long-hidden secrets come to light that threaten not only the outcome of the war, but also the fabric of reality itself.Erlandr, the sorcerer who longs to die and cannot, searches for the truth of his past while being guarded by his former friend Adence. The priestess Irwa seeks to conceal her past as she draws closer and closer to the man she has been sent to assassinate. Joaquim, son of a ruined merchant, is driven to smuggling--and worse--to shore up his family's fortune. And Dag, once a killer for hire, has been drawn out of retirement for one last job.

After almost twenty years, Emery Hazard finally has the man he loves. But things with his boyfriend and fellow detective, John-Henry Somerset, are never easy, and they've been more complicated lately for two reasons: Somers's ex-wife and daughter. No matter what Hazard does, he can't seem to get away from the most important women in his boyfriend's life.While Hazard struggles with his new reality (changing dirty diapers, just to start), a bizarre murder offers a distraction. John Oscar Walden, the leader of a local cult, is found dead by the police, and the case falls to Hazard and Somers. The investigation takes the two detectives into the cult's twisted relationships and the unswerving demands of power and faith.But the deeper Hazard looks into the cult, the deeper he must look into his own past, where belief and reason have already clashed once. And as Hazard struggles to protect the most vulnerable of Walden's victims, he uncovers a deeper, more vicious plot...

Hazard and Somerset: Off Duty Volume 2 is a collection of short stories. It includes the following:"John-Henry Somerset: Sold!"Somers enters a charity bachelor's auction without telling his boyfriend. This story takes place before The Rational Faculty."Pretty and Pink and Perfect"Hazard plans a toddler's birthday party. This story takes place before The Rational Faculty."Pride Slays Thanksgiving"Hazard and Somers prepare for their first Thanksgiving as a couple. This story takes place before Police Brutality."Santa: A Cultural Hegemony"Hazard is volun-told to dress up as Santa. This story takes place before Transactional Dynamics."Valentine's in Six Beats"Hazard executes his do-over for Valentine's. This story takes place before Wayward."Emery's Birthday Scavenger Hunt"Somers plans the perfect birthday for Hazard . . . or so he thinks. This story takes place before The Keeper of Bees."Hazard...

Finding a missing boy will be hard. Dinner with Shaw's parents might be murder.When a rising star in the state senate asks Shaw Aldrich and North McKinney to transport her son, Flip, to and from his drug testing appointments, they're not happy—they don't do babysitting jobs. Arriving at the boy's dorm room, though, they discover that the door has been forced and that Flip has disappeared, and rumors of strange men on campus suggest that something seriously bad has happened. The students and staff at the ritzy private school have plenty to tell about Flip, but the deeper North and Shaw dig, the less they understand what might have happened to the boy.Then one of Flip's friends is found dead, and it's clear that she was killed for coming too close to the truth. As North and Shaw search for answers, they meet resistance from every angle: from the school's staff, from Flip's friends, from the police, even from Flip's family. Someone wants the boy to...

Teancum Leon is pretty sure that if he plays his cards right, he can have it all: his childhood friend and former lover, Ammon Young; his best friend (although Tean is loath to admit it), Jem Berger; and his family. A boyfriend might even be in his future, although he's having a heck of a time getting a second date with the guys he meets on Prowler.Then the key suspect in a murder investigation asks to speak with Jem, overturning the precarious balance Tean has worked to maintain. A girl Jem knew in childhood is dead, and the man believed to have killed her was one of Jem's tormentors at Decker Lake Juvenile Detention Center. Antonio Hidalgo insists he is innocent, and he begs Jem to find the real killer, a man Jem knows very well, the man who masterminded his torture at Decker: Tanner Kimball.When Jem decides to check out Antonio's story, Tean insists on helping. Their search takes them into Utah's high desert, a land of redrock cliffs and hoodoo stones. But...

What would you do to get everything you wanted?Life is good for Dashiell Dawson Dane (just Dash). Things with his boyfriend, Bobby, are better than ever. Teaching at a local college has provided routine and stability. And to his complete surprise, his self-published novel is doing well. Really well. So, when a mystery writers' conference comes to Hastings Rock, Dash is thrilled to attend.He's less thrilled when Vivienne Carver, his former nemesis—the woman who framed him for murder and then tried to kill him—appears at the conference, released from prison and determined to reclaim both fame and fortune. And, as usual, Vivienne has a plan.But when Vivienne is murdered the first night of the conference, and Dash is—once again—the prime suspect, he'll have to find the real killer to prove his innocence.Even worse, Dash might be right back where he started.

Jim's birthday is coming up, and Emmett is determined to make it a good one. Scratch that. A perfect one. Sure, that means spending money he doesn't have. Sure, that means trying to keep secrets, which Jim is irritatingly good at ferreting out. It even means playing nice when his parents attempt a reconciliation, no matter how much he wants to tell them to screw off. But he can do that—all of it—for Jim.When Emmett's parents ask him to befriend a girl who survived a terrible car crash, Emmett can connect the dots: his father's political aspirations; the daughter of a freshman senator; and Emmett, the boy with scars. To keep the peace, he agrees. But when he and Jim arrive at the remote cabin, everything goes wrong. An attack by the Solar Court ends with the senator's wife and daughter being kidnapped—and with Jim and Emmett on the run.As someone tries to draw a net tight around Jim and Emmett, the two men must race to save the kidnapped girl and...