Race With the Devil — Layla Wolfe

Tanner Principato is a gruff, surly combat vet who has cobbled together a livelihood flying rescue dogs to forever homes. When Tanner makes good on a promise to Bare Bones MC lawyer Slushy and brings a puppy to a lonely member, he is caught in the middle of a mystery. Tanner's innate kindness means he volunteers to track down the missing bride of the club's fentanyl dealer, Tutti Morgan, the Walter White of Flagstaff. Bare Bones territory looks even more inviting to Tanner when he's paired up with a friend of the vanished newlywed, Unity Mitford. A rape victim, Unity's job as spokesmodel for cannabis companies brings her into the limelight with many men. Men she teases. Men she avoids. Terrified of intimacy, Unity has developed a wide array of survival skills to keep men at bay. When she starts working with Tanner, for the first time she questions some of these methods of isolation. Does she really want to resist the dashing, commanding, and carved pilot? He calls her the Queen of Heaven after a Kama Sutra position, and he leaves his mark on her heart. Their fling-and detective partnership-comes to a grinding halt when Unity finds out what Tanner spent ten years in prison for. She can't throw her missing friend under the bus, but she will never-never!-waste another minute in the presence of such a vile asshole as Tanner Principato. Like the injured and abused animals he's worked with, Tanner knows to proceed slowly with Unity. If terrified by sudden movement, animals can keel over, dead. And Tanner knows that . . . if you're going to race with the devil, you got to be fast as hell.