Shameless

I didn't do it. I never betrayed my friend. Last year, I was kidnapped along with presidential candidate's daughter Lindsay Bosworth, forced to help her assailants, my mother implicated in one of the biggest political scandals in American history. I've been cleared of any wrongdoing, but that doesn't matter. Once you're tried by the media, you're guilty as sin. The truth doesn't get the public's attention. But shame? Shame sells. And everyone assumes you're tainted. Now I have my own personal security team, courtesy of the United States government. Not the one you learned about in civics class, though. I'm being tracked by the deep state. The shadow government. They've assigned Silas Gentian to be with me 24/7. He thinks he knows everything about me – all of it bad – and he does. On paper. Like everyone else, he assumes I'm a traitor. A backstabber. A betrayer. Someone who helped a group of violent psychopaths, puppets of powerful men in Washington who made me into a tool. Yet I see how he looks at me. True desire can't be faked. Or hidden. And that goes both ways. He assumes I'm trying to fool him. And he might be right. But not for the reasons he thinks.

I did it. I admit it. I fell in love with Silas. My bodyguard. My protector. My new informant. We're playing a cat-and-mouse game. I'm not sure whether I'm the cat or the mouse, but I can definitely tell I'm in a trap. A trap with no way out. I'm not who everyone thought I was. The truth is out there, finally turning the lie about me inside out. I am the shameless little lie. It's finally been revealed, and now even more people want to kill me. As a presidential campaign hangs in the balance, a delicate web of international relations and economic stability at risk, power becomes more important than anything else. Even my life. Especially my life. I'm a nothing. A no one. Just a tool, remember? But tools can be used to open locks. Cracking open the truth and exposing it could change the balance of power. Tip the scales. Make a presidential campaign turn on a dime. Too bad Silas doesn't believe me when I tell the truth. And that may make him the biggest tool of all.

How do I prove a negative? I need to prove Jane is innocent, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Mirrors, smoke, and lies can conjure a truth that isn't real. Money, bribes, and power can twist reality. What we call proof is all an elaborate magic act. So is love. How do you prove you're in love? How can you know with unrelenting certainty that the person you can't live without really loves you? It's all about what you believe. Who you believe. And I believe Jane. I love her. But it might be too late. Or, worse – it might all be an illusion. If proof is just a magician's sleight of hand, then we're caught in a sick trick. A deadly one. One that doesn't end with applause. But with a bang.

Five years ago, Jane helped presidential candidate's daughter Lindsay after an unspeakable crime. Now it's Jane who stands accused, caught at the heart of a presidential candidate's scandal that threatens her very life. As people in her life turn up dead, she swears she's innocent, but forces around her continue to make her look like the betrayer, and possibly, the murderer. Can her bodyguard, Silas, save her? Better yet, can he trust her as they fight an attraction that could put them in danger?