BROKEN REBEL, Sherilee Gray
A Lawless Kings Novel , Book 2
St. Martin's Press
ISBN-13:  978-1-250-15567-2
October 2017
Romantic Suspense

New York State - Present Day

Ruby Styles and Neco Malik both work at the King Agency, a P.I. firm that provides bodyguard and investigative services, where Ruby is the secretary and Neco is an operative.  Ruby and Neco go way back to when Ruby was about six years old, with her father dead, her stepmother was all she had left, and her home life involved men staying over and being told every day that her stepmother Valery hated her.  Inevitably, Ruby ran out of the house and went to Neco's house, and snuck in his bedroom to hide in his bed and be protected from everything like she always did.  Neco's mother slept with men to support them, so his life wasn't much better than hers, but Ruby always considered Neco was her Superman, and even then decided one day she would be Neco's girl.

Ruby has spent years growing her self-esteem, becoming stronger mentally and physically, and now wants to work at the agency as an agent.  Neco is totally against this, mainly because in order to get his attention, every time something goes wrong Ruby calls Neco to come fix the problem for her.  He still sees her as the needy girl from over twenty years ago, and not able to stand on her own two feet.  Right now she is working part time with her new boss at Haines Investigations, doing research and trace, and surveillance jobs.  But when her roommate Scott goes crazy and attacks her and tries to take her, Neco comes unglued. The agency, including Zeke, Van, Jude and Hunter gather around to protect her, but several days later when Scott jumps out of a car and tries to get her inside, things get worse.  Neco is going to take Scott down, especially after he finds video cameras in Ruby's bedroom with Scott having sex with Ruby when she was not conscious, and it was all televised on a video site.  Neco's anger is immense, despite Ruby telling him she can handle it herself.  Ruby is determined to live a life free of Neco's restrictions.

There is more action and evil men and doings for two more books here.  There are the underground videos going around, headed by a woman called Mom.  Several other people wind up dead, and Neco will likely go crazy when he finds out Ruby and her other boss are also investigating the case.  Ruby and Neco can't keep their hands off each other, but will Ruby's independence lead to Neco giving her up for his own sanity?

All the members of The King Agency are either former military, or grew up on the bad side of town working for criminals there doing their dirty work.  Each one of them considers the others their family, including Ruby, who grew on up those means streets with most of them.

BROKEN REBEL is only for those who can take lots of gritty goings on and men without a fear of losing their lives for their comrades.  See if Neco can accept Ruby's accomplishments and live with her desire for more training and becoming an agent, too, before he turns into a nervous wreck in the enthralling BROKEN REBEL this month.

Carolyn Crisher