Hate (Madison Kate, #1)

by Tate James

the seventh circle of hell."

Six foot four, two hundred and two pounds, twenty-three wins, zero draws, zero losses. Zero losses. This guy was freaking born for MMA.

The Archer!"

Zane D'Ath

My terror kicked up a notch as I realized there was more than one person lurking inside this fun house,

So that was three. Three men, all undoubtedly a whole lot bigger and meaner than me. I was so fucked.

"Everyone knows you, Madison Kate,"

"That would be hard," the first cop said, "seeing as Madison Kate Danvers was just murdered inside The Laughing Clown tonight."

Now I was really getting a bad feeling. "Bree...?" "Sorry, babe, just wrapping my brain around the fact that your dad never mentioned to you that his new girlfriend's son—and your future step-brother—is Archer D'Ath."

"So... not going to be creating your own reverse harem out of your new living arrangements then?"

"Apparently not. You coming down for food, or did you have better things to do? Like sticking pins under your nails, perhaps?"

"I fucking hate him, Bree. I hate that asshole more than anything I've ever hated."

"Zane murdered my mom, and now Dad has invited the devil's own family into his house. Either he has the shortest memory in history or Cherry's vagina is made of diamonds."

"Princess Danvers would rather stick rusty pins under her toenails than have a four-way with us," he reported, smug as all fuck. "Or what else was it? You'd rather set your pubic hair on fire?"

It wasn’t until I stood underneath an admittedly chilly stream of water that I even realized my father's gate code spelled KATE.

If I'd been a bigger person, I'd have taken pity on them and made everyone a flat white. What a shame I was petty as fuck.

“Which is it, Archer? A brat or a porn star?”

“MK: one, shady fucker: nil,” Bree snickered under her breath as we left the cafeteria with our heads held high. “This is going to be so fun.”

What did you do to the body wash?" I chuckled. "Nothing. I just like making him paranoid."

"Because it's convenient," he replied. "Because Cherry wanted her son close by and the three of us have lived together since high school, so it wasn't even a question for all of us to move in. Because we heard that the princess of the household was coming home and some of us let our curiosity win over logic and reason. Pick your answer, gorgeous. They're all true in some way."

"Note to self: Drunk Madison Kate is less combative than sober Madison Kate."

"I take that statement back," he murmured. "Drunk Madison Kate is six million times more combative. Good to freaking know."

"That girl is just like her useless fucking mother. All looks and no brains. Wouldn't know common sense if it came up and bit her right on the ass."

My breath hitched in a small moan as his hands ran all over my body, and it took every ounce of willpower I had to remember we were still in public. We were on Bree's parents’ kitchen counter, for fuck’s sake. People were watching. People like... My eyes shot open, looking past Kody and catching straight on Archer's furious glare. Beside him Steele's brow was furrowed and his jaw clenched tightly in anger.

Steele's kiss had been firmly placed in a lockbox inside my mind labeled "betrayals, never to be forgotten."

It was a shame they'd tried to screw me so hard a year ago because I might have just found my soulmates.

red leather with small devil horns attached.

"I find time loops fascinating," he murmured, confirming my suspicions about the masks being a deliberate nod to a romance novel.

For another, the book in question was a reverse harem romance. Meaning the main character—Karma—had more than one love interest and they never made her choose.

The four of us entered the party together, as a unit. Damn, if that didn't feel kind of awesome.