He Hired Me for His Kid and Locked My Door

To survive a bleeding knife wound and a revoked medical license, Ruth Pell takes the only job left in Providence: caring for the traumatized, selectively mute daughter of ruthless shipping tycoon Owen Hale. When the vindictive housekeeper tries to bully little Willa into a forced confession, Ruth tears open her hidden stitches to shield the terrified child, winning the little girl's fiercely guarded trust. Her reward is a single trial night inside the heavily fortified master wing. Retreating into the second-floor bathroom to privately restitch her torn flank before anyone catches the scent of blood, Ruth believes she is finally safe behind tile and steam. She is dead wrong. Owen Hale follows her inside, wraps a coarse towel across her trembling ribs, and turns the brass deadbolt from the inside. Trapped inches away from an iron-fisted, possessive billionaire who trusts no one, Ruth faces a lethal ultimatum: confess the bloody wharf secret that ruined her medical career, or let him strip away every defense she bleeds to keep. Because once Owen Hale locks a door, nobody walks out until he claims every last piece.