Black Velvet, Red Winter

Chicago, 1928.

Winter has buried the city beneath snow, silence and blood.

Months after destroying Black Velvet, Thomas Ashcroft and Julian Vale have built a fragile life from its ruins. The secret passage network they inherited now offers new names and second chances to those desperate enough to disappear.

Then a half-frozen stranger arrives at their door.

He carries a broken stick of red sealing wax-and a warning.

Someone is hunting the people the network once saved, dragging them from their new lives and returning them to the families, prisons and enemies they escaped. Calling themselves the Tribunal, the masked organisation claims to deliver justice where Black Velvet offered mercy. And at the centre of their accusations stands Thomas, condemned as the mythical Gatekeeper who decides who deserves freedom.

As red-wax orders spread across Chicago, Thomas and Julian are drawn into a conspiracy rooted in the Ashcroft family's darkest secrets. Old allies become suspects. Buried crimes return with living witnesses. And every attempt to protect the innocent brings the men they love closer to the enemy.

To stop Red Winter, Thomas must confront the truth about his inheritance-while Julian faces a ghost from his own past that should have remained dead.

Because the snow may hide the bodies.

But blood always leaves a mark.

Power makes them kings.
Betrayal makes them legends.
Love may be their ruin.