Total Loss

One man preserves the dead for a living. The other buries the truth for a paycheck. Joe Harding's taxidermy studio is gone. Reduced to ash in a suspicious fire that took thirty years of work with it. He should be devastated. Instead, he feels a terrifying sense of relief. He was ready to walk away from the family legacy he secretly hated; the fire just gave him an excuse. Now, he just needs the insurance payout to disappear and start over. Patrick O'Donnell is the obstacle standing in his way. As a fraud investigator, Patrick has built a career on weaponized sunshine. He wears Italian suits like armor and uses a dazzling smile to charm secrets out of claimants before denying their payouts. He knows human nature, and he knows that when a man is happy his livelihood burned down, it's usually fraud. But Patrick's usual tricks don't work on Joe. Joe is prickly, uncharmed, and immune to the performance Patrick uses to keep the world at bay. What begins as a hostile investigation quickly turns into a visceral, scorching attraction. But as Patrick digs past the surface, he uncovers a threat far more dangerous than simple arson. Someone else is obsessed with Joe's legacy—someone who burned the studio to "save" it. Suddenly, the man who exposes lies for a living must make an impossible choice: finish the job and destroy Joe's future, or burn down his own career to protect the man who finally sees the real him.