Unlawful Hearts by Natasha Derouchie

Before the road to redemption… there was the fire that lit the match.

Ava Sinclair has devoted her life to protecting survivors. As a trauma counsellor, she knows the system doesn’t just fail the vulnerable, it buries them. Alongside her closest friend, Remi Carter, Ava built a clinic out of grit, conviction, and the kind of love born from shared trauma, not blood. Together, they face the storms most people run from.

But when a violent man storms into their clinic and everything goes sideways, Ava is forced to confront just how broken the rules really are, and how far she’s willing to go to protect the people she loves.

Police Chief Harlan Gray built his world on control and clarity. Black and white. Right and wrong. But when he arrests the wrong woman, based on a lie, a weapon, and the word of a man, his moral compass begins to crack.

Ava is fire. Harlan is order. She challenges everything he thought he understood. And she exposes what he’s been too careful to see.

What begins as a clash of convictions burns into something more, until sabotage, betrayal, and a woman from Harlan’s past threaten to bring it all crashing down.

Because some love stories aren’t born in the light.
They’re forged in the fallout.

Author’s Note:
Unlawful Hearts is the emotional prequel to No Redemption Road, written second but set three years earlier. It can absolutely be read first, but doing so will change the feel of both books. Readers who start with Unlawful Hearts will experience Ava and Harlan’s raw beginnings. Readers who begin with No Redemption Road will uncover their past as it echoes forward. Either way, their story, and Remi’s, is one you won’t forget.

This is Book Two in the Redemption Road series, interconnected, character-driven romances woven with grit, suspense, and emotional intensity.