The Winter Lock

Milonka Drastov likes brass locks, heavy iron, and keeping to herself. As the head gate-warden of the sprawling, snow-starved Privoz ski resort, she knows every service tunnel, every avalanche barrier, and exactly how to keep the city's bickering co-owners out of her hair. But when industrial saboteurs start acid-washing her hinges and paralyzing the lifts, neutrality stops being an option.

Enter Stanimir Vlashk. He’s a high-altitude tactical fixer with a bag full of wire-cutters, an encrypted contract he refuses to explain, and an aggravatingly competent attitude. He swears he isn't the one breaking her mountain, but given the people shooting at them both, he's the only one who can help her defend it.

Trapped in a forced-proximity alliance as a brutal proxy war rips the resort apart, Milonka must trade access for Stanimir's physical protection. Worse, she actually has to trust him. As the sabotage forces the resort's owners into a reluctant truce against invisible backers, keeping Privoz alive means turning the city's infrastructure into a weapon. Milonka and Stanimir just have to survive long enough to figure out who's cutting the checks—and try to keep their hands off each other in the dark.