Does Love Exist In These Houston Streets

Karsyn McKellen has been surviving more than she’s been living.
Working herself to the bone, drowning under childhood trauma, and riding for a broke-ass boyfriend who treats her like she’s replaceable, her life feels like a storm she’s been trying to outrun barefoot.
But everything shifts the night a masked intruder breaks into her home demanding payment for a debt she never owed.
What he takes from her destroys the life she knew, and what he leaves behind becomes a secret she never asked for…
Deshawn, the man she should’ve cut off years ago, still lingers in her shadow. Manipulating her. Gaslighting her. Breaking her down piece by piece. Karsyn wants to heal, wants to grow… but pain don’t let go easy, and the toxic love she shared with him keeps clawing its way back.
Just when she finally believes it’s time to start over, two very different men collide with her path.
Zachery “Skillz” Moore—a tattoo artist with a quiet soul and a past that still bleeds—sees straight through the walls she hides behind. He offers peace. Safety. Space to breathe again.
But peace ain’t always enough to make a wounded woman stay.
Then there’s Hornet—smooth, street-bred, dangerous in all the ways that make a heart confused. He moves like trouble, talks like sin, and carries the world like it owes him respect. Karsyn knows he’s a walking red flag… yet something about him makes her feel seen, wanted, maybe even protected. Or maybe just distracted.
But love in Houston don’t come soft.
As secrets unravel and enemies crawl out of the shadows, Karsyn ends up caught between two the woman she’s trying to become… and the part of her still craving love, even when it hurts.
Because the biggest secret of all? Karsyn never saw the intruder’s face that night, but she felt every ounce of the pain he left behind.
And a year later… he’s back. Unrecognizable. Untraceable.
Worse… closer to her than she realizes.
What happens when the heart begins trusting the same man responsible for the trauma she could never forget—and the reminder she could never give back?
Will Karsyn finally choose herself? Or fall for the wrong man one last deadly time?
In these Houston streets, love ain’t just messy. It’s a weapon. And if she ain’t careful…it might be the very thing that takes her out.