The French Quarter Queen — Patricia D. Eddy

Fifteen years after the French Quarter Queen retired from the amateur chess circuit, someone's still holding a grudge. When Serafine Lisette returns to New Orleans for a week's vacation, she doesn't expect to be attacked a block off of Bourbon Street. She definitely doesn't expect her rescuer to be the boy she beat in her final match all those years ago. The one who never returned her letters. The one who broke her heart. Except Emile Fontaine isn't an awkward teenage boy anymore. Not by a long shot. He's a fighter, competing in underground cage matches so he can help battered women escape their abusers. Men like his father. Feelings from years past threaten to explode, but when their vacation fling turns into more, Emile has to make a choice. Fight the past so he and Serafine can have a future? Or become a pawn in a deadly game no one can win?