The Helping Hands — Kristina Circelli

The kidnappings of seventy-one children began the legend, but five friends with troubled pasts and courageous futures created it. Melanie O'Conner and her friends earned their reputation as rough and tough gang members, but the Hell Hounds were a mere front to their true operation. Fueled by the pain of a past filled with foster homes and cold-hearted guardians, Melanie lives with a deep, undying devotion to saving the lives of children who are victim to child abuse. Bringing them to a secluded island called the Treehouse, Melanie and her gang feeds, schools, and cares for them all, leaving the parents nothing more than a message claiming that their child has been taken. Now, four years into the project dubbed the Helping Hands by the five members of the cover-up gang the Hell Hounds, Melanie has to fight to keep the nosy, self-interested reporter Stephanie Mathews from exposing the truth being her project. And Melanie is willing to do anything to save the lives of innocent children from their abusive parents, even if that means risking her own.