The Hanged Men Series by Daniel May, Augustus Roth

There are deadly games... and then there are blood sports.In Hanged Men territory, there are two rules: you don’t steal horses, and you don’t disturb their leader in his cozy retirement.Someone broke the rules.Jove Alms, an infamous kingpin who passed his crime empire onto his sons, is called home by signs of a traitor in his old territory. There is only one witness: a young stablehand with doe eyes and no clue what he's stumbled into.Tobias Nimh is just trying to get by... moreThere are deadly games... and then there are blood sports.In Hanged Men territory, there are two rules: you don’t steal horses, and you don’t disturb their leader in his cozy retirement.Someone broke the rules.Jove Alms, an infamous kingpin who passed his crime empire onto his sons, is called home by signs of a traitor in his old territory. There is only one witness: a young stablehand with doe eyes and no clue what he's stumbled into.Tobias Nimh is just trying to get by. Working under the thumb of a slavedriving horse trainer, he spends his days trying not to get trampled, and mostly succeeding. When abducted and interrogated by mobsters, he assumes his time is up. He doesn't expect rescue — or to overhear a mysterious phone call, making him a valuable pawn in a massive plot.Jove soon finds Tobias to be a thorn in his side as much as an asset. Impulsive, frustrating, and adorable, the kid is hard to hate and even harder to handle. Jove is first distracted, second annoyed, and finally... obsessed.Meanwhile, Tobias keeps forgetting to fear for his life. It's hard to focus on the big picture of criminal conspiracy when he's too busy trying to pour cold water on his dirty thoughts. Jove is more than twice his age, ice cold, and comes from a world of murder and wealth Tobias can barely comprehend.Betrayals, conspiracies, and blood sports aside, the only real question is who will crack first.Blood Sports is a dark MM mafia thriller. Written as the first in the Hanged Men series, it can be read as a standalone. less

Sons of opposing mob bosses, secretly married when they were seventeen, Nerva Alms and Joseph Pascal were doomed from the start.After his father's gruesome murder, Pascal was mutilated and banished, and Nerva grew to replace his own father as head of the Hanged Men. Now, ten years later, Pascal has returned.War Games is book two in the Hanged Men series, following Blood Sports. While War Games is a standalone, the story is best understood in the context of the first book.

Diomedes 'Dio' Alms is the middle child of the famed, feared Alms criminal dynasty. Content to spend his time jumping horses and gallivanting with the ladies, Dio skates under the radar of mob politics... until he doesn't. Mars, an assassin with a penchant for lipstick who has already made Dio question his sexuality once, pops up out of the blue with a proposal. Well, more of a demand... moreDiomedes 'Dio' Alms is the middle child of the famed, feared Alms criminal dynasty. Content to spend his time jumping horses and gallivanting with the ladies, Dio skates under the radar of mob politics... until he doesn't. Mars, an assassin with a penchant for lipstick who has already made Dio question his sexuality once, pops up out of the blue with a proposal. Well, more of a demand. He wants to be Dio's plus-one to the most exclusive event of the year: the fifty-second birthday of the universally feared William Izawa. Their fake dating goes off the rails as soon as they arrive. Izawa's birthday bash centers around deadly games and the guest list is littered with ghosts from their paths. Worse, the cold-blooded Mars faces a very real danger of falling for his hot, hapless hostage, and Dio must tackle a philosophical question for the ages: Is it really gay if the other guy is disguised as your female fiancée? Man Hunt is the third book in the Hanged Men mafia MM romance series. It follows Blood Sports and War Games and should be read in order. less