The Criss Cross (Life, Love & Loneliness)
by Crystal Lacey Winslow

Nikki Ling is the independent, foxy daughter of the merciless streets of Brooklyn, forced to make a living the only way she knows how. Things seem to get brighter when a wealthy South African diplomat asks for her hand in marriage, but it doesn’t take long after the honeymoon before she sees his true colors. The soft-spoken, reserved gentleman she thought he was, is actually pathologically kinky and sadistic. Entrenched in the midst of her marital turmoil, she one day meets a mysterious stranger who approaches her with what seems like the ticket to a better life. Will the promise of turning things around ultimately become a reality, or is Nikki walking into a double cross?