Exiled. For six long years. But my father is dead now and I’m head of the Montague Family. I’m not going to stay hiding in the shadows any longer. No, I’m going to get my revenge starting with her; Rose Capulet. The love of my life. By the time I’m finished she, and everyone in this city will understand the monster I’ve become. The monster they made of me. I’m going to take this city. I’m going to take everything they love and leave them with nothing but the ashes.

On the surface, my life is a flawless performance. I stay home, keep the house spotless, and play the role of the devoted wife. It doesn’t matter that behind the curtains, the truth is darker than anyone could imagine. I’ve mastered the art of concealing the bruises, spinning lies to explain the tears, and burying the horrors of what happened behind closed doors. Until her.

My rightful place is at the head of the Bonetti empire. With my father dying, the pressure is on to prove I’m the man he can trust with his legacy. He has but one stipulation. I, Luca Bonetti, certified playboy, must take a wife. When I find a stunning brunette attempting to steal from me, everything changes. Sweet little thief. She may be beautiful, but she chose the wrong man to mess with. I have two choices. Kill her or use her to get what I want more than anything.

I don’t want a wife. I don’t want a prisoner. But she just became both… Seven years ago, Hadleigh Castille fell into my bed and never left my heart. Then she disappeared and my hunger for vengeance was born. My body wasn’t the same after that night. She left for war, but I lived a daily life of blood and violence for the Irish Mob. Now, I’ve risen to power in my own right, but to keep my crown I must align with the enemy. When he presents his sister to me as a bride, my heart takes a tumble. The woman I knew, the siren I never got over isn’t Hadleigh Castille, Navy Lieutenant.

They warned me that the very sight of me would incite a side of Maverick I would want to flee in fear of. But I had no place else to go. My only option was to brave his wrath to survive. His darkness reaches into me, pulling at something raw, something I don’t understand. With every word he slays me, his every touch burns along my skin. He breaks down my walls, igniting my fiery temper all the while laying bare desires I was never meant to feel, much less act on. Beneath the fire and fury, I glimpse the cracks in his armor and the man he’s desperately trying to hide.

Welcome to the Lilydale Foundation Center... home of second chances. At least, that's what they tell us it is. It's basically a glorified prison and asylum for the deranged with good alibis. When the police pulled me out of my burning home, along with what was left of my Father, I was deemed broken — even if I was the reason the fire started. So, here I am at my new home. They think they can save us with their fancy facility. But what insane person decided it was a good idea to put a bunch of young, unhinged people together?

I think I always knew I was going to die young. Like I had this… silent, invisible clock ticking down to my final moments plastered above my head. Maybe that’s why I was so reckless, crazy. Why I sought after adventure. Why nothing scared me… Except, there was always this… feeling I couldn’t shake that something was in the darkest parts of every corner, under every bed, closet, or room, like a ghost watching me. Waiting to take me. My own, personal reaper. But it was always only during a lightning storm that I could see the outline of my reaper. No scythe.

She betrayed him, and now he wants revenge against the sister who became his forbidden obsession the second he laid eyes on her. After she sends him to prison for years, he’s free and ready to haunt her.

I found out my husband of three years had cheated on me and his mistress is the one who told me—because he didn’t have the balls to do it himself. I move out and get a new apartment, a job as a bartender, and try to move on with a broken heart. I wonder where it all went wrong, if I hadn’t been enough for him, if I’d been stupid for marrying him in the first place. I’m at work one night when he walks inside—the most beautiful man I’ve ever seen. He sits at the bar and a forest fire burns between us.

He’s waited a long time for me, but I’ve waited longer for the truth. Not even the king himself could keep me from the only ties left to my identity. Then I meet him, and I’m stuck between uncovering who I am and discovering who I’m meant to be.