Gillian Bright

As the bus approaches my stop on the Lower East Side, I raise the hood of my black sweatshirt. Anonymity is key in my neighborhood - particularly as a lone female walking at night. All I want is to leave my crime-ridden shadow of a home in New York City. I've done everything I can to keep my head down and focus on my studies. College is my only goal; love has never been on the map...That is, until my sister brings me to an underground fight, where I meet a gorgeous and mysterious man: Vincent.

Through every drop of blood I spilled, I lost a piece of my soul. I've sacrificed seven long years and the woman of my life for the family. With prison behind me, I'm finally taking the reins of my destiny. I won't allow the choices of my past to define my future. But I'm not done fighting - not yet. Eve is still out there. I will stop at nothing to get her back.

Kade and Hunter Caruthers. Brothers. Twins. My cousins. In a way, they’re my family. Protective. Indulgent. My best friends. But there was something else there, too. That ever-present whisper that reminded me more as I got older that we didn’t actually share any blood. They used to be inseparable. We all were, but not anymore. I don’t know why Hunter left or why he joined a rival team in Weston—that Rebel town across the river—to stand on the opposite side of the field from his brother, but Kade is out for blood now and Hunter has finally decided to engage.

Hawken Trent. So polite. So sweet. Such an upstanding young man. A virgin, too, I hear. He never gets naughty with a girl. Probably because Jesus told him not to. And now here he is, trying to be the hero by protecting another girl from me. He calls me a bully. Irrational. Unreasonable. A criminal. He can call me anything he wants, I’ve heard worse. And he can try to stand between me and my money, but he’s never had to fight for food. That rich, clean, school boy doesn’t have what it takes

We're not free to give into this. She's 19, and I'm 38. And I'm her boyfriend's father. Unfortunately, they both just moved into my house.

My name may be Romeo, but I'm far from romantic. My brother betrayed the family, forcing me into the role of underboss beneath the criminal mastermind that is our father. I've never been a merciless criminal, and my father tests my resolve by giving me a stolen woman, knowing the situation disturbs me. What he doesn't know is the disheveled beauty intrigues me.

The public labels me a Mafia monster, a man without a soul, and one hated by many. They're not wrong, and I'm not sorry for it. When my father orders me to marry a longtime enemy's daughter to settle a score between our families, she did what any smart woman with a beating heart would do. She ran. So, I hunted her down. She tries to negotiate for her freedom, but despite being inexplicably drawn to the deviant woman, I refuse her pitiful bribes with pleasure. I'll promise her freedom to get the answers I need, but I'll burn this city to the ground before I let her go.

Legend has it that there's an intangible red string that binds two souls destined to be together. No matter the time, place, or circumstance, nothing can break the invisible thread between those two people who are meant to be together. That's what it was like between Warner and me - an instant connection, like we'd always been together. He and I, both from traumatized families, found comfort in one another. The boy with the letterman jacket and charismatic smile. And me, his bohemian princess. The invisible string pulling us to one another despite the danger our love created.

The Sick Boys feed on the order they create. They rule Eastpoint University just as their families have for decades. But their power doesn't stop there. The three of them are heirs to some of the largest fortunes in the world, and behind that kind of wealth lies an underworld of corruption. On the surface, they're perfect princes and he is their king. But underneath it all, they're filled with blood, lies, and secrets. With all of their connections, they have the power to crush anyone who gets in their way.

Sending him to prison was the worst thing I could've done. It didn't matter that he did the crime or that I wished he was dead. Perhaps I thought I'd have time to disappear before he got out or he'd cool off in jail and be anything but the horror he was. But I was wrong. Three years came and went too fast, and now he's anything but calm. Prison only gave him time to plan. And while I anticipated his vengeance, I didn't expect this. He doesn't want to make me hurt. He wants to make everything hurt.