Chapter 1

I'm two seconds from saying I do when the screen behind me lights up.

It's me. On that screen. Half-naked. Bleeding. Being passed around a room full of men. Every second of it. In high definition. In front of three hundred people.

My fiancé is holding the ring above my finger. He turns around. He slides it onto my best friend's hand instead.

Someone rips the top of my dress down. Someone else cracks something hard across the back of my skull. Then a shove between my shoulder blades, and I'm going backward off the altar, three feet down, straight into white rose petals.

The doors slam open.

Kane Locke walks in. Cecily's older brother. The man who runs half this island. One shot from his gun and the screen blows out in a shower of sparks.

He drags me up against his chest like I'm the last thing left on earth.

Nobody in that ballroom moves. Nobody breathes. His boys carry in ten steel crates and drop them at my feet. Gold. Diamonds. Stacks of it.

Then Kane goes down on one knee. In front of everyone. In front of Julian. In front of Cecily.

He asks me to marry him.

And I say yes. God help me, I say yes.

Three years later.

The day my IVF finally takes, I walk to his study clutching the ultrasound picture against my chest. I'm about to tell my husband we're having a baby.

Then I hear his voice through the door.

"Damn, Boss. Three years ago, if you hadn't dropped that little home movie of Willow getting worked over at her own wedding, Ceci never would've made it into the Ford family."

Kane. Cigarette hanging off his lip. Laughing like it's nothing.

"The Fords care about one thing. Their name. Willow had to come out of that ballroom filthy. Beyond touching. Ceci wanted to be the future Mrs. Ford, and I wasn't gonna let my little sister down."

Somebody snickers.

"Yeah, but Boss, why'd you have to take the leftovers home? You didn't have to marry that used-up bitch yourself."

Kane's mouth curls.

"Ceci's soft. She can't handle the pain of carrying a kid. I needed a womb to push out an heir for her and the Fords. Something to lock her in for good. Willow's is right there. Might as well use it."

The laughter behind that door doesn't stop.

Every drop of blood in my body runs cold from my scalp down to the soles of my feet.

Everything I thought was salvation. Every soft word. Every crate of gold. Every promise. It was all a hole. A deeper one. Dug just for me. So Cecily Vale could climb up out of it wearing a crown, standing on my bones.

I wipe my face.

I pull out my phone. I scroll to the one number in this city Kane hates more than his own reflection.

Vince Reyes. The man who runs the other half of these streets.

"I've got a hundred-million-dollar job for you. Guaranteed payout. You in?"

The voices coming through that door make me sick.

"Damn, Boss. That was smart. Swapping her vitamins for abortion pills? She couldn't hold a baby if her life depended on it. That's how you got her running to IVF. And the whole time, she thinks the embryo is hers. She has no clue it's Ceci's and Julian's. If she ever found out, she'd lose it."

"Let her lose it. When the baby comes out, we tell her it died. She won't fight. She'll blame herself. Too broken to hold a kid. That womb of hers has one job. Push out a baby for Ceci. That's it."

Kane crushes his cigarette in the ashtray. Slow. Easy. Stands up.

His eyes drag around the room like a gun.

"What was said in here dies in here. Mouths shut. Not one word. I need Willow calm. Quiet. Pregnant. Until that baby comes out."

Quinn holds up three fingers, grinning.

"Boss. Come on. That girl is dumb."

Somebody laughs.

"Like, actually dumb," Quinn says. "We called her sis one time. Now she thinks she runs the house."

"She cooks?"

"Every night. Different dish."

The room cracks up.

"If she ever found out I picked every guy in that video—one by one—she'd throw herself off a roof."

Somebody whistles.

"Damn, Quinn. Cold."

"Selfish, too. Why didn't you pick me? I would've had a real good time with that tight little—"

He doesn't finish.

A knife flies across the room and sticks in the couch. Right between his legs.

His face goes white. His eyes almost pop out of his head. He stops breathing.

"Willow can be as dirty as you want to call her." Kane's voice is flat. "She's still my wife. Next guy who says one word about that night loses his dick. Are we clear?"

One of the younger guys clears his throat. Works up the nerve.

"Boss. You gotta feel something for her. She looks quiet, but she's tough. What if one day she figures it out and walks?"

Kane laughs. Like it's the funniest thing he's heard all week.

"That girl? Please. Damaged goods with a head full of fairy tales. Two nice words and she comes crawling back like a dog."

The whole room loses it.

Outside, I'm against the wall.

I can't feel my hands. I can't feel my legs. I'm cold from my scalp to my feet.

I press both hands over my mouth. The sobs come out anyway.

The laughing dies down. Somebody's walking to the door.

I turn and I run.

Down the stairs. Straight to the coffee table. I grab a glass of red wine and drink the whole thing in one swallow.

It burns. Throat. Chest. Eyes. And then the tears come.

My nails dig into my palm. Every word from that study plays in my head. Over and over.

Three years ago. One week before my wedding to Julian Ford.

They snatched me off the street in broad daylight. They didn't want money. They wanted twenty-four hours to break me. And they took every one of them.

When I came home, Julian cried into my hair. Said he still loved me. Said he'd still marry me.

Then, on my wedding day, that video played on the screen behind me. And Julian slid my ring onto Cecily's finger.

I became the whore of the city. Everybody's punchline. Everybody's warning.

And Kane. Kane. He came crashing through those doors. Held me against his chest like I mattered. Shut every single mouth in that ballroom with one bullet and one look. Touch her and die.

He had ten crates of gold and diamonds dragged in for me. Said he didn't care what happened to me. Didn't care what anyone said. Said if he couldn't marry me in this life, he'd die unhappy.

The way he looked at me. God. I believed him. I let myself love again because of that look.

And now I know.

The whole thing was a setup. Every second of it. A trap. So Cecily Vale could walk to the top over my dead body.

Now it all makes sense. Ceci calling me the day I got taken. My car broke down, Willow. Please come get me. That weird little smile on her face at the altar.

She knew. She knew the whole time.

I was the sacrifice. She was the bride.

And me. Stupid, in-love me. I gave three years of my life to the man who lit the match.

I bite the inside of my cheek until I taste blood. I don't feel it.

All I feel is hate. Deep. Ugly. Endless.

Then two big hands land on my shoulders.

Kane pulls me into his chest like he's done a thousand times. He sees the tears on my face and his eyebrows pull together, hard.

"Who the fuck made my wife cry?" His voice drops. Low. Deadly. "Whoever it is—get your ass down here. Now."