Love like this doesn't come with flowers. It comes with scars.
Anastasie Laurent vanished once to survive. Now, she's back to finish what was started. Her past is soaked in blood and secrets, buried alongside the man she once loved and the life she was never meant to escape. But when a rival family resurfaces, threatening the last pieces of the world she's tried to protect, Ana stops running. It's time to burn everything down.
Cole Cavallo is no longer the prince of the mafia. He's its king. After a brutal war leaves his family in ruins, he returns to Chicago to rebuild his empire, harder, colder, and deadlier than ever. What he doesn't expect is her, a woman he once helped save from the thing that once changed both their lives forever.
Ana steps into his war with a body count, a kill list, and no intention of being anyone's salvation. But her past is his future. And every name she's hunting is a threat he can't afford to ignore.
This isn't a reunion. It's a reckoning.
CW: Swearing, spice, and everything not-so-nice with violence and a little bit of gore thrown in.
Sub-Genres
- Mafia Romance / Organized Crime Romance
- Romantic Thriller
- Psychological Romance
- Revenge Romance
- Contemporary Dark Romance
Tropes
- Second Chance / Reunion Under Fire - He saved her once. Now, they're thrown together again in the middle of a war.
- Morally Grey (and Bloody) Leads - She's a killer. He's a mob boss. There are no innocents here.
- Enemies to Lovers (with bullet holes) - There's tension, betrayal, power plays... and then there's the burn.
- Touch Her/Him and Die - Classic. Cold. Ruthless. And completely feral when it comes to protecting her. And him.
- Found Family - Built from scars, loss, and loyalty-not blood.
- Damaged Heroine / Tortured Anti-Heroine - She's broken, brutal, and absolutely unstoppable.
- Buried Past / Secret Identity - She disappeared. And now, everything she hid is crawling back to the surface.
- High-Stakes Action - Explosions, shootouts, torture rooms, and a kill list she keeps adding to.
- He Falls First, She Falls Harder - He loved her from almost the first moment. She fell in love with him eventually, and when she did, she was willing to sacrifice it all to save him.
- Strong FMC - She doesn't need saving. She is the reckoning.
