Betray me. Break me. Leave me wanting more.
Nolan Vandello turned my life into a smoking ruin the day I sent him to prison.
He’s the source of all my fear and mourning: the reason my mother’s gone, the reason I’m stuck in a dead-end town, and the reason I hate myself as much as I despise him.
But the longing is deep in my bones, and when I need his help again seven years later, it’s like our horrible past never happened.
Nolan is still the gorgeous boy that stole my heart and made me feel safe, only now he’s taller, broader, devilishly handsome, and exceedingly dangerous.
We strike a deal: if he fixes my little sister’s blackmail problem, I’ll solve the mystery of who really betrayed him all those years ago.
One last job together and then we’ll never speak again.
But nothing’s ever simple with Nolan and it turns out what he really wants is a lot bigger than the truth.
I’ll give him so much more than I ever imagined, and that won’t be enough to quiet his darkest hunger.
Welcome to a new series loosely connected to the Valverde Mafia!
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
Chapter 1
Cora
Nolan Vandello hates getting ambushed, which is why I’m about to walk into his strip club and drop a bomb in his lap.
“Stay in the truck,” I tell Kady as I check myself in the mirror. I look okay, not like I’m trying too hard to make myself pretty, but still put together. My hair’s down, my makeup is subdued for once, my shirt’s got a neckline that more or less covers everything, and I’m wearing the gold cross my momma left me after she died. It’s not armor, but it’s close enough.
It’s after eleven and the parking lot’s already full. We’re out in a quiet part of West Cobb on the edges of Marietta, Georgia, on another sweltering and sticky Southern night. Kady gives me a look like I’m insane.
“No way I’m letting you go in there without me,” my little sister says. She’s wearing too much dark eyeliner, just like I do, and her hair’s cut short. She did the hair recently, said she needed something new, but I know she’s trying to hide from her problems by changing the way she looks.
I tried to tell her it doesn’t work that way, but she’s got to make her own mistakes, just like I did.
“Trust me, okay? This’ll be easy if it’s just me.”
“You and Nolan—” She starts and stops, deflating slightly as she chews on her lip. “Are you sure this is a good idea?”
I won’t tell her this, but it’s very much not a good idea.
It’s a very, very bad idea.
That phrase, you and Nolan, it’s loaded with so much misery and history, and I doubt Kady could bring it to a natural conclusion without causing the world to implode.
You and Nolan haven’t spoken in seven years.
You and Nolan used to be so close.
You and Nolan hate each other.
You and Nolan ruined each other’s lives.
A dozen more versions of that little phrase run through my head.
But I smile at her anyway.
“Don’t worry, I’ve got this. I told you I’d take care of your problem, right? I’m going to take care of it.”
I put all the confidence I don’t feel into a big-sisterly grin and give her a quick hug across the console. The truck’s still idling, the air conditioning blowing, although I don’t know how long that’ll last. We have a single vehicle between us, an ancient Ford truck from the eighties that might’ve been gorgeous once but it’s going to crumble to metal flakes and dust pretty soon. Out here, there’s no way to survive without some kind of vehicle and Big Rusty is the best we can do right now.
“You don’t have to do this for me, you know,” Kady says softly, blinking back tears. Of the two of us, she’s the big crier in the family. I learned a while back that crying doesn’t change a thing.
“Yeah, I do. You want me to put a stop to him, right?”
“I just mean you shouldn’t have to.” She looks down at her hands. “I shouldn’t put myself in these positions.”
“We don’t always choose who we love.”
“I don’t love him.” She looks up fiercely. “I was just dumb.”
“Yeah, same thing.” I pat her knee and push the door open. “Keep her running for me, will you? I don’t know if I’ll need to run out of there in a hurry.”
Kady groans. “Seriously, Cora!”
“I told Momma I’d take care of you if something ever happened to her, so stop complaining, okay?” I told her that when she learned about the cancer, but that’s not what killed her in the end. “I’ll be right back.”
I leave before she can talk me into staying because I’m really close to chickening out.
The thought of seeing Nolan again after all these years is like a stake right through my heart. I’d rather climb to the top of the Big Chicken and jump off head-first and be the first person to die via Big Chicken suicide than have to face this man again, but Kady needs me right now, and he’s the only person in the world I know that might be able to fix our problem.