They say blood is thicker than water, but in Los Angeles, blood is also currency.

McKenzie Tanner Mandera has spent months on the run, from secrets, from betrayal, and from the crime world boss who calls himself her husband. All she wants is to keep her daughter safe and her past buried. But when enemies close in and truths begin to unravel, McKenzie’s family history becomes the kind of secret people kill for.

Now, with blood spilling and loyalties breaking, she’s caught between the man who protected her through hell…and the one willing to risk everything to keep her safe. McKenzie must choose: love or survival…there’s no room for both.

Dwayne Jackson returned to L.A. only to face the ghost that’s haunted him for seventeen years: McKenzie. When he sees her again…broken, hunted, and defiant, he’s determined to make things right. But when he takes on a high-profile case defending a notorious crime boss, his life explodes into chaos.

What starts as a legal battle becomes an all-out war between crime families. As corruption rises and lines blur between enemies and allies, Dwayne must choose: uphold the law…or become the weapon his enemies fear.

Because in this world, justice is never given. It’s taken.

No one is safe.
Not the women.
Not the children.

And so rises the Black Crown, not born in a city…
but in a war the world didn’t see coming.

Chapter 17 - y