Jace Marino has mastered control. By day, he’s the brilliant, untouchable criminal law professor at Brooklyn Law. By night, he’s the eldest son of New York’s most powerful crime family — a man whose word still commands the streets, even if he claims to have left that life behind.

Julian Pole never wanted law school. Sensitive and artistic, he’s far more comfortable with a sketchpad than statutes. But with a detective father and a nurse mother pushing him, quitting isn’t an option — even as his grades begin to slip.

When Jace calls on him unexpectedly in class, Julian’s stammered answer and shy, uncertain eyes spark something Jace doesn’t want to name. He should look away. Instead, he finds himself watching.

As rivals close in on Marino territory, Jace’s two worlds are on a collision course — and the quiet, blue-eyed student might be the one thing he can’t protect from the fallout.

I don't know how I got here, but I know where I am—my father's dungeon. The one place I've hated my whole life.


Voices echo at the end of the hallway. I freeze, shivering like the boy I used to be—the boy who always dreaded what waited at the end of this corridor.


My throat goes dry. The black hole I've avoided for years opens wide again, pulling me in.


"You think your brother is coming to save you?"


His voice ricochets off the walls, venomous, vibrating through my skull.


I push myself forward, step by step, until the iron door looms


When I opened the door, Mateo was in the bathtub, half-buried in ice, his small frame shaking. Too small to be in there.


Chapter 13 - The Bride of Destruction