CASSIAN:I've spent twenty years as the Costello family's most trusted enforcer. Cold. Calculated. Lethal. When I'm ordered to acquire Tessa Ellis at an underground auction, it's just another job. Five hundred thousand for a night with a desperate woman paying off her dead father's gambling debts.But the moment I see her standing tall despite her fear, something shifts inside me. One taste of her, and my carefully constructed walls begin to crumble. She's supposed to be leverage against my enemies—a pawn in a dangerous game between rival crime families.Instead, she's becoming my weakness. My obsession. The one thing I can't afford in my blood-soaked world.When threats close in from all sides, I have a choice to make: complete the mission or protect the woman who's somehow claimed what I thought was long dead—my heart.I'll burn down empires before I let anyone take her from me. Because Tessa isn't just a job anymore. She's mine.TESSA:Three weeks after burying my father, I discover the devastating truth: he left behind a mountain of gambling debts to the notorious Costello crime family. Now I have a choice—sacrifice myself for one night to clear his debt, or watch my teenage siblings pay the price.The auction is humiliating, but when a dark-eyed stranger pays an astronomical sum for me, I'm determined to maintain some control. What I don't expect is the storm of emotions Cassian awakens in me—fear mingled with a forbidden desire that burns hotter than shame.He's dangerous, a hitman with blood on his hands and secrets in his eyes. I should hate him for buying me like property. Instead, I find myself falling for the man beneath the merciless exterior—the one who looks at me like I'm his salvation.As rival crime families close in and threats mount against those I love, Cassian becomes more than my captor—he becomes my protector. Together, we're playing a deadly game where the stakes are our hearts and our lives.They wanted me broken. He made me unstoppable.
CASSIAN:I've spent twenty years as the Costello family's most trusted enforcer. Cold. Calculated. Lethal. When I'm ordered to acquire Tessa Ellis at an underground auction, it's just another job. Five hundred thousand for a night with a desperate woman paying off her dead father's gambling debts.But the moment I see her standing tall despite her fear, something shifts inside me. One taste of her, and my carefully constructed walls begin to crumble. She's supposed to be leverage against my enemies—a pawn in a dangerous game between rival crime families.Instead, she's becoming my weakness. My obsession. The one thing I can't afford in my blood-soaked world.When threats close in from all sides, I have a choice to make: complete the mission or protect the woman who's somehow claimed what I thought was long dead—my heart.I'll burn down empires before I let anyone take her from me. Because Tessa isn't just a job anymore. She's mine.TESSA:Three weeks after burying my father, I discover the devastating truth: he left behind a mountain of gambling debts to the notorious Costello crime family. Now I have a choice—sacrifice myself for one night to clear his debt, or watch my teenage siblings pay the price.The auction is humiliating, but when a dark-eyed stranger pays an astronomical sum for me, I'm determined to maintain some control. What I don't expect is the storm of emotions Cassian awakens in me—fear mingled with a forbidden desire that burns hotter than shame.He's dangerous, a hitman with blood on his hands and secrets in his eyes. I should hate him for buying me like property. Instead, I find myself falling for the man beneath the merciless exterior—the one who looks at me like I'm his salvation.As rival crime families close in and threats mount against those I love, Cassian becomes more than my captor—he becomes my protector. Together, we're playing a deadly game where the stakes are our hearts and our lives.They wanted me broken. He made me unstoppable.
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