Vadka Dragunov-Bratva executioner, cold-blooded tactician... and my sister's widower.

The man who built his empire in blood and protected it with silence. The man with a stare that holds me hostage-and a voice that cuts straight through me. I've avoided him, avoided all of them, as I've wallowed in my own grief following my sister's death.

But now there's no escape. I'm living in his world. I've been targeted. The Irish want war. And the only safe place left is under his watch... or under him.

He's a single father now-haunted, vengeful, and dangerous. A man who reads bedtime stories with the same hands that pull triggers. The man who would raze the world to keep his son safe.

He thinks I'm reckless, chaotic, unpredictable. I was only a child when we first met. He's always known me as little Ruthie.

But I'm not a child anymore, and I see what he hides beneath all that control-the obsession simmering just below the surface. The way he watches me like he wants to destroy me... or devour me.

And now the same loss that tore us apart is now pulling us closer.

Too close.

This was never supposed to happen.
I wasn't supposed to end up in his bed.
I wasn't supposed to want him to claim me like he owns me.
And I sure as hell wasn't supposed to be carrying the one secret that could burn everything down.

The Bratva is splintering. The Irish want blood.
And I'm falling head over heels for the man I can't have.

But is this love... or just what's left of us after everything else has been destroyed?