

For sixteen years, Kiera Hawthorne has been planning a funeral, all while playing the dutiful daughter. She orchestrates her father’s charity galas by day. By night, she’s the shadow tormenting him with haunting reminders of the wife he slaughtered. Promising to get her mother’s revenge, she’s so close to the grave she can taste it. She didn’t count on a distraction.
Sterling Wraith is methodical, obsessive, and broken in all the ways that matter. Hired by Wade Hawthorne to find the shadow hunting him, Sterling never thought he’d meet someone who is as damaged as he is. Infiltrating Kiera’s life, his focus is slipping away from the job and toward the thorn that is spreading an infection through him. A voice echoing through his mind: No one will ever love you.
Their collision is violent, an obsession colliding with a mission they both set out for. And when the truth about Cicada surfaces, they’re left with one question:
Were their souls always meant to match…or built to burn everything around them?
Nine months ago, Cam ruined everything.
Lila spent months loving a man who slowly disappeared while standing right beside her. Distant. Cold. Buried beneath secrets he refused to share. So she stopped asking questions and started keeping her own. Then a mission sends them undercover to a resort tied to the Cicada network. One hotel room. One bed. And nowhere left to hide from the cracks between them.
As they fight to expose Cicada's corruption, Cam's past refuses to stay buried. There was someone before Lila. Someone he failed. Someone he believes he hurt.
And the deeper Lila digs, the more she realizes Cam's distance was never about not loving her. It was because he believed everyone he loves eventually pays the price.
Now, with Cicada closing in and the truth threatening everything they've built, Cam and Lila have to decide if their love can survive the secrets between them.
Because some sins can be forgiven, but ruin leaves a mark. And theirs was always going to be inked in blood.
