Vows Beneath Blackwater

When heiress Mara Vale is forced to marry the feared head of the Blackwater syndicate, she expects a monster in a tailored suit. Lucien Cross is exactly that: ruthless, beautiful, and impossible to read. Their marriage is meant to end a blood feud between two criminal dynasties, but from the moment Mara steps into his rain-soaked estate, she realizes she has not been given to a husband. She has been locked inside a war.

Lucien vows to protect her, yet every protection feels like a cage. Mara vows to hate him, yet every touch exposes a hunger neither of them can afford. As buried betrayals surface and murders begin tracing a path back to Mara’s dead mother, she discovers her new husband may know the truth about the night that shattered her life.

But Lucien has secrets carved deeper than scars, and the darkest one is this: he did not marry Mara to make peace. He married her because someone else wanted her dead.