Chapter 13: Love at Lethal Lope.

Violet Virgilson.

The air in Vincent Virenson’s house was still thick with smoke—whether from the whiskey, the gunpowder tang of blood, or just the fire he’d set beneath my skin, I couldn’t tell. My heartbeat hadn’t slowed since he leaned in, whispering that I was under his skin. My walls had cracked, my resolve had burned, and my sanity was somewhere in ashes on the rug.

Silence pressed against the walls like a second skin. Every breath I drew ...