Caged Bird

I’m the ruling queen of Saint View Strip. After growing up poor, taking my clothes off and dancing for men is all I know. My thriving club and the people I employ are everything. They’re my ride or die, and I’m theirs.

"You may now kiss your bride". They were the last words my mother heard before she collapsed on the church steps, poison ending her pitifully short life. When her new husband dies minutes later, all eyes turn to me. There are whispers. Accusations. The verdict is split. I murdered them both. Or I'm the next to die.

One minute I’m cleaning toilets for minimum wage. The next, I’m waking up from a drug-induced nap with a monster staring down at me. Kidnapped and seconds from death, I think I’m done for. Until masked men burst in, murder my attacker, and turn my world upside down. They call themselves Murder Squad. A secret brotherhood of broken men who only kill the worst of the worst. And one of them thinks I’m his wife.

He murdered my uncle, then covered it with fire. A fire that should have killed me, too. Instead, he hauled me from the floor while flames licked the walls, strong arms holding me close. He saved my life. Now I want to know why. I never saw his face. All I know is the letters on his shirt. SVH. Saint View High. The worst school in a hundred miles. Full of drugs and despair. Breeding ground for future criminals. Armed security guards and weapon checks at every door. A far cry from my privileged life of money, private school, and fancy vacations.

The other women watch me with envy, but they know nothing of the beatings and punishments I endure. He hides them with a veil. One I must wear until I give him a son. But when I fail, he threatens the only good things in my life. My sister, Alice, and the daughter he ripped from my arms for another family to raise. I thought running back to Saint View would save us. I thought wrong. Now my sister is dead, left strangled in an alleyway, and my ex-husband isn’t the only suspect.