Half the Battle

"Do you want some Goldfish crackers, Bliss?" Those were the last words my brother said to me before he was shot execution style. A childhood code only he and I knew, and one that had a single, clear meaning behind it.

"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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Nothing prepares you for finding your sister’s lifeless body covered in blood. But when the police arrest her ex, a man I know is innocent, I can’t sit by and do nothing. Not when I’ve been secretly in love with him for years. Heath may not want my help, but I won’t take no for an answer. To catch a killer, I’m forced to take a job at Saint View Prison. Maximum security. The place they send the worst of the worst. But it’s not just Heath who doesn’t want me there. With every lie we uncover, every secret we expose, the danger mounts.

My ex-husband broke my heart by asking for an open marriage. Then I found out he had already been sleeping with someone else. So I dumped his butt and moved out. In the process, I found myself in the arms of four smoking-hot strangers. They pull out all the stops, lavishing me with all of the attention I’d been missing out on. But these guys have a secret. Am I going to be able to cope with the truth when it comes out, or is it going to be too much to bear?

There was a sh*tstorm brewing. Whispers. Rumbles. A rot—fueled by greed and protected by corruption—that’d seeped like sewage, eating away at everything it touched. The only people I trusted were my brother by blood, my brothers by patch, and the crazy Irish-Scottish bastard I did jobs for. That was why, when the hot-as-hell blonde started trailing my brothers and me, I had to act.

My family is gone. My parents. My twin sister. All of them murdered by the man who has stalked me for years. He nearly killed me, too. But I got away and he’s still out there, searching for me. He won’t find me. At least, I hope not. Thanks to WITSEC, I’ve been given a new life with a new identity. I know my future will be hard and lonely. I must stay strong and focus on the good. I’m getting a second chance at life. I am safe. My new home is beautiful. The four brothers who live next door are even more so.