"You want a job here, Victoria?" He asks quietly, and I swallow beneath his grip. It was hard for me to breathe- much less speak. Fear spills throughout my body at the sudden realization that Nico could completely crush my windpipes if he wanted to. One squeeze and my life will be over. He brings me closer to his face and I freeze when his thumb slides down the side of my neck. It startles me, causing my heart to thrash restlessly against my ribcage. "Consider yourself hired." Head tilted, he looks at me closely. "You just signed your life away to me. I hope it was worth it." •••

"With you, the act ends." . . .

"I am a man of my word," Alexi said, walking closer. "And I promise you, Rose, that I will make you mine." He was pitch black darkness in the grey of her life. He was her solitude. He was her savior. She was his life. She was his Rose. . . . Alexi Sokolov, the Russian Mafiya boss undercover in NYC, never expected to fall for a big-mouthed girl with secrets surrounding her. Rose Candella, a High School graduate, never expected to fall for the new mystery worker at her mother's bookstore. . . . BDSM. Mature content.

"There was nothing easier than loving Blue."

This is book 2 in the "Beautiful Destruction" series. You MUST READ "Theirs to Claim" first in order to understand this one. ____ When I was ten, my father told me that all of my dreams would one day come true. Naively, I believed him. I may have grown up in an environment rooted by hate, dishonestly, and fear, but it wasn't until I was sixteen that I felt true pain. Years later at the age of twenty-three, I felt it again, only this kind of hurt was built on entirely different evils: love, secrecy, and revenge. Alec, Caleb, and Xavier were the most beautiful of beginnings and destructive of heartbreaks, but nowhere in our story is there room for an end. Yes, when I was ten my father told me that all of my dreams would one day come true, but what he forgot to mention was that nightmares were also dreams. One lie, one night. It cost us everything, leaving us here, three-hundred and seventy-six days later. ____ Even with the overarching mystery of who's responsible for the death of Heidi Adams, there are new conflicts that have arisen within New York. With the weight of carrying the title as Don, Xavier, Caleb, and Alec battle between what's expected of them, and regaining the trust of the women they feared they'd lost. When Madelyn receives a series of anonymous cynical threats, she's left with the choice between facing the world on her own or risking the one thing she's spent months creating shields around: her heart. Apart, the four of them are dangerous, but together, their force is lethal. Only time is strong enough to reveal where their stories cross, however it's love, power, and revenge that threatens to burn everything to the ground. What was once a fight against each other turns into something that's far more daunting-something that has the ability to either unite two enemies or destroy what's already breaking. Getting even. ____ This book contains mature content including violence and sexual themes. Read at your own discretion.