your father built the town's church with his own hands, laid the foundation when your mom was pregnant with you. you were raised to wear white on easter, to memorize psalms before you even learned to ride a bike. but god never felt like love, he hung like a weight on your shoulders. everyone watched you grow up-the preacher's daughter, the town's sweetest girl, god's little lamb-like you were a glass doll kept on the altar. your sunday school teacher, the grocery store clerks, your youth leaders. and joel miller. joel was one of the few to never get too close, never try to grace you with sweet words and touch because of your father. he kept his distance, nodded politely, and you were always too young. he looked at you without reaching. you remember him fixing the gutters at the church, help your dad lead prayer circles. mr. miller's voice was tired, but always kind. a good man. a man of the church. everyone adored you, but you had your own secrets-as did everyone in town. skipping town at 18, leaving the church, you learned to cry without praying first. sleep too much. kissed strangers who didn't care about your last name. returning to town a few years later, the house is emptier than you ever remembered. crosses hung above the beds, a thick layer of dust somehow covering every inviolable room. your father is quieter. has too much shame. and there's joel. but now, he keeps looking at you like he sees everything you're trying to hide. there's something else in his eyes than the rest of the men your dad surrounded himself with after church. and you? you're tired of being holy.

Lorelei is an exotic dancer with a magnetic presence, a troubled past, and a daily fight to stay clean. Joel is a quiet, steady bartender twice her age, carrying his own invisible weight-divorces, dead ends, and a weariness that's settled deep in his bones. He's been through enough to know better than to get involved, but somehow, she gets under his skin. She's a storm he never saw coming. He's a calm she didn't know she needed. As their connection deepens, so do the complications; old habits, harsh judgments, and the fear of wanting something real. Together, they'll have to navigate the wreckage of their pasts and the risk of falling for something that might not survive the damage. This is not a fairy tale. It's messy, magnetic, and dangerously intoxicating, and maybe not meant to last. ──★ ˙౨ৎ ̟ !! 《no outbreak | modern Joel miller | stripper x bartender au | no ellie | agegap | trigger warning!!》

Takes place after the third season-- Javier moves to San Francisco to escape what he'd witnessed in Columbia over the past several years. The DEA is desperate to get him down to Mexico to help take down the Guadalajara Cartel, but Javier isn't so sure he wants to continue down that path. His decision only becomes increasingly more difficult when he meets a bartender named Emma, whose commitment issues seem to mirror his own. OR Javier Peña meets his match in the form of a little bartender in San Francisco.

Joel Miller doesn't belong in the city, but he's here anyway, working, raising his daughter, and keeping to himself. He's a man built for fixing things, not people. But when new ties start pulling him in, he's forced to confront what he's been avoiding: the life still waiting for him.

[+18] Lyanna Morgan has always been good at hiding the truth-until the truth puts her on the edge of a courtroom and face to face with a man who sees through everything. Javier Peña isn't the kind of lawyer who asks questions. He doesn't care about innocence. Only control. Strategy. Winning. But something about her ruins that. What begins as strategy spirals into a dangerous obsession-one laced with control, defiance, and a kind of desire that doesn't play fair. In the courtroom, they're fighting for her freedom. Behind closed doors? He's teaching her what it means to be owned. He was only supposed to help her. But she's going to be the only thing he can't let go of.