Arabella never meant to get close to someone like him. Warren is reckless, unreadable, and surrounded by rumors that make people run. But the more she's warned to stay away, the more she wants to know why he hides behind those walls...and why he can't seem to stay away from her either. ────୨ৎ──── Warren Reid is a name everyone in town knows, and not for good reasons. He left a student unconscious before disappearing into juvie, and now that he's back, the rumors are worse than ever. With a past that whispers warnings and a reputation that silences rooms, Warren is used to being feared, not understood. He trusts no one, lets no one in, and only keeps two people close. Emotions are weaknesses in his world, and vulnerability has never been an option. Until her. Arabella Winters is the picture of perfection and the last girl anyone would expect to cross paths with someone like Warren. Smart, sweet, and sheltered, she follows every rule her parents set, never once stepping out of line. She's the kind of girl who still believes in good graces, bedtime curfews, and fairy tale endings. But one knock on Warren's door throws her into his world, and nothing is the same after that. Everyone says he's trouble, but Arabella doesn't see the monster they all fear. She sees someone broken, someone hiding wounds no one else bothers to look for. What starts as innocent curiosity soon becomes an intense pull neither of them can resist. She's drawn to the shadows he hides in, and he can't stay away from the light she doesn't even know she carries. Now Arabella has to ask herself: is she helping Warren escape the darkness...or is she just letting it swallow her too?

"Do you know what I do to girls who don't answer when they're spoken to?" she murmured, her voice dripping with quiet menace under the mask. "N-no," Salma breathed, her voice barely audible as she kept her eyes locked on Nerezza's dark eyes. Nerezza hummed, tilting Salma's chin up with a gloved hand, her grip firm but teasing. "I fuck the answers out of them," she whispered, each word slow and deliberate. ••••• Salma, a well known radio show host, is used to strange calls-but nothing like this. One Wednesday morning, an anonymous woman dials in live on air, her voice low, dripping with eerie amusement as she confesses to a murder. Convinced it's a twisted prank, Salma plays along, her tone teasing-until the caller whispers something only Salma could know. What starts as a disturbing coincidence spirals into a chilling obsession. Night after night, the woman calls back, turning Salma into her unwilling confidante, her chosen messenger. Each call comes with cryptic clues, taunts wrapped in silken words, a deadly puzzle Salma is forced to solve-because if she doesn't, she'll be the next victim. But fear gives way to fascination. Then obsession. As the game between them intensifies, Salma finds herself drawn to the voice on the other end of the line-a voice that knows her deepest fears, her darkest desires. The hunt for the truth becomes a tangled web of danger, passion, and something far more dangerous than death. They should be enemies. One is the hunter, the other the prey. But what happens when they fall in love? Written by: Tzipora Rosen Edited by: Lean Catherine Benton Disclaimer: Sexually explicit content Violence Strong language 🏆 #1 horror-thriller 🏆 #1 Toxic