Zerus_Greylock
Jessica Smith is an ordinary young woman living a quiet, uneventful life-bartending by night, keeping her head down in a city that never sleeps. But one stormy night, everything changes. When a wounded stranger stumbles into her bar, bleeding and armed, Jessica makes a split-second decision that will unravel everything she thought she knew about safety, morality, and control.
That stranger is Alexander Burchwood, the cold, calculating leader of the city's most dangerous crime syndicate.
By saving his life, Jessica unknowingly steps into the center of a brutal underworld war. Rival gangs mark her as a weakness. Assassins target her. Her normal life vanishes in an instant, replaced by a world of gunfire, betrayal, and blood-soaked streets.
Forced into Alexander's orbit for her own protection, Jessica finds herself tangled in a dark game of manipulation and violence. As she navigates the rules of his ruthless empire, she begins to see behind the mask he wears-cold steel hiding a fractured soul. But Alexander is a man built on power and secrets. Feelings are liabilities. Love is a weakness he can't afford.
And yet, something about her gets under his skin.
As danger closes in and the city ignites in chaos, Jessica must decide: is she just another pawn in his war-or will she cut her strings and fight back?