The Quiet Girl and the Monster Next Door

Everyone warned me about the man next door.
Scarred knuckles. Haunted eyes. A past wrapped in blood and secrets.

Cassian Vale is fifteen years older, freshly out of prison, and so quiet the whole town pretends he doesn't exist.
So, of course, I knocked on his door.

I didn't expect him to open it.
I didn't expect to see the sketch of me pinned to his wall.
And I definitely didn't expect to want the monster everyone else was terrified of.

But there are rules with Cassian.
Rule One: Don't ask about the basement.
Rule Two: Stay out of his past.
Rule Three: If he tells you to run-run.

I broke all three.

Now I know his secrets.
Now he knows mine.
And the scariest part?

I think I love him for the very things that should make me run.