Velvet And Vitriol

"I am the devil in a burning house, and I'll stay here forever if it keeps her in the light."

To the elite of Loarsville, he is the polished heir to a business empire. To the underground, behind the wheel he is the "Reaper"-the cold-blooded right hand of a man whose wealth is built on blood money and broken lives. He wears the title like pounds of metal in water: heavy, suffocating, and voluntary.

She has every reason to hate him. Thats what he wants. She sees the "reaper" behind his designer suits and the blood on his hands. Haunted by fragmented nightmares of herself she can't fully remember, she wants nothing to do with the violent legacy their families share.

What she doesn't know is that every life he takes is a payment for her safety. And others. He fuels her hatred with calculated cruelty, driving her away to keep her out of the crosshairs of a war she survived once but might not survive again.

In a world of vintage champagne, and toxic secrets, they are bound by a vow made in the dark she doesn't know exists.

He vows to be her monster so she never has to face the real ones below. He vowed to sheild her from the entrance to the underground, keep her from going down ever again. From ever remembering the truth.
She thinks she knows him. She thinks hes the real reaper.

He's betting his life that she's wrong.

Because she is.