MIRANDA

I saw the flash of steel in the harbor, a life extinguished in a heartbeat of violence I was never meant to witness. Now, the man sent to silence me has become my entire world, trapping me in a gilded cage high above the city lights. Gideon Stride is a monster with slate-gray eyes and scarred knuckles, a predator who was supposed to kill me but chose to keep me instead.

He strips away my identity until there is nothing left but the raw, terrifying heat of his touch. I should hate him for the way he breaks my will, yet my body betrays me, turning fear into a desperate, aching need for the man who holds my life in his hands. Every time he looks at me with those cruel, beautiful eyes, I am reminded that surrendering to him is a death sentence, but walking away is an impossibility I no longer desire.

GIDEON

One pull of the trigger was all it should have taken to finish the job and keep my hands clean. But when I cornered Miranda Greer in that rain-slicked alley, her defiance burned brighter than the fear in her amber eyes, and I was hooked in a heartbeat. I didn't just want her silenced; I wanted her claimed, body and soul.

I should have walked away, kept my chaos from consuming her. But I couldn't.

Now she is mine, a beautiful witness trapped in a world of blood, and this obsession is a deadly poison. I'll destroy anyone who dares try to take her from me-even if I have to burn my entire empire down just to keep her in my arms.

This is the third book in The Edge of Ruin Series. Reading order: Stay Still, Don't Run, You're Mine.