I was the dutiful daughter. Or, at least, that was what it looked like from the outside.

Deep inside, I was suffocating. I longed for something I didn’t know how or where to find. But I kept my façade firmly in place while I searched for answers.

Until one New Orleans’ night changed it all.

Nikola Nikolaev—the heir to the Crescent City’s ruthless criminal empire—caught me in a club that was off limits. And just like that, my carefully constructed world began to crumble.

We never saw it coming. The invisible force between us, the one that had a power far beyond anything we understood, pulling us closer, demanding what we couldn't give.

But there was more to Nikola than the unhinged, reckless man everyone saw.

I fell. Hard.

He didn’t.

I should've walked away. Instead, I was determined to peel back his layers and prove to him he’d met his match.

I, Skye Leone, would rise to become his queen.