Emersyn Sharpe doesn’t belong in our world. In fact, the very last place she should be is with us. But someone is hurting her. We’ve all seen it. We tried to ignore the warning signs. We tried to trust the people around her. We tried to believe in her world. Too late. When she nearly died in front of us, we had to act. We took her. She doesn’t belong in our world, but I’ll be damned if someone lays a finger on her under my watch. I’ll kill them first.

Born into Hollywood royalty, I’ve been making the hot sheet and generating internet buzz since before I could even walk. Doesn’t matter that my parents divorced prior to my second birthday, I can’t escape the shadows—or scandals—of my movie star mother and my rock star father.

At any given time, there could be as many as 50 serial killers active. I’m looking for one. He’s been killing successfully for more than three decades. I suspect even longer. A year ago, the unsub’s methods changed. Instead of one or two bodies a year, five have been dropped. Either the unsub has a partner or he’s about to become a spree killer. It’s only a matter of time before someone puts the coin into the right slot and the kill song begins. Finding the unsub is my obsession. It was my father’s. He died without solving the mystery. I won’t.

When it comes down to acclaim in the yearbook, my class rank would probably earn me my only entry, but probably very little else. I don’t wear cosmetics, do my hair, or really give a damn about my appearance in general. I don’t need to be cool, and I’ve managed my high school career navigating all the different groups from the nerds to the jocks to the theatre kids and the band geeks. 

In the beginning, there was Savannah Shaw. Teasing me with a mischievous, merciless grin by day. Crawling through my window with tear-stained cheeks by night. I was ordered to avoid her. Lectured on her misdeeds. Forbidden from seeing her. But my need to protect her was innate. So natural I never questioned it. So visceral I couldn’t fight it.

I'm the princess to a dirty throne of motorcycles and madness, daughter of the president of the Death by Daybreak Motorcycle Club. My father's four closest officers—men dressed in blood and death and sin—they're my honor guard, cloaked in leather vests and tattoos. Only, there's nothing honorable about them at all. They're all wrong for me. Every motorcycle club has its old ladies. These guys...they share one. They share me .

"Do you want some Goldfish crackers, Bliss?" Those were the last words my brother said to me before he was shot execution style. A childhood code only he and I knew, and one that had a single, clear meaning behind it.

Moving to a new town to start college, where I can try to be normal. Or at least pretend I am. I’m willing to fake it, because I’m tired of trying to get better. Tired of spilling my guts to doctors and therapists to understand why I’ve heard voices since I was a child.

Beckett Langfield is grumpy, rich and hates kids. I’m an overworked, overstressed, and overweight single mom. The only reason we’re getting married is because he needs to fix a PR disaster and I am available. As in sitting next to him, in a bar, when he has this brilliant idea. Considering I just got divorced, I’m not looking to do that again. But Beckett makes me an offer that I literally can’t refuse, so I don’t.

Shh, I have a secret. The sinfully gorgeous members of the Student Council—Church, Ranger, Spencer, Micah and Tobias—can't ever find out. I already get picked on because my father's the headmaster. I don't need them to know I’m the only girl, too; I’d rather dress like a boy. Adamson All-Boys Academy now has its only female student, but I'm not about to be their guinea pig. Not when there's a secret at this school nobody is talking about. Not when the last female student here ended up dead.

With green eyes and an easy smile, Frank McCabe stole me away from the nightmares that awaited me at home. But the son of the Irish Mob would never be mine. I belonged to the Italians. And the moment my mother sold me to the head of the Italian Mafia, I became the one the people of Boston were warned about. The only person more feared than me in our city is the Irish Ghost. When I finally flee my marital prison with my sons and my sister in tow, I unwittingly run straight into the ghost of the Irishman who died in a fiery explosion years ago.

I had everything I ever wanted, until my life was flipped upside down. Now, I’m suddenly being forced to live in my parent’s hometown, with complete strangers. Like my heart isn’t broken enough. Could I fall any further? Yes. Yes, I could. Why might that be? The Allstars - Xavier Knight, Hunter Asheville, and Tobias Holmes - Asheville High’s prestigious star football players. They’re my worst nightmare. But damn...why do they have to be so mouth-wateringly hot?

All I wanted was to keep my head above water. To survive long enough to hit my 18th birthday so I could escape the nightmare that my homelife had become. But all of that was turned upside down the moment they showed up. The best friend from my past. The surly brooder. The kindhearted nerd. The king of campus. The dark one.

Psst, I know a secret. The same secret that the Student Council—the super-rich, super handsome elite of Adamson All-Boys Academy—knows, too. Jenica Woodruff, the only girl to ever attend the academy before I showed up, didn't commit suicide: she was murdered. Now, someone is after me, too, but no matter where I go, the killer follows. My new high school isn't safe, and turns out, neither is my old one.

They make me feel like I belong for the first time since my parents were murdered. And when they touch me, my whole world sparks to flame. But they have enemies. Those who would give anything to harm what they hold dear. And while they’ll do whatever it takes to keep me safe, sometimes falling in love will put you right in the line of fire.