Empire of Ash and Roses

ANGELINA

My father kept me hidden for twenty-one years. No school. No phone. No friends. Just a room under the stairs, and rules I learned before I could read.

Then the most dangerous man in Philadelphia came to dinner to choose a bride.

Everyone knew he'd pick my sister. She's perfect. I'm the one nobody looks at.

He looked straight past her and asked my name.

Now I'm married to a monster.

I've seen what he does to men who cross him. I've seen him smile while he does it. He fills my closet with dresses and leaves me alone in his bed, and every time I think there might be a heart in there, he slams the door.

I should hate him. I'm trying so hard.

But nobody has ever stopped and asked me to say yes before.

LEONE

I didn't choose her because she was beautiful. I chose her because she flinched.

Now she sleeps in my house, wears my shirts, and looks at me as if I'm the thing she's been waiting for her whole life.

I'm not.

I settle debts in rooms with plastic on the floor. Everything I've ever kept, I've broken. So I keep her at arm's length, I make her hate me, and I make sure every man in this city knows that looking at my wife will cost him his eyes.

My enemies have already sent her roses.

I'd burn this whole city down to keep her safe. I just can't ever let her know it.

This is the first book in The Empire of Ash and Roses Series. Reading order:

Bullets and Roses.

Thorns and Ashes.