Some people wear their heart on their sleeve. I wear vengeance like a suit of armor. I’ve got a list with six names on it. Six people who wronged me, who hurt me, who took everything from me. Six people who turned me into the monster I am now. And I’ve crossed off every name but one.

In Fairview Heights, there’s one rule everyone knows. Don’t cross the Black Rose gang. Not if you want to live. My father broke that rule. Now he owes the notorious Black Roses a favor, and to make sure he pays up, they’re taking me as collateral. Until Dad completes whatever job they gave him, three gang members will be my keepers. Sloan, Rory, and Levi. The boss’ son. The man with a secret. The flame from my past. They’re all dominant, cocky, and hot as hell, and I know from personal experience that one of them is a damn good lay.

I was the girl no one looked at twice. Until they saw me. My whole life, no one has had my back. My parents are dead, my adoptive mother is a drug addict, and the mean girls on campus mock me for my scars. So when I end up desperate for money and out of options, I agree to sell the one thing I have left: my innocence. On the night I’m meant to give my body to a brutal Russian mobster, three men storm into the room like dark shadows and kill him before he can claim me. When they drag me from the blood-soaked bed, I’m certain they’re going to kill me too.

My whole life, I’ve been groomed as American royalty, raised to be the perfect daughter of the wealthy elite. On my sixteenth birthday, my father bought me an Aston Martin. And on my seventeenth birthday, the Feds took everything away. With my father in prison for fraud and nothing left to our name, my mom and I are forced to move to a tiny house across town, and I transfer to Slateview Public.

Sin isn’t supposed to feel this good. I never wanted to come here. The scholarship to Hawthorne University is my ticket to a better life, but I don’t fit in with these rich, privileged students. I’ve been numb my whole life, but when the Sinners touch me, sparks dance across my skin. For the first time in years, I feel. I feel so much. Confusion. Desire. Anger. Need. Too bad there’s only one thing the Sinners feel for me: hate.

I hate Dante Moretti. He is cold, calculating, and vicious. It’s no secret that he wiped out his former fiancée and her entire family on the eve of their wedding. He’s the kind of evil that makes even devils cry. But that’s not why I hate him.

Working as Ruslan Oryolov’s personal assistant is the job from hell. After a long day spent tending to the billionaire’s every whim, I need some stress relief. So when I get home that night, that’s exactly what I do. Problem is, my thoughts are still stuck on the bosshole, who’s ruining my life. That’s fine—because of all Ruslan’s many sins, being gorgeous might be the most dangerous.

Bred in a world of gang wars, violence, and secrets, they rule the bloody town of Thorn Valley and all the people in it...too bad for me, I’ve never been good at kissing ass or keeping quiet. Even if their savage spirits awaken something inside of me I thought was long dead, I can’t break. I won’t. They think they scare me, that I’ll run and hide, but the joke’s on them. The Crows aren’t the first monsters I’ve faced, and they won’t be the last. There are worse evils out there waiting to take their stab at Ava Jade Mason. I say, let them try.

My whole life was mapped out, designed for me, before I was even a twinkle in my old man’s eye. I am the heir to the Valentino throne. A kingdom built with blood and dirty money. But one I’ll rule all the same. My father was the youngest Don to ever be crowned king. However, with any luck, the controlling bastard will drop soon, allowing me to beat his record by a few years.

Ten years ago, The Harlequin Boys broke my heart. I thought my life was complete with them at my side, the five of us against the world, having each other’s backs no matter what the cost. I’d fight for them until my dying breath. It’s just a shame they didn’t feel the same. Once upon a time, my imperfect world shone bright with the light of four boys I would have killed for. This is the story of how they destroyed me.

They say bad things happen in threes. The first was when I lost my parents. The second came when I had to leave behind everything I knew to move across the world to live with my only remaining relative. But what was life for, if not for living? So I kept moving. Then the third thing happened, just as I was about to begin my junior year at the prestigious Blackstone University. I caught the eye of not one, not two, but three of the most infamous guys on campus. The three guys from the wrong side of the tracks.

Five years ago, I masterminded the infamous massacre of the Tri-state Timberwolves. The streets outside the Wolves HQ ran red with the blood of the old guard, and not one of those members loyal to my father were spared mercy. Not a single one. I let the media twist and distort the story. My new recruits eagerly proved themselves in spreading false news, in covering our tracks. To the general public, the Tri-State Timberwolves were extinct. But that couldn’t have been further from the truth.

I thought I’d hit rock bottom when I turned 16. The day I broke my first love's heart, ending things before I could ruin his career as a rock star. But damn, was I wrong. Things got progressively worse from that moment on, until now. Eight years later, when I find myself homeless, jobless, covered in blood, and running from a ghost of my past.

What would you do if you walked in on your husband cheating? I'll tell you what I did: Ran out the door with nothing but the clothes on my back. A month later, I'm broke, jobless, almost homeless. But then, while filling in as a waitress at a fancy restaurant, I trip and land in the lap of a gorgeous stranger.

Sold to the mob. Four words I never thought I'd utter. Worse, it was my father who did the unthinkable. When the creditors come to collect, I'm handed over to the most ruthless man in New York City—Luca Valentino. The head of the notorious Kings is as gorgeous as he is lethal. Dark, possessive, and violent. Nothing like the boy I grew up with, my dead brother's best friend.