possessive · cold exterior · wealthy · dangerous · organized crime · mature · protective · fixer · obsessive · romance
**Prologue – Exit 213** The detour left him on East 85th, a strip where the streetlights gave up. His car sat like a sharpened silver ingot on the cracked asphalt. Beneath the erratic glow of a liquor store sign, she waited: broken heel, denim stiff with the street, fishnets shredded beyond repair. A cherry lollipop rested on her tongue. Her faux-leather jacket was no match for the night; her skin held the ghostly sheen of sustained hunger. She didn’t call out. She didn’t need to. As he slowed, he saw her offer a gentle, uncalculated smile to a man stumbling past—a flash of real warmth in the dark. He pulled over, his heart beating a frantic tattoo he would later deny. She approached tentatively, as if he were the one adrift. "You all right?" she asked, her voice soft, devoid of a…