Vengeful Queen

Sometimes, we lose ourselves in the devastation of love.

But sometimes, we find ourselves there, too.

ROME

Avery Capulet. The forbidden fruit. The apple of her Daddy’s eye. The newly-minted Queen of California’s criminal underworld. And now, the missing girl nobody can find.

I know where she is, though. Kneeling before me, tears spilling from her eyes as the last bit of her dignity bleeds from her. I don’t want the pound of flesh that the girl who betrayed me delivers, but I don’t have a choice.

Avery Capulet. Moaning underneath me, as pain merges with pleasure, skin to skin as we do what we can to survive. In the dark, in the wild, we’re like animals. I try not to love her. I try so damn hard.

But the war waged inside my heart was won a long time ago.

By a girl who should have known better than to trust a man like me.

AVERY

Rome Montague. The boy from my past. The man in my nightmares. The dark, secret lover who makes me feel things I never knew I could feel.

Love and pain can both drive you insane. I fight, and I fight, until all I can do is surrender. Be pulled under. Submit, until I barely recognize myself.

Rome Montague. When he looks at me, I forget the lies that destroyed our past. When he makes me come apart underneath his touch, I forget where we are, and that a faceless enemy pulls our strings like marionettes.

The outside world beckons bright, teasing us with mirages of safety and respite.

But the light of day is a cruel lie.

Because once we find a way out of the dark, we both realize that our nightmare has only just begun.