My father was a complicated man.

The world knew him as a criminal who worked with men far worse. To me, he was the man who saved a frightened, orphaned little girl and gave her a purpose.

Because of him, I became exactly what he needed.

Powerful. Respected. Resourceful.

The Mediator. The Dove.

Technically, that made me a criminal too. I commanded a team of assassins—mercenaries, if we’re being polite. Men who answered when I called and carried out my orders without question. I lived in the gray, operating in the shadows, keeping monsters in check for a world that preferred not to know they existed.

I believed I was on the right side of evil.

Until I learned the truth.

The man I trusted most—my mentor, my father’s closest ally—was nothing more than a greedy traitor pulling the strings behind the scenes. With no choice but to keep playing their game, I did the only thing I could.

I changed the rules.

Unfortunately, that decision put me directly in the path of the one man I’d spent years avoiding—Zane “Viper” Lewis.

I knew his secret. The one thread that could unravel everything he’d built. My plan was simple: keep his secret in exchange for his help.

But nothing about Viper is simple.

Lies stacked on top of lies. Betrayal layered with deception. The kind that tears your soul apart and leaves nothing behind.

Except revenge.

I was the Mediator. The fixer. The student who learned far too well how this game was played. And it was time everyone learned—too late—exactly what they’d created.

My fatal flaw?

Easton Spears.

The one man I never should have let close. But for the first time in my life, I wanted something for myself. I wanted to know what it felt like to be loved—not as the Mediator or the Dove, but as Nebraska Michaels.

So I gave him the one thing I swore I never would.

My heart.

And he showed me a world I never knew existed.

A world I might have to burn everything down to keep.