Jason King is used to getting what he wants. And he wants me. No clue why. I'm a geeky introvert. I must have that just-turned-eighteen, new-girl-on-the-block smell. Jason is popular. Cocky. His dad is richer than God. He has his crew dedicate their summer to tormenting my best friend, Donovan. Donovan fights back with quick tongue and a sense of humor as dark as his clothes. But he's tasted enough of Jason's knuckle-sandwiches to last a lifetime

The other women watch me with envy, but they know nothing of the beatings and punishments I endure. He hides them with a veil. One I must wear until I give him a son. But when I fail, he threatens the only good things in my life. My sister, Alice, and the daughter he ripped from my arms for another family to raise. I thought running back to Saint View would save us. I thought wrong. Now my sister is dead, left strangled in an alleyway, and my ex-husband isn’t the only suspect.

"You may now kiss your bride". They were the last words my mother heard before she collapsed on the church steps, poison ending her pitifully short life. When her new husband dies minutes later, all eyes turn to me. There are whispers. Accusations. The verdict is split. I murdered them both. Or I'm the next to die.

Nothing prepares you for finding your sister’s lifeless body covered in blood. But when the police arrest her ex, a man I know is innocent, I can’t sit by and do nothing. Not when I’ve been secretly in love with him for years. Heath may not want my help, but I won’t take no for an answer. To catch a killer, I’m forced to take a job at Saint View Prison. Maximum security. The place they send the worst of the worst. But it’s not just Heath who doesn’t want me there. With every lie we uncover, every secret we expose, the danger mounts.

"Do you want some Goldfish crackers, Bliss?" Those were the last words my brother said to me before he was shot execution style. A childhood code only he and I knew, and one that had a single, clear meaning behind it.