PROLOGUE

Villeybale city || 6 years ago.

Knox:

He died on that cold night I knew waiting was already pointless. It was cold as shit, my hoodie soaked, shoes caked with mud, and still.. I waited.

He died.

And what was his boyfriend doing?

All I could do was wait like a fool, soaked and shivering, at that goddamned abandoned skatepark behind the bookstore. Our spot. The one place the world shut the hell up and let him breathe. No roles. No games and abso-fuckin-lutely, no masks.

We used to laugh. Play that stupid game we made up when we were too young and too scared to say what we really meant.

Kiss or Kill.

“Would you kiss me… or kill me?”

He always asked with that crooked smirk. Like it was funny. Like we weren’t standing too close in the dark. Like his eyes weren’t swallowing me whole.

And I always said, “Kiss.” He always whispered back, “Kill.”

We laughed.

Until the last time.

I didn’t know his smile would be the last clear thing I’d remember. Didn’t know I’d spend years hating someone else for his death, just like I’m doing now, rotting in that guilt, over and over again, until it ate the best parts of me.

Didn’t fuckin’ know I’d wake up night after night, choking on the anger in his eyes from that final night, replaying the words he threw – sharp, fast, and desperate. Words I know he didn’t mean.

“I-I can't let you do this, Lior. Never! Please, it's too dangerous.”

My voice cracked, but I didn’t care. I held my stare, locked it on him like it’d keep him in place. Hoping if he saw it, ‘all of it’. The fear, the love, the fucking desperation, he’d stay.

I needed him to hear me. Just this once.

But he didn’t.

He never fuckin’ did.

“You and I both know the only person who can pull this off without stirring the Ravenites. My father will do anything to keep me within reach and that’s when it gets dangerous. Not for me, Knox. For you.”

I stared straight into his eyes. Still couldn’t read him. Couldn’t tell if he needed saving and just didn’t know how to ask for it. Or worse, if he’d already given up.

“You’ve got to be shitting me, Lior. You know who the real problem is? You! Fuckin’ You! with your fucked-up savior complex, always pulling some bullshit excuse out of thin air and calling it protection.”

I moved in closer, breathing in the same old scent that used to calm me down.

Cherry.

“C’mon, Cherry. Let me help you here.” He hated it whenever I called him that and never let it slide but that night? he didn’t even flinch.

There was still nothing in his eyes. No reaction. Not a damn thing. Hell, I hated this. Hated it for us. I wanted to see him break, just once. And show me it hurts. Show me he’s scared but.. nothing.

“We could disappear. Change names. Start over and wipe it all clean like it never happened..”

He let out a harsh, mocking scoff, so unlike him. Sure, he was an asshole, but never the kind to mock. “And then what? You think my pathetic father would just walk away? Pretend I never existed? Knowing I hold the one thing that could end him?”

That was when I saw it, that switch. Anger. Right there, sitting in his brown-gold eyes. The kind that builds, quietly. And explodes when you least expect it.

I stepped even closer, my hand lifting to his cheek. My thumb moved across his skin. His breathing was soft and I could tell he wanted to kiss me but he didn’t.

He never did. He always stopped himself, right when it mattered most.

“We’d figure it out, Lior. I swear.”

My fingers slipped through his damp hair, searching for something, anything at all, that could ground us, just enough to keep him close but he stepped back instead.

And as if just seeing him wasn’t painful enough, like it hadn’t already been ripping me apart piece by piece, he looked me straight in the eyes and said, “Let’s break up.”

A cold whisper that gutted me on the spot.

My chest tightened. I swallowed hard, trying to think, trying to make sense of what I just heard but I couldn’t. My head was spinning, and not a single part of me could process what was happening.

And for the fuckin’ hundredth time, I couldn’t read him. His face was blank, his voice flat. I had no idea what was going on in his head and it pissed me off. I wanted to scream, to grab him and shake him until he snapped out of it. I wanted to jab my goddamned finger into his chest until he stopped hiding and just told me the truth already but.. I didn’t.

He stood there like a stone. And maybe that’s what he was, cold and unreadable, as if he’d already made peace with the decision before I even showed up.

Lior was scared and I could feel it. He just wouldn’t show it. There was a lot he hadn’t told me, and as much as I wanted to ask, I knew it would tear him open more than he could handle. I let him keep his secrets. I let him lie.

That’s the thing about him. He’s not a hero. He’s not noble. He’s just a stubborn psychopath who fights everything alone, thinks pushing me behind him somehow counts as love. That it’s enough to call it protection. And I let him. I let him keep doing that shit until the very end. And what hurts the most? I would’ve stayed anyway. Even if he never kissed me back. Even if all I ever got was the back of his jacket and silence.

That night was the last time I saw him.

I held him by the wrist, begging him not to go. Told him we could run and that we could leave it all but he just looked at me, then pulled away. Then he walked away, and I stood there watching, not knowing it would be the last time. This time, it wasn’t temporary. He was never coming back.

A week later, he called.

Told me to wait for him at our spot. The same shitty skatepark behind the bookstore. The place we used to hide in when the world got too loud.

I swear, I was smiling like an idiot. Twisting the silver ring on my finger, the one he gave me a year ago and I couldn’t stop grinning. I waited and waited. Rain started but I didn’t care.

The clock ticked past midnight, and there was still no sign of him but someone did show up. Running like hell, like his lungs were about to give out. Hood over his head with same lean frame, same jaw, same goddamn face!

My breath caught.

“Lior?”

I stepped forward, hands held out. Hope is a sick joke, but I still reached and he didn’t stop. He just ran straight past me like I was not there.

That’s when it hit me.

His eyes. They were clean, too fucking clean. He looked like Lior, but without the shadows, a version of him that had never seen shit.

That’s when I heard the sirens.

That’s when it all snapped into place.

Lior wasn’t coming, but someone else had.

Later that night, words got out. A body was found near the pier. No ID, but it matched Lior’s build. Shot twice in the chest and burned so bad not even the bones looked right.

No one came forward and no one claimed him. The cops boxed it up fast saying, it was just another dead gangster off the street.

I didn’t go to the funeral. If there even was one. What was the point?

Lior was gone.

And I knew exactly who I saw run that night, knew who the hell ran right past me with my cherry’s face.

Ezren.

His goddamn twin. The one who got away and left Lior to rot. The fuckin’ coward.

And now, six years, two months, seventeen days, and nine fucking hours later, the past burst back into my life like none of that shit ever happened. He waltzed into the lounge like he didn’t help bury the one person I ever gave a damn about.

With the same mesmerizing gold-flecked eyes, same cherry scent he used to steal off his brother, same damn smile like he had every right to wear it.

He even had the nerve to ask the same question,

“Why did you dye your hair ginger?”

He didn’t recognize me. Why the hell would he? But I knew him the second he walked back into my life.

Ezren Raveni.

The mafia heir who vanished the night everything went to hell. On the run from the Ravenites, from his father and, from the past.

Carrying the one secret tied to Lior’s death. And I’m back for just that.

He doesn’t know it yet, but I’ll make him pay, slow, and exactly the way he deserves it and it won't be cute.

This time, I’m not begging. The game has just begun and I'll be the one asking the question..

Kiss or kill, Cherry?