The Black Daisy
Elena Vance has spent five years being quiet. Quiet in her spotless kitchen, quiet under her husband’s fists, quiet when the world around her forgot she existed. Mark Vance has taken her savings, her friends, and her freedom. Then he loses $250,000 to the Ironhead Cartel.
When Jax Mercer walks into their home, he doesn’t ask for the money. He takes what Mark loves most: his car, his watch, and his wife. And Mark lets him.
Jax is the cold, calculating king of a criminal empire, a man who has never needed to raise his voice. He holds Elena as collateral, and he has no intention of being kind. But when he sees the bruises Mark left on her skin, something in him turns to ice. He doesn’t touch broken things. He doesn’t clean up another man’s mess. And he doesn’t share what belongs to him.
Locked inside Jax’s compound, Elena is terrified, trapped, and sure she is about to be destroyed. Instead, she is handed a dangerous job: help Jax find a traitor hiding in his own house. It is the one thing she is good at, and the first time in years that anyone has needed her.
But Jax is a man who trades in power, not mercy. Every day under his roof pulls Elena deeper into his world, and every night makes it harder for her to tell whether she’s his captive, his weapon, or something far more dangerous to them both.
As rival cartels circle, Mark returns to claim what he sold, and the line between ownership and obsession begins to burn, Jax will have to choose: let go of his collateral, or burn down everything he’s built to keep her safe.
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