Page 165 of Only the Wicked

“Best surprise ever,” he says again.

“Just wait until you see what I have in store for you.”

His eyes widen. “There’s more? You were serious?”

“There’s always more with us, isn’t there?”

“God, I hope so.”

As we drive home through the mountains, past the apple orchard we never made it to, with the windows down and the cool autumn air flowing through the car, I think about how far we’ve come from that first uncertain hike. Back then, everything was a question mark. Now, everything is true.

The land papers are tucked safely in my desk drawer at home, but the real gift isn’t the deed or the swimming hole or even this perfect day. The real gift is having someone who understands that some places are sacred, that some moments are worth preserving, that some love stories deserve their own piece of the world to call home.

Rhodes reaches over and takes my hand as we wind through the mountain curves, and I think about all the anniversaries still to come, all the times we’ll drive this same road back to our swimming hole, our story, our beginning.

Our love story started with a lie. But here, we shed the pretenses. Out there in the real world, those pretenses still exist—the walls, the machinations, the world’s wicked ways. But when we’re together, the shadows subside, giving way to light.

Read Jake and Daisy’s story in Only The Devil…

I've survived combat zones and classified missions.

But watching her walk into danger? That might kill me.

The assignment seemed straightforward: pose as a dutiful boyfriend while she infiltrates a finance mogul’s operation. Keep her safe. Keep my distance. Get the evidence and get out.

Simple, until the mogul hired me as his personal security.

Now I have a front-row seat to his empire of greed—and his predatory interest in the brilliant woman I'm supposed to be pretending to love. Every day I watch him dangle millions in front of her like bait, testing her limits, pushing her boundaries.

The problem? My feelings for Daisy stopped being pretend early on. It didn’t take me long to fall hard for the stubborn woman on a mission.

She thinks she can handle Sterling's world. She thinks she can resist the temptation of life-changing money. But I don’t trust wealth and power. And when bodies start dropping and cryptocurrency millions vanish overnight, I realize we're not just hunting a white-collar criminal.

We're trapped in his web.

Daisy's got secrets she won't share and a past that makes her desperate enough to risk everything for justice. Sterling's got enough money to buy loyalty, silence, and alibis. And me? I've got a heart condition that ended my military career and feelings for a woman who might be playing a deeper game than either of us signed up for.

In a world where everyone has their price, I've found the one thing I won't sell: her safety.

Even if it costs me everything.