Chapter 1

Alice Carter stepped through the prison gates as the sun dipped below the horizon.

She'd been granted a temporary one-day release.

Clutching a crumpled address in her trembling hand, Alice boarded the bus outside the correctional facility. By nightfall, she arrived at a decaying mansion clinging to the mountainside. A silent guard ushered her into a darkened bedroom.

The room swallowed all light.

The metallic tang of blood assaulted her senses before her eyes could adjust.

Strong arms seized her from the shadows, yanking her against a hard male body. Hot breath scorched her ear. "So you're my last indulgence before execution? The... paid companion?"

'Paid... companion?'

Tears streaked Alice's cheeks.

Fear clawed at her throat. "Are you... dying?"

"Does that frighten you?" His mocking laugh sent chills down her spine.

"I made my choice," Alice whispered.

Regret wasn't a luxury she could afford—not with her mother's life hanging in the balance. Though she couldn't see his face, the man radiating lethal energy didn't feel like someone at death's door.

Hours later, his breathing finally steadied.

'Is it over?'

No time for fear. Alice fled into the storm-lashed night, sprinting through torrential rain to the Sullivan Estate.

Midnight approached, yet laughter and music spilled from the locked mansion.

"Open up! I did what you asked! Give me the money to save my mother!" Her fists pounded the ornate doors. "Please!"

The door swung open to reveal a sneering face.

Disgust dripped from their voice. "Save your begging. Your mother's dead."

A framed photograph sailed into the mud at Alice's feet.

The world stopped.

"No..." Alice collapsed onto the rain-slicked steps, clutching the portrait to her chest. "Mother... I was too late..."

Hysteria took hold. She hurled herself at the door. "Liars! You promised! Give her back! May your family rot in hell—"

Darkness swallowed her screams.

When consciousness returned three days later, Alice found herself back in prison. Feverish and weak, she'd been hospitalized before being returned to general population.

A circle of sneering inmates closed in.

"Thought she got out? Looks like someone had fun playing whore for a night."

The gang leader yanked Alice's hair back. "Let's teach this pretty thing a lesson."

Alice didn't resist.

Let them kill her. Reuniting with her mother sounded like mercy.

As rough hands tore at her prison uniform, a guard barked from the doorway. "What's happening here?"

"Just checking on our sick friend," the leader simpered.

The officer ignored her. "Inmate 036—you're being released."

Alice blinked. "What?"

Only the biting wind outside the gates convinced her it wasn't a hallucination.

"Mother...forgive me," she whispered to the uncaring sky. "Where do I find you now?"

A crisp voice cut through her grief. "Miss Carter?"

A suited man stood before a sleek black car. Through tinted windows, Alice glimpsed a shadowed figure watching her.

"Yes?"

The aide turned to the car. "Mr. Knight, it's her."

"Bring her."

Before Alice could protest, she was shoved into the luxury vehicle. The air turned glacial beside the sunglasses-clad stranger.

"I'm Alexander Knight."

Alice's blood froze. That voice—it matched the dying man's from that horrific night. But that man was dead.

"You're...executing me?"

His lips curled. "We're getting married."