Emerald Ashbourne learned early that the world bends for those bold enough to take it. At sixteen, her older cousin Verena became her first and most dangerous teacher — introducing her to the art of hacking, the thrill of the lift, and the unspoken code of women who take what they're owed. What started as mischief between cousins grew into something far more sophisticated: a sleek, ruthless car heist empire built on precision, nerve, and trust.
But trust has always been Verena's blind spot. While the empire flourished, Verena's private life quietly unraveled. Married to Eryx Vallea — a man with a mafia empire of his own — she kept her criminal double life sealed from him, stitching herself between two worlds until neither held. Her distraction opened a crack. The Morettis, a rival family nursing a long obsession with dismantling the Valleas, found it.
When their operation draws the Morettis' attention, Verena is too consumed by the wreckage of her marriage to help Emerald out of the fire. Emerald takes the fall alone. Four years in prison. The walls close in, and so does the silence from the boy she once believed loved her — her high school sweetheart vanishes without a word, carving something out of her chest that calcifies into conviction: men leave. men betray. men will pay.
Prison, however, introduces her to an unexpected proposition — one she doesn't walk away from.
Released and unbroken, Emerald rebuilds. With her grandmother Wyn Ashbourne in her corner — sharp-tongued, unflappable, and utterly indispensable — the empire begins to breathe again. For a while, it's almost enough.
Then the Valleas arrive.
Eryx. Verena. The whole weight of a mafia dynasty on her doorstep, uninvited and unapologetic, tearing through the careful life she's reconstructed. Among them is Zyran Vallea — Eryx's younger brother — a trained assassin and arms dealer who moves through rooms like a closed door, saying little, revealing nothing. He infuriates Emerald in ways she can't fully name, and she makes it her business to find out why.
She does.
Zyran is hiding something, and Emerald is very good at finding the cracks in things people swear are sealed. Armed with his secret and fueled by a vow she made to herself in a concrete cell, she sets out to make his life a masterclass in consequence — because Emerald Ashbourne has a rule now, the only one she keeps without question:
Any man who hurts the people around her will wish he'd never learned her name.
What she doesn't account for is the possibility that the most dangerous weapon Zyran carries has nothing to do with his arsenal — and that revenge, when aimed too close, has a way of hitting the wrong target.
Ratings & Reviews
Emerald Ashbourne learned early that the world bends for those bold enough to take it. At sixteen, her older cousin Verena became her first and most dangerous teacher — introducing her to the art of hacking, the thrill of the lift, and the unspoken code of women who take what they're owed. What started as mischief between cousins grew into something far more sophisticated: a sleek, ruthless car heist empire built on precision, nerve, and trust.
But trust has always been Verena's blind spot. While the empire flourished, Verena's private life quietly unraveled. Married to Eryx Vallea — a man with a mafia empire of his own — she kept her criminal double life sealed from him, stitching herself between two worlds until neither held. Her distraction opened a crack. The Morettis, a rival family nursing a long obsession with dismantling the Valleas, found it.
When their operation draws the Morettis' attention, Verena is too consumed by the wreckage of her marriage to help Emerald out of the fire. Emerald takes the fall alone. Four years in prison. The walls close in, and so does the silence from the boy she once believed loved her — her high school sweetheart vanishes without a word, carving something out of her chest that calcifies into conviction: men leave. men betray. men will pay.
Prison, however, introduces her to an unexpected proposition — one she doesn't walk away from.
Released and unbroken, Emerald rebuilds. With her grandmother Wyn Ashbourne in her corner — sharp-tongued, unflappable, and utterly indispensable — the empire begins to breathe again. For a while, it's almost enough.
Then the Valleas arrive.
Eryx. Verena. The whole weight of a mafia dynasty on her doorstep, uninvited and unapologetic, tearing through the careful life she's reconstructed. Among them is Zyran Vallea — Eryx's younger brother — a trained assassin and arms dealer who moves through rooms like a closed door, saying little, revealing nothing. He infuriates Emerald in ways she can't fully name, and she makes it her business to find out why.
She does.
Zyran is hiding something, and Emerald is very good at finding the cracks in things people swear are sealed. Armed with his secret and fueled by a vow she made to herself in a concrete cell, she sets out to make his life a masterclass in consequence — because Emerald Ashbourne has a rule now, the only one she keeps without question:
Any man who hurts the people around her will wish he'd never learned her name.
What she doesn't account for is the possibility that the most dangerous weapon Zyran carries has nothing to do with his arsenal — and that revenge, when aimed too close, has a way of hitting the wrong target.