Brutal Ambition by Sam Mariano

Be careful what you wish for. You just might get it.

I used to fantasize about meeting a masked madman who would love me endlessly and obsessively. He would look after me in a world where no one else did. He would manipulate all the strings that held up my life until I had exactly the one I wanted.
And then one night I met him.
Only he wasn’t the hero I always imagined he would be.
When we left the forest together that night, I thought I’d escaped the villains relatively unscathed, but my true villain was the man whose arms I felt safest in.
He was the one who would tear me apart.

Now I know the only way to save myself is to stay far away from Killian Walsh.
But no matter how fast I run, he won’t stop chasing me.
He knows the best thing he could do for me is set me free.
But he’s too selfish to do it.
He calls me reckless, but I think he’s crazy.
Because Killian Walsh will let the flames consume us both before he will ever let me go.

Brutal Ambition is a full-length secret society romance that contains dark subject matter some may find triggering. Please read the author’s note if you need one.
This story is a spinoff of the Coastal Elite series, but can be read as a standalone. The timeline of this book is the same timeline as the fourth Coastal Elite book, Surrender.