Veil of Secrets by Sarah Sterling

There’s a difference between surviving the past and outrunning it.

I should know—I’ve done both.

For years, I’ve danced above the noise. A cage, a spotlight, and a name no one remembers.

It’s not a life. It’s camouflage.

Until a man named Nico Drago steps out of the shadows and says my name like it matters.

Like I matter.

He doesn’t offer safety.

He offers something worse: a place in the war he’s about to start.

Nico wants loyalty.

But I’ve watched what loyalty costs.

I’ve paid in blood, in bruises, in silence.

So when Tommy Lucetti—the man who carved scars into my skin and called it love—walks back into my life, Nico doesn’t hesitate.

He kills him.

Clean.

Quiet.

Just for me.

No declarations.

No demands.

Just blood, and the kind of protection that doesn’t come with cages.

But protection is never free.

Not in this city.

Now, with the Brotherhood splintering, enemies circling, and old debts rising from the dark, I have a choice:

Burn it all down with Nico…

Or disappear for good.

Because love was never part of this story.

But vengeance?

Vengeance fits like a second skin.