Dead or Alive

Emmanuel
Love is a weakness. You either kill it or it will kill you. I’ve been in love once, and that’s what I did. I killed it.
I’ve managed to avoid the weakness throughout my entire life. And then I saw her. A ghost from my past, very much alive and right in front of me.
When she tries to flee from my grasp, I hold tighter. Because dead or alive, Evie is mine.

Evie
I’ve spent my life being put on display. Beautiful is a word I’ve heard a million times. Do I believe it?
No. I might be shiny on the outside, but the inside… is a dark, scarred, bruised place.
When I wake up to a cartel boss looming over me, his jaw clenched tight and his eyes darker than the emptiness I feel, my first instinct is to reach out and comfort him. That’s when I realize my mistake. But it’s the one word he utters that has my skin crawling.
“Who?” And I know he knows. He knows my secrets. Emmanuel Lopez can see all of me and he’s not disgusted by the ugliness he finds there…