What if your liberty cost you the price of a cage that you never even saw? Aria DeLuca has been running from the specters of her own shadow for years, believing she'd escaped the shadows of the mafia. But when it's time to pay her father's debts, she is presented with a choice so vile that she gets sick—let him die or wed the man who comes to take him. Luca Valentino is no ordinary crime boss; he's the ice-blooded kingpin who never gives in. Cold, calculating, and surprisingly hot, he doesn't leave her any option. Aria swears that she'll never yield, but the harder she resists, the more she becomes embroiled in his game. And as the deceptions stay hidden behind doors and the lies are unveiled, protector and captor are blurred lines. Is Luca her sworn adversary or her best option for survival? And when the moment of choice arrives, will Aria shatter the chains or find solace in the power of the empire she never sought to control?