He calls it a perimeter. I call it a cage. But when the monsters come, his cage is the only place I want to be.Rian Ellis is a survivor. A scholarship student at St. Jude’s University, he’s used to being cold, hungry, and invisible. But lately, he’s not invisible anymore. Someone is fixing his radiator. Someone is paying his landlord. Someone is leaving hot coffee on his desk and scaring away his bullies.Rian feels eyes on him constantly—dark, possessive, and terrifyingly intense.Leo Vane doesn't believe in coincidences. He believes in variables, perimeters, and control. As the heir to London’s most dangerous empire, he was raised to be a weapon. But the moment he saw Rian Ellis shivering in a lecture hall, Leo’s mission changed.Rian isn't just a student. He is an Asset.Rare. Fragile. His.Leo monitors Rian’s heart rate. He tracks his location. He watches him sleep. He tells himself it’s for Rian’s protection.But when a sadistic stalker known only as "The Artist" begins leaving charcoal sketches of Rian inside Leo’s own secure apartment, the perimeter shatters. The Artist doesn't just want to watch Rian; he wants to curate a masterpiece of trauma using Rian as the canvas.To keep Rian alive, Leo must take him underground—locking them both inside a concrete vault where the lines between protector and captor blur into dust.In the dark, Rian realizes that Leo’s obsession isn't born of hate, but of a terrifying, lethal love. But to defeat the Artist, Leo will have to do the one thing he promised he would never do:Use Rian as bait.

Julian Vane thought he was hiring a human shield. He got a nuclear weapon in a yellow cardigan. Julian is London’s most expensive Fixer. He cleans up messes for the mob, which means his life is a constant target. He needs a nanny for his traumatized son, Leo—someone desperate enough to take the job and expendable enough to lose. Enter Ezra Cohen. He wears oversized pastel sweaters. He bakes sourdough bread. He looks like a librarian who got lost on the way to a bake sale. But Ezra isn't a librarian. He’s a retired black-ops interrogator hiding from his past. And when hitmen start showing up at the penthouse, Julian realizes that his soft, smiling nanny knows 400 ways to kill a man with a kitchen utensil. Now, Julian has a new problem: He’s falling for the deadliest thing in his house.