Crystal Evans was born into a criminal empire where women are currency and obedience is survival. Raised under the iron rule of her father, a ruthless Louisiana mob boss who trafficked her mother into marriage, Crystal has spent her entire life searching for a way out, not just for herself but for her mother and siblings.Then Noah Stone enters her world.Wealthy, powerful, and dangerously detached, Noah offers Crystal the one thing no one else can: freedom. In exchange, he wants a child without the burden of love or marriage. The arrangement is simple: become his surrogate, and he’ll help her family disappear before her father sells her off to a criminal associate.But proximity breeds obsession, and their arrangement quickly spirals into a lethal attraction. Now, with a forced marriage closing in, every move being watched, and blood already staining the bayou, Crystal and Noah must decide how far they’re willing to go for freedom… and whether love can survive when possession, betrayal, and survival all begin to look the same.