Mirella Rose Briar built a life with nothing but her own two hands — a teaching job, a small apartment, a future that belonged to no one but her. Then her father's debt came due. Forty-six thousand dollars he couldn't pay. A collapse that put him in a hospital bed. And a man named Valmot Knox, who walks into the room and tells her, without raising his voice, that she is the collateral her father signed away eight months ago. Not just for the debt. For marriage. Valmot doesn't ask. He doesn't threaten — not exactly. He simply makes it clear that every choice she makes will cost someone she loves. When she says no, her father's medication disappears within the hour. She has no power, no money, and no choice. What she has is herself — and she refuses to let Valmot Knox, his world, or the woman who already lives in it convince her that isn't enough. But her father is holding onto one more secret. A truth about Valmot that has nothing to do with money. And before he can tell her what it is, the line goes dead. Kiss Me With Knives is a slow-burn dark romance about the price of silence, the weight of power, and the kind of dignity that can survive even when everything else has been taken.