Title: Love Burns Bright
Series: Fatal Fidelity, Book Three
Author: Rien Gray
Publisher: NineStar Press
Release Date: 06/15/2022
Pairing: F/NB
Length: 54100
Genre: Contemporary, LGBTQIA+, contemporary, romantic suspense, nonbinary, queer, bisexual, interracial, light D/s, bondage, established couple, assassin, artist, dark, Mafia, revenge, PTSD, family issues, #ownvoices
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Description
Love always comes with a price.
No one knows that better than Justine. Her freedom has cost two bodies and counting, but now that she’s back in the United States, the only thing she can think about is seeing her parents again. After an abusive marriage kept Justine away from them for ten years, she’s returning to New York City a changed woman—and with the assassin she loves in tow.
Campbell lost what little family they had years ago, and their cover as a killer relies on never attracting attention. Publicly playing Justine’s rich lover risks stripping that mask away, but Campbell is willing to give her anything, no matter how dangerous.
Everything comes to a head the night Justine and Campbell touch down in New York. Their friend Sofia is kidnapped by her Mafia relatives and held for ransom. The trade? Her life for that of a vicious mob boss. And the clock’s ticking. As Campbell plans the kill, the lies they share with Justine start to strain their relationship, and even a second’s exposure will destroy everyone they care about.
It only takes one spark to start a blaze, and this fire could bring the whole city down with them.
Love Burns Bright
Rien Gray © 2022
All Rights Reserved
It was a given that Sofia would be surprised, but the wary edge to her expression is sharper than I planned for. Part of what she does is disguise my existence from everyone else, providing a commonplace mask so the government and law enforcement never catch on to the assassin in their midst. On tax and census forms, I’m just another American veteran who founded my own business after leaving the service, consulting on matters of security around the world.
But the flip side of that is avoiding real connections at any cost. Someone who gets to know me too well could strip the lacquer off my life and discover the violent rot underneath, putting the two of us in equal danger. Sofia is the best lawyer I know, but in the eyes of the law, covering my tracks is tantamount to putting a bullet in the back of someone’s head. The tradeoff is a 15 percent retainer on my contracts, and the life of the man I executed for her shortly after she and I met.
“I’m aware of the risks,” is what I decide to say out loud, “but this is important to Justine. And you can’t wipe her off the books like you do for me.”
Justine has history everywhere: her college degree from Barnard, the tangle of life-changing truths from her marriage, a home in the suburbs, and the art gallery owned and operated under her name. Each instance is another sticky thread, spiraling out into a web of information that makes Justine far easier to track in comparison. Of course, that’s not her fault, but the longer she and I spend together, the more bleeds over into the artifice of my life.
“Which is exactly why it’s dangerous,” Sofia replies. “But you know that, don’t you?”
Tension ripples through Justine’s fingers where they’re interlaced with mine. I roll my thumb along the tightest line of muscle in her palm, unraveling a knot of stress there. She knew this was bound to be a complicated conversation.
“I feel like being entirely alone for years on end brings suspicion on its own,” I say.
Irritation creases Sofia’s brow. “No one’s come knocking on my door over it.”
“Because you’re a successful woman running a law firm who looks like she eats men for breakfast.” Which she does, in the purest sense of feeding the ones who wrong her family into the American prison system. “I look rich, unattached, and capable. And my tastes come with a libido to match.”
“Your only conceivable flaw,” Sofia drawls.
“They told me no one’s to your taste,” Justine chimes in, the note of humor easing her hold on my hand.
That gets me a searing look from Sofia, but the fire doesn’t catch. “Well, I certainly tried. Dating men annoyed me. Dating women bored me. I never tried anyone like Campbell, but I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t make much difference.”
“Probably not,” I add with a chuckle. “But you also have a family to guard your reputation. Your mother. Cousins, uncles. That isn’t an option on my end.”
“But her family might be,” Sofia says after a long moment of contemplation. “That’s what you’re saying, isn’t it? Another normal piece of the puzzle, blending right in. Especially since you have an apartment in New York.”
Technically, she has an apartment in New York, as I don’t live there. The space is rented out under the Cattaneo business umbrella in my name, sitting empty except for the necessities needed for appearances. I travel so many days a year for work it doesn’t make sense to keep going back. Since Justine and I started dating, most of my spare nights have been spent with her in Chicago.
“Exactly,” I say.
“And you’re okay with this?” Sofia directs her question to Justine. “Your parents can never know what Campbell does. Or even a hint of what the two of you did. No codes, no secret messages, no implications because you’re sure Mommy and Daddy will understand. Trust me, the only way that sticks is if the whole family is in on the deal like mine.”
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Rien Gray is a queer, nonbinary writer who has worked in ghostwriting, TTRPGS, and video games. They have a treasured (and ever-growing) collection of LGBTQ+ history books as well as a deep, abiding love for Greek myth. Rien has an upcoming short story in Neon Hemlock’s Baffling Magazine. They live in Ireland.
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