Things I did not plan to do while recovering from a fire, a crash, and a man named Luka Barinov: lie to him every single morning, rob him blind to save my sister, and find out I'm carrying his baby.

Three for three. Again.

Luka's enemies have my little sister. The kind of have that comes with a countdown and a price. And the only currency they'll take is Luka—or should I say his secrets, handed over one stolen file at a time.

So every morning Luka brings me coffee in bed, and every morning I smile, and lie, and slide a phone under the pillow that could get him killed.

He thinks he's keeping me safe.

He has no idea I'm the threat inside his own house.

The worst part isn't the betrayal. It's that I'm falling for him while I do it—harder every day, in a way that makes the lying feel like swallowing glass. The man the entire world is terrified of kneels beside the bed just to check that I'm breathing. He's the only reason I'm still here. And he has no idea the woman he's bleeding for is the one quietly taking him apart.

Then there's the secret I can't smile my way past.

Two pink lines. His.

So now, I'm not choosing between the man I love and the sister I can't lose. I'm choosing for all three of us. And every road that ends with hope alive runs straight through the one heart I can't bear to break.

There were a lot of lines I swore I'd never cross. But with my heart, my sister, and my unborn child on the line, I'm about to cross every single one of them.

Ruthless Smoke is the explosive conclusion to the Barinov Bratva duet. After everything Luka and Sage survive, the guaranteed HEA lands all the harder.

For listeners who love ruthless, obsessive antiheroes, an impossible-choice heroine who stops asking permission, a secret baby, and found family forged in fire.