Chapter 1 - Ninety-three days after I divorced the only woman I had ever loved to keep her safe, a hospital called to tell me Elena was unconscious, starving
Ninety-three days after I divorced the only woman I had ever loved to keep her safe, a hospital called to tell me Elena was unconscious, starving, and sixteen weeks pregnant with my child. But the cruelest shock came minutes later, when I discovered someone carrying my own last name had been quietly destroying her while I believed I was protecting her.
My name is Luke Mercer.
Most of New York had never seen my face, but in certain Manhattan clubs and waterfront warehouses, men lowered their voices when they spoke my name. I ran the Mercer crime family, and fear had always been one of my most reliable weapons.
Then, at exactly 10:03 p.m., my phone rang.
“Mr. Mercer?” a woman said urgently. “Your ex-wife, Elena Ross, was admitted twenty minutes ago. She’s unconscious... and approximately sixteen weeks pregnant.”
My chest locked.
Pregnant.
With my child.
Three months earlier, I had looked Elena in the eyes and convinced her I didn’t love her anymore. I signed the divorce papers while every instinct inside me screamed to tear them apart.
I did it because being Mrs. Luke Mercer meant living with a target on her back.
Minutes later, Marco Reyes, my head of security and the one man I trusted with my life, drove me through Manhattan toward St. Catherine’s.
The husband Elena remembered was gone.
Luke Mercer was back.
When I entered Room 347, I stopped so violently Marco nearly crashed into me.
Elena looked nothing like the furious, beautiful woman who had walked away from me.
Her face was painfully thin. Dark bruises circled one wrist, IV lines disappeared into both arms, and beneath the hospital blanket was the unmistakable curve of her stomach.
Her hand rested over it protectively.
Our baby.
I had faced guns without blinking, but seeing her like that nearly dropped me to my knees.
Dr. Avery Bennett entered quietly.
“She’s severely dehydrated, malnourished, and dangerously iron deficient,” she said. “There appears to have been little to no prenatal care.”
My jaw tightened. “Who did this?”
The doctor hesitated.
“She wouldn’t tell us much before losing consciousness. But someone close to her appears to have made sure she didn’t receive the help she needed.”
Something inside me turned cold.
“Someone close?”
Instead of answering, she handed me Elena’s belongings inside a sealed evidence bag.
There was an envelope in her purse.
My name was written across it in Elena’s handwriting.
Inside were five words.
For Luke. Trust No One.
My blood went cold.
Elena knew exactly what my family was capable of. She would never write those words unless she believed she was in danger.
Then Marco’s phone vibrated.
He checked the screen, and the color drained from his face.
I had watched that man stare down killers without flinching.
“Boss,” he whispered.
“What?”
His eyes shifted toward Elena.
“I think we know who betrayed her.”
My fingers crushed the envelope.
“Who?”
Marco swallowed.
“The person responsible has your last name.”
For the first time in my life, hearing the name Mercer didn’t sound powerful.
May you like
It sounded like a death sentence.
And before Marco could tell me which member of my family had done this, Elena’s heart monitor suddenly began screaming.
