From the author of National Parks and other bestselling tales of heartbreak comes a visceral departure into a new saga of blood, tradition, and ruin.
‘We’ve always had broken bones, baby. Don’t back out now because you enjoy the pain.’
Jowey
He tasted like my favorite vintage—intoxicating and ruinous. Even so, when I swallowed the broken bottle, letting jagged glass pierce my throat, I knew he would be the one to lick up the remains.
Protecting the Maritiano honor was worth every second of my prison sentence. I have no regrets for the blood on my hands, only for the man who left them empty. Boone: The Governor’s golden son. My greatest sin and my most bitter betrayal.
I walked out of a cell and straight into a trap. Being the Governor’s shadow isn’t a job. It’s a slow-motion execution. Forced to stand guard while the man who abandoned me thrives in the light, I watch the one who let me break so he could stay whole.
Boone treats me like a contagion, a filthy Maritiano secret he’s desperate to bleach away. He claims he’s found a life where I don’t exist, that he’s scrubbed the taste of me from his skin, and that I’m nothing but a ghost in his rearview mirror.
He’s a liar.
Every time our eyes meet, I see the truth: he’s just as haunted as I am. He didn’t move on. Instead, he built a bigger wall, and I’m the only one who knows exactly where the cracks are.
Prison was supposed to set me straight. Instead, isolation only made my heart grow hungry for the way his fingers feel tangled in my hair. They gave me back my freedom, but loving him is the only life sentence I’ll never escape.
The Maritianos don’t forgive or forget. No bribe could keep me from what’s mine.
The "Vice" Tropes:
‘We’ve always had broken bones, baby. Don’t back out now because you enjoy the pain.’
Jowey
He tasted like my favorite vintage—intoxicating and ruinous. Even so, when I swallowed the broken bottle, letting jagged glass pierce my throat, I knew he would be the one to lick up the remains.
Protecting the Maritiano honor was worth every second of my prison sentence. I have no regrets for the blood on my hands, only for the man who left them empty. Boone: The Governor’s golden son. My greatest sin and my most bitter betrayal.
I walked out of a cell and straight into a trap. Being the Governor’s shadow isn’t a job. It’s a slow-motion execution. Forced to stand guard while the man who abandoned me thrives in the light, I watch the one who let me break so he could stay whole.
Boone treats me like a contagion, a filthy Maritiano secret he’s desperate to bleach away. He claims he’s found a life where I don’t exist, that he’s scrubbed the taste of me from his skin, and that I’m nothing but a ghost in his rearview mirror.
He’s a liar.
Every time our eyes meet, I see the truth: he’s just as haunted as I am. He didn’t move on. Instead, he built a bigger wall, and I’m the only one who knows exactly where the cracks are.
Prison was supposed to set me straight. Instead, isolation only made my heart grow hungry for the way his fingers feel tangled in my hair. They gave me back my freedom, but loving him is the only life sentence I’ll never escape.
The Maritianos don’t forgive or forget. No bribe could keep me from what’s mine.
The "Vice" Tropes:
- Second Chance Romance
Forbidden Love (Governor’s Son x Ex-Con)
"Touch him and you die" energy
Class Gap / Wrong side of the tracks
Prison Aftermath & Trauma Healing
Short King x Golden Boy
Guard My Bones is a standalone novel set in the Verona Vices series. While the characters reappear throughout the saga, each book can be read in any order.
WARNING: This is a Dark M/M Romance. It features themes of incarceration trauma, intense obsession, and the "ruinous vintage" of a love that was never meant to survive the light. Step into the arena. Embrace the vice.
Genre: Romantic Suspense