Sins That Find Us

Sins That Find Us MADLY EVER AFTER BOOK ONE E.M. LINDSEY Sins That Find Us Copyright © 2023 E.M. Lindsey All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. This book is a work of fiction. Any events, places, or people portrayed in the book have been used in a manner of fiction and are not intended to represent reality. Any resemblance is purely coincidental. Cover by: Cate Ashwood Designs Editing: Sandra with One Love Editing Content Warnings: This book is a dark romance that ends on a cliffhanger. It contains both mentions and on-page instances of kidnapping, torture, suicidal ideation, D/s dynamics, morally grey characters, and ableist language. Please take care if these issues are triggering for you. Contents Preface Prologue Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Epilogue Sins That Bind Us Also by E.M. Lindsey About the Author My life is a series of near misses. Or, at least, it was. But the man who saved me at the bar from a guy who definitely didn’t have the best intentions, might have even worse ones. And so do his friends. Knowing who my father is, I know better than to talk to strangers, and it’s just my luck that my four knights in shining armor have their own vendetta against him. The next thing I know, I’m a damsel in distress—a pawn in their game against my father because I’m his one weak link. But the longer I stay on this little island of misfit toys, the more things start to become clear, and the people I thought were heroes might very well be the villains in my story. Then again, I always did think Wendy might love Hook more, and that the Beauty wanted her Beast, that Ariel deserved a bit of revenge. And, last but not least, that Hades—the King—absolutely deserved his queen. Sign up for EM Lindsey’s newsletter and get the free MMMM Madly Ever After Prequel on ProlificWorks. Follow EM Lindsey on Amazon to be notified of preorders, new releases, and more. Prologue ALICE “You move. You die.” I think most people would be pissing in their pants if they heard that the second they stepped into their dorm room. Especially a five-foot-nothing college sophomore whose only weapon is the set of keys that look a few more turns away from crumbling to dust. But I’m not most people. I never have been most people. I’ve never been allowed to be most people. I’m Alice Romano, and that name—unfortunately—means something to the people of this godforsaken city. That name means that I’ve been dealing with the owner of this voice for the better part of my life. It usually comes with being blindfolded and strapped to a chair with my hands duct-taped. It comes with ugly taunts and the promise of what’s to come if I don’t get myself out by the time the buzzer goes off. Because the asshole who’s currently pushing something hard and metal against my back is my cousin Leo. He’s the second-oldest nephew—that we know of that happens to live in the US. Leo’s older brother, Marco, is the current heir to the Romano family rule, and Leo is kind of his bitch-boy. At least, that’s what I hear people whisper behind his back. It’s something I know he hears too, but he’s good at ignoring stuff like that. We all are. If we want to survive, we have to be. Of course, this is basic training stuff. I know how to escape being tied up, but I don’t know how to fight. I can break duct tape handcuffs, and I know where to kick a man who’s holding me captive, but I couldn’t hold my own with some frat-boy asshole in a dark alley. Not that I have much of a chance to meet guys like that. My father, Guido Romano, has been keeping me isolated from the evils of the world, as he likes to call them. He’s a former Catholic priest who fell in love with my mother and broke his vows for love. So he says. That was the fairy tale I grew up on, anyway. Sometimes I think that story’s meant to hurt me, though, because my mother’s dead, and my father’s a heartless monster who hasn’t looked me in the eye since I was eleven years old. Of course, he has no problem dressing me up and parading me around his creepy friends at parties, and I can hear them whisper behind their glasses of single malt scotch all the ways I’d be a perfect, obedient little wife. And all the favors marrying me would earn them with my father. It almost makes me laugh when I allow myself to think about my situation. How I became the single, surviving Romano child from a family who was a minor deal in Italy and a huge deal here in this city. How a tragic accident that took my mother and sister away from me left me shouldering the entire responsibility to keep the line going. After all, Marco and Leo aren’t Romanos. They’re Riccis. So it’s up to me to produce the next line that will inherit, so long as my father can stay alive before it’s Marco’s turn to take over. That’s easier said than done since the two things I know about my father are that he doesn’t make friends easily and this city is full of his enemies. I’ve never been allowed to know much about his dealings, but it doesn’t take a genius to understand that he’s got his fingers in weapons and drugs and other shit that’s above my head.