Handsome Devil

Wearing a plague doctor mask in the dead of an English winter night, Tate Blackthorn drowns Darrah Boyle in the ancient Roman baths of Bath.

Wearing a plague doctor mask in the dead of an English winter night, Tate Blackthorn drowns Darrah Boyle in the ancient Roman baths of Bath. It is his first kill—methodical except for Boyle cracking his skull on the stairs, which offends Tate's compulsive need for order. He places a black thorn between the dead man's lips, a signature linking the murder to his surname. Five years ago, Boyle and two fellow inmates killed Tate's adoptive father Daniel over a forty-dollar poker game in prison. To track all three killers, Tate partnered with the Ferrante family, New York's ruling Camorra syndicate. He drives back to London whistling, twenty minutes ahead of schedule. The revenge has just begun.

Save your mother's life—become my wife in exchange

After five years as Tate's personal assistant—enduring sabotaged relationships, ruined birthdays, and a filing cabinet dumped at dawn for a document hidden under his coffee cup—Gia needs the one thing only he can provide. Her mother Telma has advanced dementia, and an experimental New York program could reverse the decline. Gia hides at Tate's birthday party until guests leave, then finds him watching two women solve algebra for sexual favors. She solves the equation in seconds. He dismisses the women and names his price: full marriage—his name, his bed, his heirs. Gia negotiates: no children for two years, she controls intimacy, divorce permitted when Telma dies. She presses two fingers to his lips to prove she can bear his proximity. He calls the Ferrante underboss before dawn.

He breaks up with her boyfriend and buys a Super Bowl ad

Behind the scenes, the Ferrantes hack a government healthcare database, forge Telma's test results, and eliminate a participating patient to create an opening. Tate forces Gia to break up with her boyfriend Ashley on speakerphone—then growls at the man for hesitating. He transfers Gia from his assistant role to human resources, where her sole duty is terminating employees. Her belongings are moved into his penthouse without permission; most are thrown away. The engagement is announced via Super Bowl commercial featuring a doctored photo of the couple, blindsiding Gia while she dines with her best friends Cal and Dylan. They watch in horror as every screen in the restaurant fills with her face. The Callaghan clan—Irish Mafia whose driver Tate killed in Bath—begins circling.

Their first kiss follows a kidnapping attempt on their wedding night Tate's plane is stranded; he arrives hours late. By then Gia has torn the designer wedding gown from her body and dressed in cutoff shorts and a Disney…