Madness

The Lords are a centuries-old secret society of wealthy men bound by oath, initiation, and blood.

The Lords are a centuries-old secret society of wealthy men bound by oath, initiation, and blood. Within their ranks, the Spade brothers serve as executioners for those who betray the order. Every Lord endures three years of celibacy and brutal trials at Barrington University before being gifted a 'chosen' woman and eventually assigned a Lady—a wife to serve him for life. Carnage is the Spade brothers' domain: a prison-fortress where oath-breakers are sent to suffer. Women exist to serve, breed, and obey. If a Lord dies, his Lady is regifted to another. No one escapes the Lords' reach—not in life, and certainly not in death.

A killer-in-training glimpses the one woman he can never forget

Haidyn Reeves survives four years of brutal initiations to become a Spade brother—the Lords' enforcers at Carnage prison. Freshman year, he kills two armed men in an arena. Sophomore year, he chooses which of two captive women dies. Junior year, on an assassination assignment aboard a yacht, he pauses—because a brunette in a white dress across the deck steals his breath. She laughs, sips champagne, and never notices him. He finishes his kill. Senior year, all four brothers are branded with hot iron while Lords watch from balconies. Haidyn takes the oath not for himself but for his brothers—Saint, Kashton, and Adam—the only people he has ever loved. The woman in the white dress remains a ghost lodged beneath his ribs.

The Lords give her a false name, a fake life, and a dangerous target

Annabelle Schults has already proven herself to the Lords—she killed a hooded woman during her initiation at the cathedral and took a brand onto her own back. Now they hand her something harder: an assignment. A package arrives with a laptop, phone, and new identity. She is to become Charlotte Hewett, a licensed therapist counseling Haidyn Reeves at Carnage. The Lords want her to remain a virgin, acquire a boyfriend who won't touch her, and build an entirely fabricated life. Her dossier on Haidyn is skeletal—his name, Carnage, and the word 'denied' under Lady. Annabelle's mother supports the assignment. Her stepfather Bill watches silently. Nobody tells Annabelle what the Lords actually want from Haidyn, or why they chose her to extract it.

Haidyn remembers the girl in white and refuses every boundary she draws Charlotte walks into Carnage for her first session, and Haidyn recognizes her immediately—the woman from the yacht, years later, standing in his prison with a notebook and trembling hands. She introduces herself professionally. He tells her the only way he'll talk is if she's naked, gagged, and on her knees.…