Pretty Knife Novels & Stories

Arranged-marriage, age-gap, Mafia/cartel romance, forbidden Due to my birth order as a child of the Luciano famiglia capo, I’m used to second place. Second son. Second in standing. Never number one. It’s the way my life has always been. Only in the dark alleys, private clubs, and seedy establishments am I respected. Not just as the consigliere to my brother, the new capo of the Kansas City Famiglia, but also for my unmatched skills with a knife and my particular skills of interrogation. This status is as high as I will achieve. First place will forever be out of reach. Camila Ruiz is the younger daughter of Andrés Ruiz, a top lieutenant in the Roríguez cartel. From the first moment I laid eyes on her, I knew I wanted her. She is too young and fragile, though, to be with a man like me, a killer and criminal. I don’t deserve a woman like Camila. Taking her would ruin her. With the newly established alliance between the Luciano famiglia and Roríguez cartel, I ask for the impossible and promise my life. With the blessing of my capo and the Roríguez drug lord, Camila is to be mine. For once, I will be first in another’s eyes. And Camila will always be first to me. What happens when the fragile alliance is tested? Can I keep my promise to my wife and my oath to the famiglia? Have you been Aleatha’d?

I'm just a wolf-less omega bitch and a fuck-up Cromwell that's descended from a dirty rogue. No wonder my pack and my own mother... think I'm the one that killed my father. But, I didn't... kill my father. I wound never kill him. He was my only friend in this pack. The only one I could relate to. I had no friends... I only had my dad. And, since I only had him... when he was gone I had no one. So, I spend my lonely hours dedicating my life to studies. I graduated early from High School with an outstanding GPA. But, even that never impressed my mother enough. So, When it came down to it... My mother didn't hesitate to accuse me of my father's death. Her hatred for me was unspoken until that moment. The moment she caught me pulling a knife out of my father's chest. It was buried in deep. And, when I got it out... I heard her horrid scream. One that was dramatic. I was forced to break eye contact from my father's corpse to see her standing on the kitchen's edge. Her hands on her cheeks. A gray and sickly color caked on her face. She could have fainted any second. "What have you done?"

My sister always prided herself on her self-control. Even after six years of dating, she still insisted she was untouched. One day, I noticed something strange–her tongue was covered in metal piercings. That was when I realized… she had been using a different way all along. When I confronted her, she only smirked. "This way, men enjoy it more–and they become obsessed precisely because they can't have me. You wouldn't understand." However, looking at the damage already spreading through her mouth, I could not stay silent. I told her the risks–disease, even cancer–and that men obsessed with that kind of "purity" weren't good people to begin with. She did not listen. That very night, she gave herself to a powerful heir. Later, when the woman he truly loved returned, he discarded her without hesitation. She laughed it off, calling him a scumbag. However, on my birthday, she hid a knife inside a cake–and slammed it into my face. As the blade pierced through me, she burst into laughter. "If you hadn't pushed me to give it away, why would he stop valuing me? Why would he leave me? "This is all your fault. You deserve to die." When I opened my eyes again– I was back to the day I first saw the piercings on her tongue.

She won't take him back--no matter what. Or will she? Hayden Jenkins has lived in her hometown of Missoula, Montana, ever since she was born. She loves a simple life surrounded by her loving family, and that seems to be everything she needs. Or so she thinks. When her oldest brother’s wedding approaches, she fears facing a ghost from her past, the one who left her heartbroken seven years ago—Spencer Bailey, Hayden’s former high school sweetheart and the man who made her pretty much give up on real love. After graduation, Spencer left Montana to pursue a career in music in Los Angeles, which ended the relationship between Hayden and Spencer. They never spoke with one another again. Until now. Spencer's return leaves Hayden uneasy and anxious, still unprepared to face him after so long. Will it bring back unresolved feelings? Will they be forced to confront their past? Or will it be a second chance to rewrite their love story?

Anna is a pretty girl with dreams as wild as fire and eyes that can pierce into the soul of the most rigid person. She comes into The Archer Group as an intern interested in Investment Analysis, but is forced to be in the taxation department. She knows nothing about herself, as all her life has been spent trying to get to work in the greatest Venture Capitalist Company in New York. But the CEO of the Archer Group dies and hands the company over to his son, who is the last person who can make a company work. An artist with a specific sexual preference, private, reluctant, borderline rude, too brilliant for his own good, Carson Archer never plays by the rules. Anna only wants a chance to prove that she is better than writing reports. But Investment Analysis might just be the last thing on her mind when his gaze lands on her. At the Archer Group, falling for the boss isn't just career suicide. It’s heartbreak too. Because Carson Archer doesn’t do love.

The little boy I had saved when we were kids grew up to be a possessive, obsessive CEO. For ten years, he kept me by his side, using my grandmother's illness as a bargaining chip to force me into marrying him. He tried everything to win my heart, pulling every trick in the book, but no matter what he did, he could never make me love him. In a fit of rage, he found a woman who looked almost exactly like me to take my place. They flaunted their relationship for everyone to see, and people whispered that the CEO had finally found his true love. But that day, the woman, riding on his affection, barged into the villa with her entourage. She broke my fingers one by one, slashed my face with a utility knife, and removed my clothes to humiliate me. "Even though you had surgery to look like me, I'll let that slide. But you even learned to paint like me, too? You really did your homework. Let's see how you try to seduce men now!" Just as I was bleeding out and on the verge of death, the obsessive CEO finally showed up. The stand-in grabbed my hair and dragged me in front of him, smugly reporting, "Honey, this wench was hiding in the villa trying to seduce you. I've made sure she can't succeed!"

My sister-in-law, Hannah Martinez, was eight months pregnant when someone shoved her to the ground. Due to the heavy bleeding, she was rushed to the hospital. I happened to drive past, but I rolled up my window and pretended I saw nothing, pressing down on the gas pedal. In my previous life, I had immediately taken Hannah to the hospital when I saw her pass out from the blood loss. However, the situation was critical. After the severe bleeding, she developed an amniotic fluid embolism. My wife, Lauren Martinez, was the best obstetrician in the city. I called her, begging her to hurry to the hospital. Yet, she thought I was throwing a tantrum out of jealousy because she was having dinner with her first love, Isaac Poole, and his family. She believed I was using Hannah's emergency to force her to come back. By the time her family finally arrived, Hannah had already died from the failed treatment of the amniotic fluid embolism. Her entire family blamed me for Hannah's death, convinced that I had deliberately caused Lauren to misunderstand and let Hannah die. My brother-in-law, Jacob Turner, who rushed back from out of town, believed their lies. In his overwhelming grief, he hacked me to death with a knife at Hannah's funeral. When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the day Hannah was pushed and started bleeding out.

Devlin Ashford has spent her whole life being the daughter her family always forgot. Inside the high walls of the Edevane stronghold, built to keep lycans and wolves out and everything else rigidly in, she learned early that love in her family was a privilege distributed by usefulness and she had never been the most useful child. That distinction belonged to Mara, her older sister, who was beautiful and charming beyond words. When their father arranges Devlin's engagement to Corvin Hale, son of a neighboring chief, it is the first time in her life she has been given something that feels like a future. Corvin was at least decent and had a bright future as the youngest son of a Chief. Mara decides that's too good a future for someone like Devlin. Her parents make him choose, marry Devlin and live as just the youngest son of a Chief or marry Mara and become the chief of Edevane. Corbin makes a choice without thinking twice, he chooses the more attractive sister with a bright future tied to it. Inciting Incident Devlin goes over the wall with just forty coins, a knife and an extra set of clothes. She doesn't make it far before she's captured by slave hunters. In the borderlands auction market, the mate bond snaps in place between her and the lycan king, Ronan. That night he marks her in his room.

When Sylvia Reed postponed our wedding for the fifth time, I found a pregnancy test report in her bag and decided to force the issue. Then I saw a trending local post. A woman rolled up her sleeves, baking cookies. Beside her, a man bent down to tease a child. One look was enough. I recognized the scar on her wrist. It was in the exact same spot as the one Sylvia got years ago when she took a knife for me. The scarf draped over the man's shoulders was one I'd custom-made for Sylvia. Our initials were stitched into it. The sight burned. I thought about how Sylvia had been glued to her phone lately, and how I'd heard a baby crying through it. Ten minutes ago, she'd sent me a voice message. "Luke, something urgent came up at the company. I can't make it back to try on the suit with you. Maybe we should postpone the wedding again? Next year. We'll definitely do it next year." But I'd already waited seven years for this wedding. I took off my groom's suit and cut it to pieces. Then I wiped my eyes, pulled out my phone, and dialed a number I hadn't called in seven years. "I'm short a bride for my wedding. Interested?"

My best friend's boyfriend was cheating, so I tagged along to bust him at a hotel. Fifteen hours until go time. Felicity Cook booked a room right next to Jake's, jaw tight. "They'll be here tonight. When the time comes, we'll catch them red-handed." Inside, I could barely keep my eyes open. She'd been a wreck since last night, and I hadn't slept a minute trying to keep her sane. Figured I had time, so I set an alarm and crashed. When I opened my eyes, a guy was lying next to me. Felicity kicked the door in and pointed at me. "Lydia Lloyd! I can't believe you betrayed me! You're my best friend! Why would you sneak around and steal my boyfriend?" I just stared, mind blank, trying to get words out. She snapped, yanked out a kitchen knife, and in front of everyone, drove it into me again and again. I hit the floor, drowning in my own blood, eyes stuck open like my body refused to let me go. I came here to catch a cheater—how did I end up the side chick? Then I blinked... and I was right back at the moment I first walked into that hotel with Felicity.