Chapter 1

CHAPTER 1

LUNA

T he familiar scent of freshly ground coffee enveloped me like a long-lost friend as I started my shift at the cozy coffee shop, Pipin’ Hot. Tucked away in the heart of northern Tennessee, Finder’s Keep was the picture-perfect small town you’d likely imagine it to be. With our winters lasting a good five or six months a year, people tended to forget we were even on the map.

Tennessee is the land of deep blue lakes, thick forests, and frozen tundra. It was an ideal place for anyone who wanted to disappear. Finder’s Keep had two official law enforcement officers. Elliot Gardner, seventy-five years young if he was a day, masqueraded as our sheriff. He couldn’t see the red on a barn at fifty paces. The deputy, Marcel Brakeman, was knee-deep in crime and corruption and had been for as long as I could remember.

Even back in middle school, Marcel had done everything he could to ingratiate himself with the one family that brought terror to the hearts of every woman, man, and child—the Eliasson brothers. The father had ruled the streets of Finder’s Keep, and when the resident bad boys were old enough to turn into dangerous men, they’d taken over the family business.

Everyone knew the Eliasson brothers weren’t to be trifled with. They told you to jump, and your answer had better be ‘how high?’ They said get lost, and you moved out of town. They didn’t have friends, and they certainly didn’t socialize with anyone.

Sure, there was a certain mystery about the three brothers that had always lured me like a siren’s call. Despite my aunt’s every effort to keep me away from their world. I hadn’t been immune to their handsome dark hair and olive skin tone. It was a far cry from the freckles and blond mass of curls I was cursed with. Thankfully, my great-aunt had been there to put a stop to any of those childish romantic fantasies. My aunt had been my rock and my sanctuary ever since I moved to this godforsaken town at the tender age of eleven after my last foster family gave me the boot.

I never knew my dad and hardly could remember my mom. I think my memories are more from the faded picture I have of her holding me after I was born and another where she held me in her arms at a playground. Even in those shots, she hadn’t looked well. After Mama had died, I’d been tossed into the foster care system, being tossed from one house to another. One of the houses had mice in the kitchen, and I was terrified to eat anything. After dropping ten pounds on my eighty-pound frame, I was pulled and put into another home. In this situation, the foster parents wanted as many kids as possible to collect as much money as the state would allow. There was an older girl there, Bianca, who was incredibly angry. I became her punching bag for a while, until once again the case worker caught on, and I was moved again.

Imagine my surprise when my case worker showed up and told me I wasn’t going to another foster family. They had uncovered a family member who would take me in. Her name was Ruby Briggs. Technically, Ruby was my great aunt on my father’s side. She’d lost touch with my dad and never had any children of her own. Ruby welcomed me with open arms, a concept that was as foreign to me as the little green men with antennae on their foreheads. I’d spent eleven years being abandoned, yelled at, made to work like a slave, shuffled around, and being downright miserable—until Ruby.

Somehow, I’d gone from one extreme to another, and I couldn’t have been more thankful. I’d stayed in Ruby’s funny little cottage in the middle of nowhere. Not caring about the endless winters and the loneliness of it all. I’d finally found someone who loved me desperately, and I had loved her just as fiercely. For fifteen years we’d been a duo. You rarely saw Ruby without me in her shadow. She was like a brilliant sun, and I had been caught in her atmosphere. I supposed that’s why I’d completely fallen apart when Ruby’s sun had unexpectedly imploded. She’d died. One moment she was standing at the sink looking for her tarot cards. The next, she was sprawled out on the floor, not breathing.

The story, however tragic, followed the normal way of things. We buried her in the little cemetery near the church twenty-eight days ago. A church that Ruby never set foot inside until she was rolled in via her casket. Something that was not lost on me. It had been a rainy Thursday afternoon. Everyone in the town had turned out. I don’t know why it surprised me. But the moment the three Eliasson brothers walked into the chapel, I had expected the good Lord to strike them right out of his church. Surely souls as dark as theirs had no place in a holy sanctuary. However, the moment that thought crossed my mind, I had to chide myself for being a hypocrite. I knew nothing about these men. All I had ever done was fear them without any provocation. At that moment, I made a promise to myself that I wouldn't judge a book by its cover. I needed to give the Eliasson brothers a chance. While I found solace in the routine of mundane life, with the same old faces and their same old orders, it wasn't truly living. Every day I spent in this dead-end town with this dead-end job felt like pieces of my heart being ripped away. All I ever wanted was to belong.

"Hey there, sunshine," drawled a voice, snapping me out of my thoughts. I looked up to find Owen, the town's self-proclaimed bad boy, leaning against the counter with a smirk that made my skin crawl. "Hey there, beautiful. Can I get the usual?"

Just another day in the life of Luna Marlowe, the coffee girl extraordinaire. I forced a smile. "Hey, Owen. That'll be a tall, iced mocha latte with caramel and extra whipped cream, right?"

"You know me too well, Red," Owen purred with a wink.

What kind of douchebag winks at a girl? It’s straight-up Douchebaggery 101, and Owen had a doctorate in Douchebaggery. Instead of biting the hand that feeds me, I put on the happy-go-lucky persona that won them all over with a plastic smile. Owen was a regular and tips didn’t make themselves.

As I prepared the drink, my mind wandered back to my late Aunt Ruby. She always believed in the power of the universe, manifesting positivity, and trusting her instincts. With everything that happened in life, Ruby would look for the lessons the universe was trying to teach her. I wasn’t good at relying on my spiritual side, but since Ruby passed away, I felt a renewed sense of urgency to find purpose in things.

Aunt Ruby was also the queen of secrets, often involved in shady dealings that lurked in the darkness of crime and corruption. She believed there was honor among thieves and trusted her associates with the business side of things, but she never trusted them to meet me.

Ruby was deeply connected with the Eliasson brothers, Finder’s Keep’s underbelly royalty. They were not just above the law; they owned the law. Wealthy, corrupt, and often depraved, the Eliasson brothers were not to be messed with. Ruby had always kept me far away from anything related to them.

So, imagine my surprise when I received a summons to meet at the Eliasson’s office tower in the heart of downtown. Rafe, Marcel, and Jude Eliasson were three of the sexiest yet scariest men I had ever seen. If they thought I would willingly walk into their lair, they weren’t as savvy as Ruby made them out to be.

"Here you go, Owen," I said with a saccharine smile as I slid the drink across the counter, and he left a crumpled ten-dollar bill in its place.

"Keep the change, Red," he purred, flicking his eyebrow upwards in what I could only assume was supposed to be a sexy gesture.

The difference between Owen and the Eliasson brothers was like night and day. While Owen exuded a tough guy persona, the Eliasson brothers radiated a magnetic sexuality. Rafe had raven black hair and piercing eyes that could undress you with a glance. Marcel, with the most tattoos and the biggest frame, looked like a nightmare coming to life.

Jude, the youngest brother, moved with a feline grace that exuded raw sensuality. His presence alone sent shivers down my spine. Ruby had sensed my attraction to the brothers and quickly put a stop to it. She was right; the chemistry between us was volatile, and I was no match for their allure.

As the day dragged on, more customers filtered in and out of the cafe, each one a character straight out of a poorly written play. They were all regulars with their own quirks and stories. In some ways, it was comforting in its predictability.

However, a restlessness stirred within me, and I no longer had the patience or time to entertain every customer. That is, until the snowstorm hit.

The blizzard descended suddenly, reducing visibility to near zero until my manager decided to close the store for the day. I bundled up and braved the storm, making my way home to the warm bungalow I shared with Ruby, leaving my car behind.

As I settled in at home, I grabbed a bottle of wine and my tarot deck. Ruby had taught me how to read the cards when I first came to live with her. Since her passing, I had relied on the cards more and more. I hated the feeling of being alone in the world. Somehow, by reading the cards, I felt like Ruby was still with me, even if it was just a little.

With the cards fanned out before me, memories resurfaced, fragmented and sharp as shards of glass. Ruby, with her silver curls catching the firelight, the Eliasson brothers looming in the doorway. I was just a kid then, maybe sixteen or seventeen. Their shadows stretched long across our hearth, mixing with the smoke and murmurs of deals cloaked in darkness.

"Powerful friends you've got there," I teased Ruby once they left. She looked from the closed door the Eliasson brothers had just walked through, then straight over to me. There was no humor in her tone when she firmly put me in my place.

“They aren’t for you, Luna. You stay away from them. You hear?”

I had no idea at the time how deep those waters ran. Her tone had scared me a little. I remember asking, “Don’t you want me to make friends?”

It was obvious to both of us that they weren’t “friend” material. But Ruby gentled her response. She smiled that mysterious smile of hers. It was one that didn't quite reach her eyes. A kind of sad and wishful smile that said without words things might have been a little different in another life.

"Friends are like stars, Luna-love. Not all of them light the way."

I shook off the shiver crawling up my spine and snatched up the photo I’d kept tucked between the cards—a shot of me and Ruby at the town fair, faces flushed with laughter. That's what I needed—moments of joy, not the icy dread that came with thoughts of Rafe's piercing gaze or Marcel's wicked smirk. And Jude... well, he always seemed to wait and watch. Of all the brothers, I would say he was the most calculating.

"Enough," I said, trying to snap myself out of the past. I stuffed the photo back into the cards. My time was running out. One just didn’t ignore a summons from the Eliasson brothers. I either went and faced the music or I could run away, scared like a little girl.

I was of two minds about what to do. With the storm settled in for the night, it would be smartest to stay home and pretend I couldn’t make the appointment. But they would come after me. The truth was, I was as attracted to them as I was terrified of them.

I suppose the best thing to ask of myself: Was I more afraid of what they’d do to me, or what I might allow them to do to me? Hell, of what I might do to them—with them. All kinds of taboo images filled my mind. Ruby was right to keep us apart. The chemistry was just too explosive, and where there was smoke, there was fire. I wasn’t sure I could survive the burns they’d leave behind.

I needed to get away. A new chance, a new town, a new anything would be welcomed with open arms. The summons from the Eliasson brothers loomed over me like a death shroud. Glancing out the window again, I noticed the storm had lessened a little.

Run, run, run… It was a mantra that had plagued me since I was little. I hadn’t truly known what a home was until Aunt Ruby had taken me in. But without her around, this place was only four walls. I felt imprisoned once again. The fight-or-flight instinct was so strong that I scarcely knew what I was doing.

I glanced at my phone. Great, but it had only 18% battery life. It was not optimal, but it was not the worst either. I shoved it into my pocket and decided to get the hell out of Finder’s Keep.

"New life, new Luna," I declared, going into my bedroom and throwing my belongings into the old military duffle bag that had once belonged to my dad. I never knew him, and this was all I had of either parent. It hardly made sense why I treasured it so much. I supposed even the idea of having something that belonged to them with me was better than being completely alone.

It didn’t take me long to pack the essentials. I didn’t know where I was going. All I knew was that I needed to be away from here. Slinging the bag over my shoulder, I glanced around the cottage. The corners were filled with shadows that seemed to taunt me with their fingers as if trying to hold on to what once was. With a last sweep of my gaze, I locked away those memories for good. Striding toward the door, I paused, hand hovering over the knob. I felt the weight of a thousand unspoken words and unsolved mysteries pressing against my back, egging me on.

"Goodbye, Aunt Ruby," I whispered, my voice thick with emotion. "Your chick is finally flying the coop."

Then I stepped out into the biting cold. The soft flurries of snow kissed my cheeks as if in benediction. "Here's to a fresh start," I said between chattering teeth. My breath formed clouds in the air. It was a new chapter—and for once, I was the one holding the pen.