Coerce (Death in Bloom, #1)

by Candice M. Wright

Money and power. It’s what the world is built on and nobody is beyond corruption.

I wonder for a second why I can’t recall the exact moment death became so normal to me.

The black ooze of maliciousness is present in all walks of life.

money and power do not wash away a man’s sins and make him pure. It just buys him a larger closet in which to hide his skeletons.

I’ve seen the buoyancy that comes with love. The weightlessness and rush make people believe they can walk on water. But there is always more lurking beneath the surface, a darker facet of love that doesn’t raise you up, but drags you under instead. It steals your breath and fills your lungs until you asphyxiate.

“You can be whoever you need to be out there, but you’ll always be my hero even if the only person you’re saving me from is myself.”

To her, I’m just a man with more money than sense. But to the underworld, I’m a fucking king. Staring at her now, I know without a doubt I’ve found my queen.

Staying with Atlas won’t change the man he is but it will change the woman I become.

“Hold on to me and when you fall, take me with you. I don’t know what love is, Ivy, but if I could ever love anyone it would be you. I just don’t know how to fall.”