I've never been the kind of girl to take the easy way out. Happy endings never came to people like me. The tarnished ones.

I'm surrounded by a group that knows sadness too well. We know what it's like to lose and be tossed away like last night's trash. We are easy to blame for all the wrongs, because when others look at us, they see our scars. Most of our stories are told in the ink we bear, but we wear those tales proudly.

Oliver Riggins is the first man I've run across that made me feel like I could have more. But he's also one of the many men who are more family to me than my own flesh and blood. Four brothers by choice, they've taken me in, and treated me as one of their own. The problem is, I've always wanted more from Oliver.

I've felt an instant connection to him from the first day I walked into Deranged Ink. But the fear of ruining what we have and then in the end not having him at all, that was too hard to bear. So instead, I've sat back and watched the parade of women in his life, but I feel a little part of me crumble away.

I want him, I've always wanted him. Maybe it's time I stop running.

Maybe it's time I start fighting for the things I want.

Contains mature themes.