BLACK LEDGER
Mara Vale, 31 — forensic accountant, buttoned-up, broke, clean public image she can't afford to lose. Rafe Mercer, 33 — security fixer, criminal, calm and lethal, owns nothing he can't walk away from. They grew up in the same foster home under Silas Venn, a "benefactor" who was really a blackmail broker. Nothing ever happened between them while they were kids. Then Mara got out, Rafe got pulled deeper in, and twelve years ago they were split by a lie Venn told each of them about the other. Now Venn is dead. His will forces them back to the sealed foster house with one job: recover and release his encrypted Black Ledger in 21 days. Fail, and it auto-drops the worst thing each did to protect the other: Mara falsified evidence to keep Rafe out of prison. Rafe threatened a witness and torched Mara's old boss to keep her name clean. They have to pose as an engaged couple, live under the same roof, and become co-conspirators — while trying not to finish what they never got to start.
