BLOOD LEDGER (Crown and Cartel Book 1)

She got rejected 127 times by the suits on Wall Street.Then one man from the streets offered her real power.Zara Calloway has a Harvard MBA, a razor-sharp mind, and $412 to her name. She's done smiling through interviews and shrinking herself to fit rooms that were never built for her — done getting told she's not the "right fit." So when Sovereign Capital Partners — a Black-owned private equity firm with money that moves different — comes calling, she takes the meeting.Malachi St. James is colder than the marble in their lobby and twice as expensive. The kind of man the streets made and money refined. He built an empire that looks clean on paper but runs on something much darker underneath. And he doesn't just want Zara on his team.He wants her in his world.The deeper she goes, the more she sees the truth: the second set of books, the blood on the money, the cartel threats, and the man who rules it all. Malachi doesn't believe in love. He believes in loyalty, control, and keeping what's his.Zara was supposed to walk away.Instead, she stayed.Because for the first time, someone sees exactly how dangerous her mind is… and wants every bit of it.Now she's in too deep — in his bed, in his empire, and in a war she helped build. And the most powerful man in the room is starting to realize the one thing he can't control might be the woman he can't let go.In this game, love ain't soft.It's blood on the ledger. Read more