Cheer Bows with Bullet Holes

My name is Emery Mercer, and I decided a long time ago that I would never be a victim.

Growing up broken doesn't mean I have to stay that way. I worked for everything I have, becoming the first junior Cheer Captain at an elite college, chasing a future I planned down to the last detail.

College. NFL cheerleader. Nurse.

All I had to do was pass anatomy.

One bad decision in the dark shattered everything.

Maddox McAvoy was never part of the plan.

He's older. My TA. Dangerous in ways I didn't see coming.

He pushed, demanded, watched me unravel, until running felt like my only option.

Then there was Malek Serrano.

Suave. Calculated. Always appearing when I needed help most, slipping into my life one quiet moment at a time.

He felt safe. Familiar. Too perfect.

What I didn't know was that their pasts were already tangled together, and that I'd walked straight into the wreckage they left behind.

Because some ghosts don't stay buried.

And when they rise, they don't come alone.