Valentina Cruz left with a backpack, a stolen twenty, and a bruise she would rather not explain. She is twenty, tired of paying for a roof with fear, and certain that help usually comes with a bill.

Daniel Mercer is thirty-six, a lawyer who still does community theater, and newly separated from a marriage that went quiet until there was nothing left to stay for. He has a spare room, a daughter who comes on weekends, and a habit of slowing down in the rain for someone who looks like she has run out of options.

He offers a few nights. A lock on the door. No expectations.

Vale believes the lock. She does not believe the rest of her life will remain simple if she stays. She knows what she looks like. She knows what lonely men have wanted from her before. What she does not know how to do is accept a kindness that is not collecting.

What begins as shelter becomes a choice. Vale learns the house: the pale squares on the walls, the child's drawing on the fridge, the pink bike in the wet grass. Dan learns that taking someone in is easier than admitting he wants her to remain. The age difference is a fact other people will use. So is the way he says her name when he could have called her a mistake.

When his ex-wife comes to the porch, Dan has to decide whether Vale is a private arrangement or a partner he will stand beside in daylight. Vale has to decide what she will do with a man who will not hide her.

This complete edition gathers Parts One, Two, and Three, and closes with an epilogue set years later. It is a contemporary love story about a locked door that stays open, a child who already lost one version of home, and two people who keep choosing each other after the rain has stopped.

This book contains explicit sexual content and is intended for adult readers only. All characters depicted in sexual situations are 19 or older.

Taken In: Part Three

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