A secret isn't a shadow you can outrun. It's a loaded gun waiting for the right hand to pull the trigger. Julian Thorne is a ghost. A street-smart hacker stealing from the corrupt, he operates in the dark to survive. But when he breaches the offshore accounts of the Vanguard—the city’s most ruthless criminal syndicate—his luck violently runs out. Caught in a freezing server room, Julian expects a bullet. Instead, he gets Silas Vance. Silas is the icy, untouchable heir to the Vanguard empire. He commands an army of killers and doesn't do mercy. Yet, instead of executing the boy who tried to ruin him, Silas does the unthinkable: he claims Julian as his own. Trapped in a glass-walled penthouse, Julian is forced to wear a biometric tracking watch and submit to a beautiful, terrifying monster. But this golden cage isn't what it seems. Silas doesn't want a prisoner; he wants an equal. Beneath the mob boss's cold exterior is a fiercely protective man willing to burn the city down to keep Julian safe. As the lines between captor and lover blur, Julian no longer wants to escape. He wants to rule by Silas’s side. But the Vanguard is built on betrayal. When a violent coup shatters their haven, Julian comes face-to-face with a ghost from his past... a ghost holding a gun to his head. HIS EXCEPTION is an MM Gay Dark Romance containing mature themes, violence, and a massive cliffhanger. Book One of the Vanguard duet.