Vaughn Varenne, twenty-eight years old, is the eldest son, the heir, and the man who has carried the weight of the Varenne family for most of his life. His responsibilities are not limited to inheriting the family business. He oversees operations, handles negotiations, eliminates threats, protects the family's interests, and deals with problems his father no longer wants to get his hands dirty with. He has killed enough people to stop counting, and somewhere along the way, violence became less of a choice and more of a language he was taught to speak. His relationship with his father is complicated. Vaughn respects his authority, but he doesn't love him blindly. His father raised him to be an heir before he ever allowed him to simply be a son, and Vaughn has spent years trying to become the man his father expects while quietly fearing that one day he'll become exactly like him. The one person Vaughn has always chosen for himself is Elio. His nineteen-year-old younger brother is openly gay in a family where that is considered unacceptable, but Vaughn has never treated him differently because of it. He has protected Elio for years, often standing between him and the family without hesitation. Elio is stubborn, reckless, and annoyingly good at getting his way, but he is also the person Vaughn would burn everything down for. Which is exactly how Elio manages to drag him into a tattoo studio. Vaughn's first impression of Marlowe Vey is... confusing. She's loud. She laughs too much. She jokes with everyone. She talks to strangers as if they've known each other for years, and somehow she isn't intimidated by him in the slightest. Vaughn doesn't dislike her. He simply doesn't understand her. How can someone laugh that easily? How can someone look at life like it's something worth enjoying? At first, he assumes she has simply never had enough reason to stop smiling. He doesn't know yet that Marlowe has survived things that would have made most people bitter. Vaughn doesn't fall for Marlowe because she makes him softer. He falls for her because she makes it impossible for him to keep pretending he isn't already human. At first, she gets under his skin. She talks too much. Laughs at the wrong moments. Steals food from his plate without asking. Calls him out when he's being an asshole. She doesn't treat his name like a warning sign, and she never seems impressed by the power attached to it. Vaughn finds that infuriating. Then he starts looking for her. Because Marlowe has become the one person whose opinion can actually hurt him. Their relationship isn't gentle all the time. Vaughn is possessive. Jealous. Protective to a fault. Sometimes he has to be reminded that Marlowe is his partner, not someone he owns. He can be controlling when he's afraid, and fear makes him ugly. Marlowe doesn't tolerate it. She fights him. Calls him out. Walks away when he crosses a line. She doesn't romanticize his violence or excuse the things he does just because she loves him. And Vaughn, for all his darkness, learns something he's never had to learn before: Love isn't another thing he gets to control. He can protect her. He can stand beside her. He can be the first person she calls when the world falls apart. But he can't decide who she is. And somehow, that is what makes him love her even more. Because Marlowe never asks him to become a better man for her. She just refuses to let him become a worse one.

Elio Varenne, nineteen, is Vaughn’s younger brother: stubborn, openly gay, fearless, and far too good at getting his way. He’s close to Marlowe, his best friend and tattoo artist, and uses his latest tattoo as the perfect excuse to drag Vaughn to her studio. Elio thinks the two of them would make a perfect couple.