Game On

The novel opens with Tyler Neumann, an underground bookie who operates under the alias "Mr. Strickland," hosting a high-stakes illegal gambling party aboard an abandoned freight ship. Tyler's business relies on lending money to players who run out of funds, then collecting steep interest when debts go unpaid. He has built this operation since college, when he ran poker games in his dorm to pay tuition.

Tyler's target extends beyond profit: He seeks revenge against his father, Richard Lawson, the McCormick family's business partner and godfather to Stella McCormick. To reach Richard, Tyler lures Stella's twenty-year-old brother, Blake McCormick, to the party, ensures Blake is overserved and seated with expert players, and offers him loans until Blake gambles away his entire three-million-dollar inheritance. Tyler plans to leverage this debt to manipulate Stella, who can grant him access to Richard's inner circle.

Stella McCormick is a thirty-five-year-old tattoo artist who works in the neotraditionalist style, featuring bold, modernized takes on traditional tattoo imagery. She owns a Gothic shop she built herself, though money is tight because her inheritance is committed elsewhere. Her mother, Georgianna ("Georgie"), a wealthy English-born socialite, visits one morning and mentions encountering Maddie, a figure from Stella's past tied to an unresolved conflict. The name rattles Stella, who declares she and Maddie have nothing to say to each other until Maddie "finally tells the truth."

Tyler, posing as "Theo Strickland," books a late-night tattoo consultation at Stella's shop. Their interaction is combative, but an intense chemistry develops, culminating in a kiss interrupted by Derrick, one of Stella's artists. Tyler's narration reveals the consultation was a ruse to assess Stella's vulnerabilities and get close enough to reveal his hold over Blake.

Blake soon arrives at the shop in distress, confessing he lost his inheritance at the gambling party. When he mentions the host's name, Stella connects it to her new client's surname and confronts Tyler via furious emails. Tyler arranges a dinner, where he proposes Stella repay Blake's debt by pretending to date him and introducing him into her parents' social circle. Stella is repulsed but feels trapped: a past scandal has left her family unable to weather more public scrutiny or police involvement. She agrees. Tyler has secretly attached a jammer beneath the table, and Stella later discovers her recording of the conversation is corrupted, leaving her with no evidence of the blackmail.

Tyler's stated goal of recruiting wealthy clients is a cover. His real objective is to infiltrate Richard's circle, gather intelligence, and turn Richard's associates against him. Tyler believes Richard abandoned him and his mother, Meg, when she became pregnant, leaving them in poverty.

At a party at the McCormick estate, Tyler meets Stella's parents, Phil and Georgie, and encounters Richard for the first time, hiding his fury behind charm. When Blake confronts Tyler in a study, Tyler overpowers him with swift violence that shakes Stella deeply.

A crucial backstory emerges when Stella visits Runa Lund, a woman who lost both legs above the knee in an accident seven years earlier. Stella was a passenger in Maddie Clyde's car when Maddie jumped a curb and struck Runa. Maddie fled, and her parents' lawyers pinned the blame on Stella. Though the criminal case was dismissed, Stella voluntarily admitted guilt in a civil suit, accepting a ten-million-dollar settlement and ongoing medical costs, which is why her inheritance is unavailable. Runa suggests Stella direct Tyler toward the worst people in her parents' circle. The two compile a list of targets, and Stella shifts from reluctant victim to willing collaborator.

Over several weeks, Tyler and Stella attend society events, their public performance masking flirtatious private tension. At a dinner party hosted by Cordelia Fentwick, a relative of Stella's, Maddie publicly confronts Stella. Tyler privately threatens to expose a death Maddie caused in the Turks and Caicos: a woman named Emily who was on a boat called La Mer and "slipped and fell," with the death covered up by a paid-off coroner. When Stella retreats in distress, Tyler tells her he believes she was not driving the car that hit Runa and proposes they work together against the people who deserve punishment. Stella agrees.

At a party hosted by AJ, a wealthy old friend with whom Stella has a romantic history, AJ propositions both Tyler and Stella. Neither backs down, and the three spend the night together, an encounter that deepens the tension between Tyler and Stella. At a subsequent company party, Maddie reappears, and this time Stella stands her ground, cataloging Maddie's cruelties before witnesses. Maddie slaps Stella, but onlookers confirm the strike was unprovoked. Tyler comforts Stella afterward and admits he no longer hates her.

Their worst argument erupts during a drive when a near-collision triggers Stella's flashbacks to Runa's accident. Tyler carries her through the rain to her shop, revealing that his fury stems from watching his mother be used and discarded by everyone. He tells Stella their arrangement is over, but at her apartment she kisses him, and they sleep together for the first time alone.

Tyler transforms Prohibition-era underground tunnels into a Gatsby-themed gambling venue, but Blake, who has noticed Tyler befriending their parents' employees at every event, contacts the police. At the party, Stella realizes Tyler planned to blackmail the employees into providing information to dismantle her parents' company, with Richard as the primary target. Tyler, tipped off by a corrupt cop, drags Stella through an escape tunnel at gunpoint as police raid the venue. In the tunnel, Stella deduces Tyler is Richard's son based on his disclosures and physical resemblance. She later discovers his real name from papers in his car.

Tyler forces Stella on an overnight drive to his rural hometown, telling her the full story of his mother, Meg Neumann: her abusive childhood, her romance with the older, married Richard, his apparent rejection when she revealed the pregnancy, and her death from ovarian cancer. At his Aunt Jenny's home, however, Jenny reveals that Meg left Richard voluntarily, fearing wealth would corrupt her child. Tyler's entire revenge plot was built on a lie. As Jenny storms off, she accidentally clips Stella with her van. Hospital tests later confirm only minor injuries.

At a hotel, Tyler confesses he craves being corrected and controlled by a dominant partner. Stella tests this dynamic, and they sleep together with Stella in full command. Afterward, Tyler commits to abandoning his revenge and seeking therapy. Stella does not forgive him but offers a chance to prove he can change.

On the return trip, Tyler visits his mother's grave, then introduces himself to Richard as Meg's son. Richard tells his version: he asked for a few days to process the pregnancy, not to reject Meg. By the fourth day he had secured a home and an engagement ring, only to find her phone disconnected and her apartment empty. He spent decades searching for them. Tyler, choosing kindness, spares Richard the full truth of Meg's suffering.

Weeks later, Tyler, Stella, and AJ have settled into a committed polyamorous relationship. Tyler is building a bond with Richard and attending therapy. Through the hacking skills of Josh, Tyler's best friend, Tyler and Stella anonymously leak information about wrongdoers to authorities, and the FBI opens an investigation into the death connected to Maddie. On the drive to a family event, Stella tells Tyler she loves him and admits she loves AJ, too. Tyler reciprocates, acknowledging he is still learning what love feels like. The novel closes with the three of them together, committed to each other and to exposing the crimes of the privileged while Tyler rebuilds the relationships he nearly destroyed.