Wretched

The third installment in Emily McIntire's Never After series, Wretched is a dark contemporary romance that reimagines elements of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz within the world of organized crime.

A prologue set seven years before the main narrative introduces Evelina Westerly, the youngest of three sisters in an Irish American crime family based in Kinland, Illinois. At the memorial Mass for her eldest sister, Vanessa ("Nessa"), seventeen-year-old Evelina sits beside her middle sister, Dorothy, and their father, Farrell, who has recently been released from an eight-year prison sentence for drug trafficking. Nessa, ten years Evelina's senior, raised both younger sisters after Farrell went to prison and their mother abandoned the family. Dorothy usurps Evelina's place at the podium to deliver the eulogy, wearing Nessa's shoes. The prologue closes with Evelina's private declaration: She is angry at Nessa for getting killed, and angry at Dorothy for killing her.

Seven years later, DEA Agent Nicholas Woodsworth receives an undercover assignment from his Chicago division supervisor, Agent Galen, to infiltrate the Westerly organization. Farrell has rebuilt a criminal empire in Kinland, flooding streets with a potent new heroin called Flying Monkey. Nicholas and his partner, Seth, flip Farrell's associate Ezekiel O'Connor by leveraging his fear of ending up like his father, who was murdered in prison. Nicholas adopts the alias "Brayden Walsh," a jewel thief, and is instructed to get close to Dorothy, identified by intelligence as Farrell's weak spot.

Before deploying, Nicholas has a chance encounter at a Chicago nightclub with a woman he knows only as a feisty blonde. They have sex in the bathroom, and neither reveals their real identity, though he gives his first name. The woman is Evelina, disguised with a blonde wig and no tongue piercing while on an errand for her father. After Nicholas leaves, she executes a bartender selling imitations of the family's product, establishing her capacity for lethal violence.

Nicholas says goodbye to his older sister, Rose, who is in recovery from addiction after he pulled her off the streets of Chicago. His motivation for joining the DEA stems from a childhood devastated by his mother's drug addiction and abandonment. In Kinland, Evelina's true role is revealed: Through a concealed entrance in a cottage on the Westerly estate, she maintains a massive underground greenhouse where she cultivates poppies and manufactures Flying Monkey. She is the secret mastermind behind the family's most valuable product, a fact known only to her father.

Operating as Brayden Walsh, Nicholas meets Dorothy and Ezekiel at Winkies, a Westerly-owned bar, and proves his cover by identifying Dorothy's emerald necklace as a fake. Farrell sends Evelina to vet the new recruit, and she recognizes "Brayden" as the man from the nightclub, noting he lied about his name. She warns him to stay away from her family.

Evelina tasks her best friend, Cody, a gifted hacker she befriended in high school, with a background check on Brayden Walsh. Cody reports the alias checks out, not knowing Nicholas fabricated the records. Despite the clean results, Evelina remains suspicious. She also has Cody record compromising footage of Mayor Oscar Norman as blackmail insurance, since Norman distanced himself from the Westerlys after Nessa's death on his yacht.

Nicholas embeds himself deeper by accompanying Evelina on collection runs. Their antagonistic chemistry intensifies through verbal sparring and mounting tension. When Evelina pistol-whips a delinquent middleman and empties his safe, Nicholas witnesses her ruthlessness firsthand. Their animosity boils over into a passionate sexual encounter in the basement of the Yellow Brick, a Westerly-owned strip club. Evelina immediately shuts down, calling it a mistake. Seth discovers the encounter through Nicholas's wire and deletes the recording to protect him, but warns that Nicholas's judgment is compromised.

A weapons pickup goes wrong when Farrell receives a tip that police are incoming. Nicholas is forced to help burn the warehouse to maintain his cover, destroying all evidence. Suspicion falls on him as the possible leak, but Evelina intervenes, lying that she has already vetted him and had him tailed for weeks. The close call prompts Nicholas to permanently ditch his wire.

Nicholas and Evelina's relationship deepens through shared vulnerability. He quotes Keats, her favorite poet, and reveals his mother loved poetry. He admits he does not know if his mother is alive, contradicting his cover story, though Evelina does not immediately catch the discrepancy. At her cottage, their emotional and physical intimacy grows, signaling a trust that unsettles them both.

Farrell announces a trip to Chicago for a charity event on the yacht where Nessa died, planning to negotiate a drug-supply partnership with the Cantanelli crime family, a powerful Italian syndicate. Evelina objects, arguing the deal would make them subordinate and exceed her production capacity, but Farrell dismisses her. During the gala, Dorothy taunts Evelina on the deck, throws Nessa's silver shoes overboard, and whispers a confession: She did not mean to kill Nessa, but she is glad she did. Nicholas physically restrains Evelina from attacking her sister.

After the gala, Evelina confirms that Brayden Walsh's mother died of cancer, proving Nicholas lied to her again. Farrell brings Dorothy to the greenhouse and orders Evelina to train her in production. When Evelina refuses, Farrell backhands her and calls her replaceable. Pushed to a breaking point, Evelina reveals to Cody that she created Flying Monkey and asks him to hack the greenhouse security to lock out her father and Dorothy.

At the cottage, Evelina tells Brayden she loves him. Nicholas is overwhelmed but cannot say the words back. Outside, he runs into Dorothy, who casually mentions learning to make "Evie's product." The revelation strikes him with devastating force: Evelina is the supplier he was sent to find.

Suspicious, Evelina follows Nicholas to a motel where she overhears him talking with Seth, hears Seth call him "Nick," and hears him discuss Ezekiel as an informant. She kicks open the door and holds both men at gunpoint. Nicholas confirms he is a federal agent. Evelina lowers her gun to his chest and asks if he would let Seth shoot her. His silence is her answer. She turns and walks away.

Nicholas is pulled from the case. Confiding in Rose, who reveals she once sold drugs during her addiction, he confronts the moral complexity of his feelings. Rose tells him the woman he loves deserves the same grace he extends to his own sister. At the DEA office, Nicholas discovers that the FBI has been running a parallel investigation, with Mayor Norman cooperating as a wired informant. FBI Agent Baum announces they have identified the supplier.

Evelina dismantles her old life. She burns every poem in her notebook at Nessa's grave and confronts Ezekiel about his betrayal, granting him mercy before banishing him. She lures Dorothy to the greenhouse, drugs her, and suspends her over a barrel of hydrofluoric acid. When Farrell arrives, Evelina confronts him about knowing Dorothy killed Nessa. As she lowers Dorothy into the acid, Farrell attacks and strangles her. Ezekiel, who followed Farrell, shoots him dead, saving Evelina's life. Both Dorothy and Farrell die.

As Evelina prepares to flee, Cody arrives and reveals himself as FBI Agent Baum, having spent years undercover using their friendship to build his case. He arrests her. Nicholas, tipped off that Baum was moving in, arrives and shoots Cody dead. He uncuffs Evelina, confesses his love, gives her his full name, and tells her to run. She escapes through the underground tunnel while Nicholas stages the scene, telling arriving agents he found Baum dead and the suspect gone.

Nicholas resigns from the DEA. After more than a year, a private investigator locates Evelina in Doolin, a small village on the coast of Ireland. Nicholas finds her walking along the cliffs, her natural brown hair restored, writing in a new notebook. He approaches with the same words he used when they first met, and she smiles her real smile. An extended epilogue, set five years later, finds them living in a cottage in a Northern Irish forest, unofficially married. Nicholas builds and sells furniture under the business name the Tin Roof, and Evelina tends her garden and writes poetry, having finally learned to live for herself.