Deadly Bloom

Kathy Bloom arranges other people’s happily-ever-afters—bouquet by bouquet, ribbon by ribbon—in a shop where the bell over the door still sounds like hope. Then Detective Tim Hargrove steps in after a break-in and makes safety feel romantic. He texts to check on her. He brings coffee. He keeps the spare key “so she won’t lose it.” By the time Kathy notices the rules beneath the tenderness, the lock is already on the inside.

When a regular customer vanishes and news breaks of a police corruption probe, Kathy finds a second phone, a cash roll, and a photograph of the missing woman hidden in Tim’s go-bag. The protector she trusted is a suspect with secrets—and Kathy has become the one person who can expose him…or disappear next.

Internal Affairs wants her cooperation. Tim wants her obedience. To live, Kathy must perform the role of devoted lover while building a quiet rebellion from petals and wire: coded bouquets for messages, a freezer’s fog to blind cameras, a motion sensor rewired to buy seconds. Every kiss is a lie. Every smile is bait. Every flower means something he won’t see until it’s too late.

As the investigation tightens and Tim’s affection curdles into threat, Kathy engineers one final arrangement—a storm-lit greenhouse, a goodbye bouquet, and a trap made of glass and thorns. He’s spent a career catching liars.

She’s about to show him what a florist can do.