Vanity by Mary Martel

The beautiful does well to hide the beast.

Nova Crimson was absolutely beautiful, and she knew it. Not only was she beautiful but she was smart, filthy rich, had a fabulous wardrobe, a great house, on paper she seemed to have it all going for her.
Well, what’s the problem with all of this, you want to know?
The interior didn’t match the exterior, or so the saying goes. Nova Crimson was a cold, ruthless bitch who got what she wanted when she wanted it and wasn’t afraid of the casualties who might get trampled in her wake.
There’d only ever been one person in her life who she’d allowed to see past the beautifully cold mask she hid behind, and that had been a boy named Olliver who’d been everything Nova had not. They’d become friends, of a sort, after Nova stood up to protect him.
Unfortunately, the very next day, Olliver and his useless drunk of a father disappeared without a trace. And Nova had been forced to go about her life as if a piece of her hadn’t gone missing right along with Olliver. The very best piece of her, the piece that held any time of compassion or love she might have ever had.
Now, all grown up and on her own in the world, Nova still can’t let the ghost of that boy go. The hunter in her wants to track him down and find him herself. But hunting men had only ever ended in one way with Nova and that was with their death. Something she made a great deal of money off of and was very, very good at.
One thing Nova had learned in life was that if you couldn’t do it yourself you needed the best of the best to get the job done for you.
That’s when River, Vega, and Talin walked into her life. That’s also when things took a drastic turn in Nova Crimson’s life because in order to embrace love one had to take off the beautiful mask that hid the beast and embrace the ugly on the inside.