The Set-Up Man
Vivienne Hart has spent her life running from ghosts-men who used her, choices that broke her, and an addiction that nearly destroyed her. Once a call girl in Las Vegas, she carries the scars of survival like invisible chains. All she's ever wanted is a clean slate, a chance to start over.
Enter David Lewis. Smooth, polished, and impossibly persuasive, David promises Vivienne everything she's been denied: security, stability, and freedom from her past. Against her instincts, she takes the leap-and steps straight into a gilded trap.
Behind the charm and tailored suits, David is no savior. He's a predator. A criminal mastermind who has studied Vivienne's vulnerabilities and intends to use her as the perfect pawn in his empire of fraud, laundering, and exploitation. The new beginning he offers isn't salvation-it's a setup.
Vivienne tries to rebuild her life and trust again, but her fragile hope is consumed by David's careful manipulation. What begins as rescue turns into control. She thought she'd found freedom-only to discover she's been caged again.
Betrayed and furious, Vivienne learns to fight back. With dangerous allies and her own sharpened instincts, she infiltrates David's world, exposing cracks in his empire. Each move blurs the line between justice and vengeance. Is she reclaiming her power-or losing herself to the very darkness she wants to destroy?
Vivienne rises from pawn to player, from survivor to strategist. She is no longer David's victim-she's his equal, his rival, his reckoning. But the final battle is not just against David's empire. It's against the psychological grip he still holds over her, and the past she refuses to carry any longer. The conclusion is a clash of power, identity, and survival that forces Vivienne to decide once and for all: will she be defined by her scars, or by her defiance?
The Set-Up Man Trilogy is a relentless psychological thriller about power, manipulation, and resilience. Vivienne's evolution-from pawn, to player, to queen-traces the journey of a woman who learns to weaponize her trauma and reclaim her story. Gritty and unflinching, the series dives into the shadows of survival, asking: Can someone who's been broken ever truly be free-or is freedom something you have to take for yourself?
