Hooked: A Dark, Contemporary Romance

Content Warning: This section of the guide describes scenes of torture and murder.

Wendy confronts her younger brother, Jonathan, about homeschooling. Jon is 16 and has decided to study at home with their father’s permission. Wendy and Jon are both distanced from their father, but they are close with each other. Wendy is effectively Jon’s maternal figure, since their mother died when Jon was one year old.

At work, Wendy is alone and can’t manage to make drinks correctly. A rude customer prods at Wendy when she falls while making his drink. James shows up and confronts the customer while comforting Wendy. Afraid of James, the customer leaves, and James asks Wendy out on a date. He is still too aggressive, though, and Wendy rejects him. However, she thinks of him fondly for the rest of the day.

James interrogates the rude customer from the coffee shop in the basement of the Jolly Roger. James claims that he is torturing the man for showing Wendy disrespect, but for some reason he also feels like the man has shown him disrespect as well. James tortures the man, cutting out his tongue and almost cutting off his arm. When the man is dead, James instructs the Twins, two of his workers, to clean up the mess.