They were never meant to trust each other. Let alone bleed beside one another. Elena Corsi is a strategist, a cold-blooded heir to one of Italy's most ruthless mafia legacies. She's never needed backup, and she certainly doesn't want it, not from a Russian, and especially not from Aleksander Petrov. He's the Bratva's second in command. Silent. Brutal. And impossible to read. Sent by Giovanni Moretti to "assist" her in training the next generation of soldiers and to stabilize the Italian mafia after it's new take over, Aleksander is everything Elena hates, detached, arrogant, and unreadably dangerous. He doesn't respect her rules. She doesn't care for his silence. But with the old families rising, alliances fracturing, and a target growing on both their backs, Elena and Aleksander are forced into uneasy proximity. Between training sessions, strategic meetings, and the looming chaos of the annual mafia ball, tensions crackle and control slips. Because loyalty is currency in their world-and attraction? It's a liability neither of them can afford. But when bullets start flying, and betrayal hides behind familiar faces, the real question isn't who they can trust... It's whether they'll survive long enough to figure out what they really are to each other.

BOOK TWO OF THE BLACK SERIES *CANNOT be read as a stand-alone* -- "I mean, let's face it, Hayden," Casey said with a humourless laugh, looking away from me and out at the city of white lights, "you don't want me. You want the thought that you managed to get with me - all of your friends are expecting it, my friends and family are expecting it to happen... it's not long before you wanting me changes and you see how messed up I really am." My eyes narrowed and I turned to face her, grabbing her by the jaw so I was staring into her dark eyes. Casey's breath hitched in her throat and she chewed on her lip, tears gathered in her eyes as our eyes met. "I don't give a flying fuck about what they want to hear or what they expect to happen between us, Casey," I told her, wiping a stray tear away. I smiled when she sniffled. "Stop thinking so much about what other people do and don't expect, alright? I damn well know how insane your family is but I also know how much better you are from them, and it's the good in you that makes me fall deeper with every date we go on." When I cupped her cheek with one hand, Casey's alarmed eyes relaxed and she slowly leaned into my touch, sighing quietly. I pressed my forehead to hers, smiling softly when she tried moving forward for our lips to meet. I pulled away last second, rubbing her bottom lip with my thumb. lol "I'm all yours, baby," I whispered, finally pressing our lips together.