Jade Costello masquerades as Jade Allen at St. Augustine's Academy-a top student with perfect grades, thick-rimmed glasses, and a secret that could shatter her carefully constructed world. As the daughter of Luke Costello, head of Italy's most powerful crime family, she was told at sixteen that the mafia was "no place for women." Her father's vision for her future involved nothing more ambitious than cooking, cleaning, and raising children.
That rejection sparked something dangerous in Jade. By night, she dominated underground fight rings where nobody knew her true identity, saving every blood-earned dollar. When her duffel bag was finally heavy enough with cash, she disappeared from Italy, leaving nothing but a note on her father's desk.
In Chicago, Illinois, she built what her father denied her-an empire. Starting with a small crew in the city's underbelly, she quickly earned a reputation for brilliant strategy and merciless efficiency. While her classmates stress over calculus exams, Jade runs one of the Midwest's most feared criminal organizations. The quiet bookworm by day becomes a ruthless leader by night, proving that the most dangerous person in the room is often the one you least suspect.
Perhaps the greatest irony is that in trying to keep his daughter away from the criminal life, Luke Costello created something far more formidable than he could have imagined-a boss who can outmaneuver her enemies in both the streets and the classroom.