TRIGGER WARNINGS:
This book is dark. When I say dark, I mean black hole dark. Murder, torture, BDSM clubs, more murder and torture, car chases, scary mafia dudes in suits, unhinged double and triple crosses, etc. If you are sensitive to blood and gore, women being tortured, guns, and really bad Italian translations (my Duolingo lessons have only taught me how to say "il negozio italiano" so I've had to use google translate), then do NOT read this book.
The Virgin Shadow
I hunt in the shadows. I have no allegiances, no ties to anyone other than myself. I am the new boogeyman. Mafia men shake and tremble at my name. I was taught by the best, after all. After a tragedy left me orphaned, my grandparents took me in. One thing Nonno taught me was to be a snake in the world of predators. Hide in plain sight, and strike with speed.
Are you next?
Tessa
Aside from my regular job, a friend asked me to fill her position at a law firm in Miami. Her boss is a pig, but what would you expect from a man who works with the Falca Family? What was supposed to be only a short time, turned my life upside down. Because I met the Underboss himself. I tried like hell to stay under his radar, but the prick keeps turning up. I'm just trying to escape with my life.
And pray like hell my heart stays intact when I do.
Alessio
A vixen, that's what she is. A siren. A mythical creature sent to tempt and lure men to their deaths by her beauty and wit. Tessa has driven me mad with her smart mouth, her beauty, and her domineering attitude. I was ordered by my father, Old Tom, to wed another. A princess from another Family, but Tessa has my full attention. How can I stay true to my feelings but still honor the legacy I set to inherit?
Will Tessa be strong enough to withstand my life, and my love?
They tell me love is a pretty lie. A cruel deception.
I wouldn't know-I've never been given the chance to believe in it.
A daughter of the Cosa Nostra, passed from one husband to the next like a prized possession, I have learned one thing: a woman's value is measured in obedience.
But then I come back, and he's there.
Enzo Mancini.
Silent. Ruthless. Untouchable.
Except... I have touched him.
Once, before the lies. Before the fire. Before he left me with nothing but ghosts of a boy who used to stare at me like I was his only sin.
Now, he looks at me like I'm his reckoning.
Like he's been starving.
Like he'll ruin me all over again.
The worst part?
I want him to.
Enzo Mancini
She was never supposed to know the truth of that night. The blood on my hands.
The fact that I let her believe I was the monster.
I told myself I could let her go. That I could watch her slip through my fingers, fall into the hands of men who never deserved her.
And I did.
She doesn't know what I've done for her. How many bodies I've buried. How many sins I've committed in her name.
She's everything I should stay away from. Soft where I am hard. Chaos where I am order. A temptation so dangerous, it should be a death sentence.
But I can't stop.
I can't stop watching her, wanting her, losing sleep over the way she lingers like a curse in the nightmares she inhabits.
She calls me heartless, and like everyone, I let her believe it.
She doesn't know that every step she takes away from me is another step toward a man who won't live long enough to touch what's mine.
I saved her from the fire long ago, the same one I caused.
And now, the flames are swallowing me whole.
17+ Mafia Dark Romance *Standalone*