GILDED TARGET

Ariana Valanti was given a very different role in the family empire: the blade in the dark. As the youngest daughter and the deadly secret assassin of the infamous Valanti mafia syndicate, her life is measured in body counts, silenced handguns, and bloody knuckles.

​No feelings. No attachments. Just orders.

​Then comes a security breach that threatens to drag the Valanti empire into the light. The culprit? A seemingly harmless college student who stumbled onto confidential files he was never meant to see. Ariana is handed a simple, non-negotiable command: retrieve the data, unalive the target, and erase the threat.

​It should have been an easy job. Quick, clean, done before sunrise.

​Except the quiet student with the disarming smile isn't acting like a panicked mark-and Ariana finds herself hesitating for the first time in her life. As a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse turns into a slow-burn obsession, Ariana risks everything to protect the boy she was sent to execute.

​But in a world built on deception, the deadliest venom is trust. Because her innocent college target has a secret of his own...