nostalgia2

nostalgia2's Book(1)

KILLER

Mafia

5.0

Reina Carlo moved like a shadow through the quiet streets, her hand brushing against the cold steel of the knife strapped to her thigh. She wasn't just on a mission; this was personal. She didn't remember the face of her mother or the warmth of a father's embrace. All she remembered was the Stingers-their discipline, their ruthless training, their unspoken code. They'd taken her in, raised her, and molded her into a weapon. To her, they were the closest thing to a family. And family was everything. But one man had dared to strip away her last shred of innocence. He thought he could take from her and vanish into the shadows, but Reina was the shadows now. The Stingers had taught her many things: patience, precision, how to read a man's fear before delivering the final blow. Tonight, she would use every lesson, every scar they'd given her. Her grip tightened. She whispered his name under her breath, a curse and a promise all in one. By sunrise someday, he wouldn't just pay. He'd be erased. Every kill left a mark on her soul, though she pretended not to feel it. Reina told herself it was a fair trade: the world got rid of another monster, and she earned enough to survive another day. She didn't care for redemption or forgiveness-those things belonged to someone who hadn't been shattered like glass. She was just a tool now, a blade for hire, slicing through the darkness one job at a time. But the nightmares never stopped. Faces she didn't recognize, voices she couldn't place, fragments of a life stolen from her. They whispered of a family-a real one, somewhere out there. She tried to bury the thought, but it clawed its way back into her mind, gnawing at her when she was most vulnerable. If they were alive, why hadn't they come for her? Had they abandoned her, or did they think she was already dead? Reina let herself believe they didn't matter anymore. She had the Stingers, and she had herself. That was enough. Or so she told herself every time she cleaned blood from her hands and tried to sleep. But deep down, she knew the truth: forgetting them wasn't the same as letting them go. --- Reina Carlo didn't believe in love, not anymore. But power? Power was something she could trust. It could bend the world to her will and, maybe, help her piece together the broken fragments of her life. Marco Alessandro was everything she needed-and everything she despised. A man of unshakable control, feared and respected by everyone who spoke his name. His empire was built on ruthlessness, yet there was something magnetic about him, a quiet storm beneath the surface that drew her in. The contract between them was clear: a marriage of convenience. She would stand by his side, adding to his power, while he gave her access to the resources she needed to carry out her revenge and find the family she thought she'd lost. But nothing about Marco was simple. He saw through her sharp edges and deflections, pushing past her defenses in ways no one else had dared. Reina told herself it was a game, part of the plan, yet each shared glance and unspoken moment felt dangerously real. Would love complicate her mission, or would it become her greatest weapon? And when the time came to choose-between vengeance, her newfound family, and the remnants of her past-would she risk losing everything? The line between ally and adversary was razor-thin, and in this deadly game of power and loyalty, only one thing was certain: Reina Carlo never played to lose.