No Next Life For The Don

brothel, bleeding to earn the bribe money to s

lly returned, he did

rew annulment papers on my chest, and announc

low-level associate who stol

e told, looking at my degrad

u have disgraced the

s covering my ruined body, tossing a st

e ten million dollars I had agonizingl

dge loyalty to Camilla, tra

who once promised to burn the wo

y ability to ever carry a chi

y humiliating me for the woman wh

forgiving eyes, my dead h

e ancient, fatal 'A

ascended into the dark sky, choosing a shattered

pte

fina

grained wood by a rival Capo's spilled whiskey. I was cataloging the way the amber liquid seeped cold again

federal death sentence strode in. He was flanked by thirty armed enforcers, only to drop

Velvet Syndicat

had soaked through my thin stockings, cementing my kneecaps to the coarse floorboards. I ma

om, so profound it seemed to

od before me in a bespoke charcoal suit, his presence altering the very density

ee rival syndicate bosses in a single night with hi

ark eyes-the same eyes that used to trace the constellations of freckles on

ice was a low, lethal rumble that v

noring the sharp protest of

n, a stark contrast to the modest, elegant

of legal papers resting ag

illa is waiting for me at the e

the floorboards, each beat a hammer against my eardrum. I parted m

lla

The woman who was sup

her face twisted in a cruel, triumphant smile. She ra

na," Rosa announced to the silent room. "He wante

cking with the sharp report of a

save your own skin, sweet Camilla went to the Chicago Outfi

ched whine that drowned out

for a flicker of the man who once promis

ing but cold,

He believed Ca

in blood money I had to earn to bribe the fede

turns destroying my body until the back-alley doc

es, the memory of the forced steriliza

led so I would not scream his name and g

emanding I step aside for a

ered over me, blocking out the dim club lights. "Sign the papers. You

o my own surprise, not trembling. I had learned

pocket beside me, uncapped it with my teeth

er life. But as I watched the compliance in my own eyes, the sheer hollowness of it, the heavy

ered, my voice a smooth, practiced, and empty thing.

roscopic movement, but I saw

severed the last invis

from my thigh, the bones of hi

ht," he growled, t

his enforcers swallowing him in

slowly sat back down, murmuring among th

ked toward the bar, my only thought to fetch a

the narrow hallway. She hande

. "You look pale, and w

, burning motion, craving any substance that might dull

he walls melted into a blurry haze of red ve

ad dru

st the wall, my

d. It was one of the Syndicate's lowest soldiers;

He pulled a thick black marker from his pocket. "Strip off the top. I want to wri

away, but my arms

d ripped it down, the cold air of the

garish wallpaper, eclip

ldier

o see Cassio standing at the end of the

and the violence in his gaze promised that no one else wou