The Mafia King's Revenge Bride

e was to

ir clinging to her coat. No music drifting from the kitchen. No sound of her father's voice on the phone, the one

e'd just walked past. Tire tracks. Fresh ones, cutting de

lled, shrugging

herself even though the house wasn't cold. Sofia was nineteen, all

asked, already moving

xpensive ones, Elena, like nothing I've ever seen. They were here f

kind o

ging herself tighter. "But Papa looked sc

ess from nothing, had weathered two recessions and a divorce and a hostile takeover attempt without s

is he

hey left." Sofia caught her sister

a squeezed her hand. "Bu

-

, jaw working, eyes somewhere far away. Her mother kept refilling her wine gl

nothing.

of the hall, close enough to her parents' that when the shouting

is from her for

andlin

house. Armed men, in our home

n the last word, and that crack told Elena more than a

at their door before

e deadline, you understand what ha

er way to get four mil

mil

d froze on

ter the Hendricks deal collapsed. We're three weeks from losing everything - the house, the company, all of it. And

ther's voice, smalle

aid. "One way. I already -

hed the d

nt white. Her father straightened so fast he

le

came out steadier than she

concern you. G

weeks from losing everything. I heard you say four million dollars. I heard Mom ask what you're going to do, and

and something in that exchange - the silent handoff of a burden neithe

," he sai

l st

he business is failing. Has been for months. I took a loan to cover it - from people I shouldn

ch do y

me today - they don't extend deadlines. They don't accept la

s terrible, but we'll survive i

she saw there made her go still. "I made an arrangement. To protect this fami

arrang

nce stretched long enough that she fe

hat did

g to be marr

t, disbelieving sound, because surely, sur

not j

s is the twenty-first century, you can't jus

e." His voice gained a thin, desperate strength. "I

bitter. "I'm not a business asset you can tra

le

demanded. "Who di

unguarded second, like a man standing at t

De S

med to drop

ht hear them. Luca De Santis didn't run a business empire - he ran the city. Half of it openly, the other half from shadows nobo

You actually think I'm going to m

r snapped, fear sharpening into anger. "Do you understand what I'm trying to do here?

se you sold your daugh

ng to save

m fracturing into something raw. "I won't do it. I don't c

n the front

swinging wide on hinges that never made a sound for

died in Ele

sured. Several pairs, but only one set seemed to matter

e's early," he murmured, and for the first time

s reached th

m step as the front room filled with men in dark suits - four, five of them, spreading a

n he wa

llness was a weapon he'd mastered, dark suit immaculate, expression carved from something that didn't flinch. He wasn't tall in a way that loomed, was

t the room on

stop

look away. Wouldn't. Whatever terror was climbing

ment, dark eyes unreadable, as if he wer

s quiet enough that the whole r

long to