VEIL OF SHADOWS-In the Mafia's Web, Love Is the Deadliest Trap

or. Aria St. James stood at the edge of it all, wrapped in shadows and silk, a vision in midnight blue. Her dress clung like a second skin, modest in sha

th physical and metaphorical. For some, the masks

disguised as elegance-but she had walked into the lion's

, a choreographed performance of whispers, seduction, and hidden daggers. Businessmen with ma

of it all, was the

e Mo

d to ground herself. To remind herself that this wasn't a fant

was

r's death

at night-cloaked in smoke, silence, and s

nt near the grand staircase. A figure entered, flanked by two sharply dre

nt

ke. His tailored suit was dark charcoal, his mask a simple silver half-face that only made him more enigma

met across

music, there was something... electric. Something

ng far mor

de her chest. Get a grip, she scolded herself. You're n

ing th

ind a man in a sleek navy suit, his mask black and featureless

looking at," she repl

d, tilting his head. "

her d

But I'm not here to make fr

?" she asked

for st

ething about him-his voice, his posture

ve her ear. "Careful, princess. In this world, truths are more lethal th

eared, he vanished into the crowd,

wa

ghtly as she set her cham

cool night, gasping slightly as she leaned against the stone rail

em like the d

. Deep, confident. Smooth

nt

smile onto her face. "And you don't se

ht, removing his mask. "I f

eled jaw, strong nose, lips that curved like they hel

the typical guest," he

ople at all. It's

le, but it reached

d between them, thick

you are," he

pulse s

f Richard St. James. Tragic

her sides. "So you'v

," he said casually, though his eyes neve

l wrapped in silk. "And do you alwa

who lie about w

was playing with fir

care me," sh

spered back, e

couldn't. Her father had died chasing the truth, and she would n

fter this time. "But you're walking blind

en maybe it's time someo

passed through his ey

deter

etermination without

warning?"

f hair from her face with the back

charm everyone warned about. The pull of a man

s I can't keep," he a

er di

ust made on

she'd learn to dance in the ra