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Chapter 1

Massimo

Twelve hours earlier

Frustrated rage clings to me.

Silvestro Mancini… the snake … my enemy.

He had struck at us, more than once. I had him in my hands.

And I needed to let him go.

For a man like me, who demands retribution for anyone who wrongs the Santoro mafia, this is pushing my control to the brink. I value calm and control, so I do my damnedest to maintain it and take a deep breath to ease my storming fury.

My phone dings with my cousin Gemma's text.

On the plane

The effect is instantaneous.

That message and those three words cause excitement to replace my rage, but I remain unreadable to those around me. Other than Gemma and my head bodyguard and closest friend, Gabrielle Ricci, or Gabe, no one knows what's happening. And no one outside of them can find out about the plans I've put into motion.

Did the princess give you any trouble?

The three dots appear, showing Gemma is replying. Those three dots continue to dance as I watch and wait. They finally disappear, and her message arrives, but I frown. From the time it took Gemma to type out her reply, I expected a much longer message.

No

My index finger taps the screen of my phone, the Don's ring my Papà gave me when I took over leading our family's criminal empire gleaming on it. Gemma had agreed to the plan—to befriend my enemy's daughter while she vacationed in the Lake Como area of Italy and help me kidnap the spoiled little princess. But something changed once Gemma actually met her.

She hasn't said as much, but I strongly suspect that's the case.

Don't tell me the snake's spawn has fooled you

The princess is a viper, just like her father

Remember that

Nova Mancini may look like a soft, innocent beauty with doe-like eyes, but nothing from Silvestro Mancini's loins could be good or even redeemable. And if she's managed to fool Gemma—who is sly and cunning herself—in just a few days, then the princess is even more like her father than I initially gave her credit for.

My phone dings with another text from Gemma.

You're a dick

I frown, staring at the message. I hate communicating by text because you can't be sure of the message's tone.

Is Gemma being her sarcastic self? Or is she pissed at me, which confirms she's been fooled by the princess?

Calm and control are my approaches to leading our empire. It's innately who I am, but these traits were also carefully instilled in me by my father, whose role modeling and guidance shaped me as I was groomed for my role. The leader must remain level-headed. Chaos and mayhem are more my brother Vito's way of doing things .

I'm rarely reactive; I pride myself on my calm and control. And to avoid being reactive, I need to know what I'm dealing with.

Once the Mancini Princess arrives, she'll be enough to handle—fangs and fight is what I'm expecting. I don't need to add my feisty cousin to the mix.

I call Gemma to get a better read of her and the situation, but her phone immediately goes to voicemail. I text her to call me, but the message doesn't show that it's been delivered, so I assume she turned her phone off for the flight.

I check my watch. They should arrive in San Francisco early tomorrow morning, and I still have things to prepare.

Excitement is back, licking up my spine at the thought of the pampered, spoiled princess hurtling toward her captivity, toward being under my control.

But most of all, the excitement is because I'm striking at my enemy and have just removed his biggest chess piece from the board.

Mancini dangled his daughter and her precious, protected virginity to make a deal with the French mafia that he's been coveting. I don't know why he wants that alliance and marriage to merge their two families, nor do I care, outside of the fact that I just destroyed it.

Nova Mancini will be missing from the mafia world. Most will believe the evidence, which makes it look like she ran. Others, like Mancini himself and my fellow Dons of the 'Ndrangheta families, will suspect I'm responsible and am retaliating because the 'Ndrangheta voted to stay my hand at killing Mancini today. However, they won't find evidence of that, even though my syndicate should never have interfered.

By the rules of our world, Mancini is mine to kill. Yet, the collective of families that fall under the umbrella and reign of the 'Ndrangheta voted for Mancini to live, all because of money. The majority was slight, and I plan to sway that decision at our upcoming face-to-face meeting.

Rage begins to push forth, drowning out my excitement as I think about all Mancini has done against my family. His suspected involvement in the threat against my brother Creed's wife, Sophie. The confirmation that he was involved in the treachery with the Chamber that nearly destroyed the powerful alliance and peace, and that would've targeted our family for destruction.

Mancini is guilty of more sins, and human trafficking is at the top of the list. He even admitted to trying to set up a site on the West Coast, in Santoro territory, for one of the worst rings I've heard of—one where people are forced to fight for their lives and also involves sex slavery.

Today, he was in my hands, at my mercy. And I had to let him go.

That is the absolutely maddening thing for me. I value control; I value an eye for a fucking eye.

And I got neither today.

But at least the bastard went home in a pine box. Literally.

I smirk, thinking about Mancini stuffed in there, his hands tied behind his back for the flight back to Boston. The temporary coffin left on the tarmac. Then Mancini being discovered—disheveled and, if there's any justice in this world, covered in his own piss and shit.

So, yes, the fucking snake still breathes. The slithering, venomous manipulator who shed what few morals he had a long time ago, and that's coiled, waiting to strike. But I've struck back, in a way I could, while I bide my time before I can end him with my bare hands.

I'll be as cold-blooded as him—I have my own monstrous reputation in the criminal underworld, even if I'm not the kind of monster Mancini is. I'll pick away at his destruction covertly until the day I look him in the eye while I rip his throat out with a smile.

But until that day comes, I'll have his precious, virginal princess daughter.

My perfect revenge.