Franco

Franco
I live by three rules: stay vigilant, show no weakness, leave no witnesses.
Then one night, I hear a woman’s scream and her child’s frightened voice, and I break all three rules at once.
Sarah Mitchell. A single mother with tired eyes and unwavering strength, struggling to provide for her son while nursing an injured ankle.
I should disappear from their lives as quickly as I entered. My enemies would consider them perfect leverage against me.
Yet when her son asks if I’ll come back tomorrow, I find myself making promises I have no right to keep.
For a man who’s spent his life in the shadows, they offer something I never thought possible.
A family to call mine.
A reason to come home.

Sarah
I don’t believe in white knights.
As a single mother working two jobs, I learned long ago that no one’s coming to rescue me. Then one night in a dark alley, a dangerous man with cold eyes and scarred knuckles saves my son and me from muggers.
Franco isn’t what I expected. A mafia enforcer with a gentle touch, a violent man who treats my five-year-old with respect. When he shows up at my diner, arranges time off for my injured ankle, I tell myself this can’t be real.
The deeper I fall, the more I risk. His world is soaked in danger; mine revolves around keeping my son safe. I should send him away before we become collateral damage in his violent life.
But for the first time in years, I’ve found someone who makes me feel protected instead of exposed.
Someone worth trusting.
Someone worth loving.