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CHAPTER 1
BASTIAN
I stare at my phone, the image of a green-eyed, raven-haired beauty with a kind smile looking back at me.
Lili Bellemore.
Untouched. Kind-hearted. Twenty years old and so damn inexperienced. The poor girl doesn’t know what to fear in life. She is too innocent for the world her mother dropped her in the middle of before disappearing.
I trace the soft slope of her jawline and wish there was an easier way to end the crime wave gripping Chicago. But doesn’t it always come down to the innocent paying for the wicked?
Lili deserves better than what I can offer her.
All that said, ruining Lili is my darkest fantasy. Seeing her soft body beneath mine, her virgin sex taking everything I have to give her while wearing my diamonds in her beautiful pink nipples is all I see when I close my eyes at night.
Seeing her belly grow round with my child is another fantasy.
And that is all either will ever be. Some twisted fantasy that lives in my head. I’m not a man who gets everything I want. There are rules in my world—and hers—that keep us apart. It is probably for the best, too. A man my age should already have a family, a wife and his life planned out until death comes. At forty-five my father had his plot picked out and probably had the fucking suit he wanted to go under in.
I don’t have a wife, children or a gravesite.
None of those things are on the table for me. Not until I settle the blood feud between the Accandis and my family. Love, kids and the whole death bit will have to take a back seat for now. I refuse to give in until I can stop the bodies from piling up around me. What wife would want to be amongst the rot and the violence? No sane person would knowingly bring children into this world with death sitting at the front door.
I scrape a hand over my face, exhaustion seeping bone deep.
“Sir, are you alright?”
I nod at my driver and flick a hand of dismissal.
“Yeah, same shit, different day is all.”
“Right, sir.”
My father’s last words string across my mind.
“Kill them all or die trying.”
It’s tempting. But my answer then and still is today is there has to be a better way. Much to his consternation, I vowed I would find peace and not rest until I did.
“God, let that day be today.” Or we might all be needing headstones.
“Sir?”
“Nothing, James. Just me being a fool.”
I rest my head against the back of the seat and let my eyes fall closed. Sleep fights to take over and pull me into my nightmares, but I refuse to give in. I want to keep Lili in my mind's eye a little longer. Cool air fills my lungs and I swear I can smell her vanilla and coconut scent.
“Mr. Irons. We’ve arrived.”
I slowly lift my head and open my eyes.
Ominous clouds linger over the city. Hints of rain cling to the air.
If I were a superstitious type, I would call off the meeting and take my chances at fighting my way to the top. I love a challenge, but I don't have a death wish either.
I shove Lili’s sweetness from my mind and compartmentalize pleasure from work. It’s time to focus on the business at hand. Tonight is about uniting families and making alliances that can benefit not only my crew, but a family I’ve considered an enemy for decades. If we can come to an agreement, generations to come will thrive instead of die in the streets over petty territory disputes and arrogance. If I can get the old man to agree to my terms, great. But I have one ace up my sleeve that I know will seal the deal.
Acid mixes with blood in my veins. It’s not what I want, but my father made sure I knew the good of the family comes before personal desires.
