REVENGE & RUIN
I crashed a wedding. And my punishment?
One night with the mafia Don who caught me.
I shouldn’t have been there when Teo Vitale was announced as The Guild’s new Don.
They dragged me before him. In a private room. On my knees.
I grew up despising him. But the way he wielded power made my breath hitch—made my body beg.
And what he took as payment?
My total submission. Raw. Merciless. Ruinous.
Now, he’s everywhere.
Watching. Waiting. Lurking in the shadows just to remind me that I belong to him.
He won’t stop until I’m locked in his gilded cage, a prisoner to the darkness I stir inside him—something he can’t control.
Does he want me because he craves me?
Or because he knows I’m the daughter of the man who murdered his parents?
Either way, it doesn’t matter.
Because his baby is growing inside me.
1
TEO
The church bells set my teeth on edge. They shouldn’t. I should be celebrating my best friend’s wedding, but I haven’t been inside a church since my parents died.
I haven’t heard those bells since I buried my eight-year-old sister.
It’s easier to fake a smile once we leave the church, trailing behind Cassandra Moretti’s long, white dress that does nothing to conceal her ever-growing baby bump. Something that her new husband, Rocco, seems unashamedly proud to showcase to the world.
And the world indeed showed up to see. I wasn’t aware that Rocco even knew this many people. But being the don of a prominent Italian mafia family comes with all sorts of perks, and the Guild has everything to celebrate today.
“Teo!”
Someone yanks at my arm as I approach the head table at the reception. It’s resplendent with a display of white opulence withgolden detailing, the signature color scheme of the illustrious Plaza Hotel that even extends to my suite’s bathroom.
I look down at the woman clutching at my arm and almost laugh at how she seems to exist in pure defiance of the clean decadence of our surroundings. Her fiery red hair is frazzled from the pressure of her position within the wedding party and her lips are curled into a perpetual grimace.
“Mia,” I reply lightly. Mia Chiavari poured drinks at the Guild's Candelabra like she belonged there, but I knew better—her real work happened in the shadows, just like her father had taught her.
Her grip on my arm does not ease. “Alessandro is fucking drunk already and keeps mouthing off about how Rocco is too distracted to run the Guild anymore.”
I try not to wince. Alessandro, one of Rocco's most trusted men, is an asshole, but he’s not the first person to mention how lax Rocco’s control of the Guild has been as of late. If Rocco had been less adored, someone might have taken advantage of his engagement, wedding, and child in utero to wrestle some of his power away.
I glance over to where Alessandro is tilting back in his chair, shooting greedy looks toward the head table. He makes me think some might try to anyway.
“I don’t see why Alessandro ismyproblem,” I point out.
Mia levels me with a glare that could bring down the entire building. “You are thebest man,Teo. Anything that threatens this wedding is your problem.”
