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1
Max
I’m on the hunt.My pulse throbs deep in my veins, and my jaw ticks. My eyes peer out of the darkness, across the ivy league campus quad. Students in expensive clothes, carrying expensive books walk this way and that. Some carry pricy coffee drinks, others are on phones, or laptops. They smile and laugh. They make jokes or flirt. They’re happy, and they’re carefree.
I’m barely a few years older than most of these students, but I’m a stark contrast to them. I’m in the shadows of a building—dirty, broken, and seething with rage. It’s not a smile on my face, it’s a savage grimace. The hole in my side aches, and I can feel the blood trickling down my ribs. My clothes are dirty and ripped. I haven’t slept in two days.
But none of that matters. Like I said, I’m on the hunt, and my prey is near. Tonight’s the night I’m taking her. No lack of sleep will stop me. No bullet-hole will slow me down. That I’ve just fought my way back through hell from death makes no difference at all. Tonight, she’s mine. End of story.
She’s an innocent in all of this. Or at least she started out that way. A few days ago, she was just Tessa De Luca, studious and whip-smart first year medical student. But it isn’t her accomplishments that’ve put her on my radar. It isn’t her jaw-dropping beauty that put my sights on her either, believe it or not. It’s her family.
Specifically, it’s her father: Dino De Luca, head of the De Luca crime family. Tessa isn’t a conquest. She’s revenge.
I’ve been working my way through the seedy underbelly of New York since I was fifteen. I’ve been a lookout, a driver, a planner, and a strong man. I’ve been a hard hitter and a collector. But mostly, I’ve been a thief. And I’m damn good at it. Presumably, that’s why Dino hired me for the job. I’d worked plenty of jobs for the asshole before. He’s not my favorite crime boss to do business with, but he pays, and mostly on time.
But this time, it all went wrong. Stealing the hard drive from the Senator’s office should have been a breeze. Minimal security, and a model of safe I could pick in my fucking sleep. I almost literally could have done the job with my eyes glued shut and one hand behind my back. And the pay was too good to say no to. But you know what they say about the best laid plans. Or if it’s too good to be true, it probably is? Well, it was.
The job was a setup. I’d cased the West Village townhouse for a week. I was lock solid on the job. And then the night it was going to go down, it all went wrong. Lights went on. Alarms that hadn’t been there before got tripped. Armed guards I had no intel on started shooting. I caught two before I smashed my way out of a third story window. The dumpster mostly broke my fall, along with a rib or two.
Now, I’ve spent the last two days on the run. I had a few spots I knew of to lay low, but the clock is ticking. Dino is a huge player in this town, and the walls are closing in. He’s got cops on the payroll, and a small army looking for me. I know he set me up, and I even know why. I also know Dino knows I’ll be coming for him. He’s walled up good and tight in his penthouse fortress. He’s waiting for me to make my kamikaze attack. But trust me, it ain’t coming.
Dino might be hiding behind an army and a city fortress, but I found his soft spot: Tessa; his daughter.
It’s the only reason I’m still in town. If I leave, Dino wins. And he gets away with the shit I found out he’s into. So I have a new plan: take Tessa, and make Dino know what it means to hurt.
Or at least, that was the plan. But then I dragged my way up here to Morningside Heights to stalk my prey. It should have been easy. I’m a thief, and strongman. I’m a hardened criminal with basically no remorse. Taking Dino’s bratty college-aged daughter and holding her ransom should have been the easiest job in the world for me. But then I laid eyes on her, and my world changed.
There’s no shortage of beautiful girls in New York. But Tessa De Luca is a cut above the rest. The stunning red hair and the sharp blue eyes turn me to mush. Her soft curves and petite frame turn me into a beast. Her smile makes my heart stop and my manhood thicken.
I’ve been around the block enough to know this is bad news. Even as fucked up as I am, I know I’m crossing wires with this plan. The goal is to hurt Dino. This is about revenge. But that was before I laid eyes on Tessa. Now, it’s about something else: taking her all for my fucking self.
I don’t just want payback. I wanther.
A group of students pass by close to me. They don’t even see me. I’m a wolf at the edge of the pasture, ready to pounce on the sheep of my choice. The door to the academic building across the quad from me opens, and suddenly I spot her. Her long red hair is fallen in tangles down one shoulder. She’s got a bag heavy with books, and she looks fucking beautiful in that light sundress.
Behind her is the big guy. Him I expected. He’s one of Dino’s enforcers, and his job it to shadow Tessa. Maybe he scares away the college boys or common thugs. But he doesn’t scare me. An army wouldn’t scare me away from her tonight. It amuses me that Dino thinks one big motherfucker with a thick neck is safety enough for his Tessa. I’m almost furious at him for leaving her so unprotected.
She starts to make her way across the quad. My muscles coil, ready to move. I know she’s coming this way, and I’m ready. I’m even ready to deal with him. Because nothing and no one is stopping me from taking my prize tonight.
She walks closer, and I growl to myself. It’s time to take my revenge.
Tonight, she’s all mine.
2
Tessa
I pausefor a minute when I step outside into the evening air. God, it feels good to be outside. I’ve been in bio labs and lectures for the last twelve hours straight. I’m exhausted and starving. But that one pause and deep breath rejuvenates me. The warm breeze teases my auburn tangles. I close my eyes and drop my head back to drink it in.
“We need to keep moving, Ms. De Luca.”
I scowl when Fat Tony interrupts my moment of Zen. His name isn’t actually Fat Tony, or even Tony. It’s Chris. But he talks and acts just like the “Fat Tony” mob character on The Simpsons. So, that’s what I call him. He hates it, and I don’t care. We’re not friends, and it isn’t as if we have a cutesy “love hate” banter. I truly don’t like him and hate that he’s my constant shadow.
It’s at the orders of my father, of course. Fat Tony is my constant shadow to “protect me.” But I think it’s pretty obvious that it’s more about keeping tabs on me. It’s about controlling me.
I know all about who and what my father is. I know what he does for a living, and how we’ve lived the life I grew up in with the means I had. I know about the people he hurts, and the crimes he commits. My mother knew, too. But she died when I was just a kid. Dad might have tried to at least hide his mob life a little when she was alive. After that though, he had it out in the open.
It always bothered me, of course. But in the last few years, it’s started to get worse. He’s getting reckless and cruel. And the distance between us is only growing larger. Fat Tony is his control over me while I’m here at school. Dad barely ever even let me out of our mansion when I was growing up. I even went to college living at home.
