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CHAPTER 1
Ican’t sleep. Tossing and turning doesn’t help any, and the more I try to shut off my mind, the more my mind turns against me. All I can think about is how I had been attacked, how someone sabotaged me, and how I have too many plans for my empire for me to be held back.
Maybe I should’ve waited for the legal casino to have been built for me to start up with my illegal enterprise, but I had been ambitious and eager.
Hmm. In the meantime, I could create another avenue to laundry my money…
But do I want to?
I climb out of bed, quickly change my clothes, and grab my keys. Although it’s not even three in the morning, I head over and soon find myself standing on the outskirts of the wreckage of Fortune Oasis, the once-promising jewel in my empire now reduced to smoldering ruins. The acrid scent of burnt wood and metal lingers in the air, a bitter reminder of the destruction that has befallen my dreams, or maybe that’s just my mind conjuring memories. The attack was ruthless and calculated, and it cut deep into the foundations of everything I’ve worked so tirelessly to build.
I’m still not over it.
Honestly, I probably won’t ever be over it.
I bend down, and my fingers trace over the charred remnants of what used to be my casino, the physical manifestation of my ambitions. The cleanup has started, but it’s not finished yet.
The pain is not just external. It echoes within me, a relentless reminder of the risks I’ve taken and the enemies I’ve made. I’m hoping Sophia Alvarez will help plunge the criminal underworld into chaos, considering that Damian Blackthorn of the Eclipse Society targeted not only my Fortune Oasis but also one of her businesses too.
You could say then that Damian is the architect of the current level of chaos in the criminal underworld, but so long as he and Sophia lock horns, I might be able to extract myself and my mob from the aftermath.
But I can’t deny that the shadows whisper secrets of betrayal, and the lines between ally and adversary have become blurred. I don’t have an alliance with Sophia, and I hope it won’t come to that because the intricate web is already as complex as can be.
I’ve walked the path of shadows, but now those same shadows threaten to consume me. The delicate balance between love and power, already strained, teeters on the edge of collapse.
Love. Bah. I’m not supposed to want any part of love, not with everything that I have going on. Maybe I should’ve known better than to invite not one, not two, but four very different men into my bed.
But I did, and I will gladly invite each one of them back into my bed again and again.
I can’t help myself.
Although my lovers aren’t here with me now, I can picture each of them as if they were right beside me. All of them have their own agendas and desires, and all of them are crucial to myplan, both with Penumbra Legion, my mafia, and with my own desires of the flesh.
Xavier Davis. His possessiveness tends to flare at times, and he can be over the top occasionally, but that’s only because he and I have a history. You might say we’re fire and ice, with him being the ice, but I can thaw him, and I would do anything for him just like I know he would return the favor.
Jesse Quinn’s domineering presence challenges my authority. His coming back into my life set off a whirlwind and a firestorm, and honestly, I wouldn’t have it any other way. He had no choice but to leave, fleeing the Shadow Syndicate and the dark world Dominic and I had to endure, all because he had been one of their killers and someone had tipped the police off. I begged him to go so he wouldn’t risk being arrested, but a part of me went with him.
Alex Schroeder, I think, grapples with his love for me. He’s the youngest of the four, so sweet and kind and caring. Even though the others will all do anything for me, he’s the one who pushes me forward, believing in me, but my making him my Head of Security does tend to make him a little controlling at times.
Finally, there’s Dylan Krause. He’s the newest one. He works for the mayor as a bodyguard, and he wanted to quit and become my personal bodyguard instead, but I refused. Knowing the mayor’s moves is important, but having Dylan as one of the bouncers at The Black Lotus, my illicitly run underground casino, has already proven him to be a savior even if he can test the limits and push things maybe a little too far. I know he wants a larger role within the clandestine operations of The Black Lotus, and that might happen, but he has no reason to worry. I count him as one I can trust and count on.
Months of building, months of planning… Damian might have setback my timeline, but that doesn’t mean he’s stoppedme. No. He must’ve taken exception to the fact that I rebuffed his advances. He wanted to see if I would take off my clothes, but I refused. I might sleep around with my guys, but I’m not a whore, and I won’t give away my body in order to get ahead.
Had that been the reason behind his attack? Or did he see me emerging as a possible threat to his own operations? He has his own mafia. I left him to do his own thing, so there’s no real reason for him to have targeted me, yet he did.
As I confront the consequences of my actions, the shattered relationships around me, and the possibility of redemption, I realize that the shadows I’ve embraced may be darker than I anticipated. The road ahead is fraught with danger, and the enemies I face—Sophia, Viktor Stolnov, Damian, and the looming threat of Damien and his Eclipse Society—cast long shadows over my ambitions.
In the wake of Fortune Oasis’ destruction, I find myself at a crossroads. The delicate dance between love and power has become a high-stakes game, and I must decide whether to forge ahead with my ruthless pursuit or seek a path of redemption. The shadows within and around me converge, and as I grapple with the aftermath, the echoes of my choices reverberate, signaling the beginning of a new chapter in my relentless journey.
Yet, in the midst of destruction, there is an opportunity to redefine the path of my mafia and assert dominance in the ever-shifting underworld.
As the leader of the Penumbra Legion, I must navigate the treacherous terrain of alliances and betrayals. The loyalty of my four lovers is enough to soothe my soul, but that’s not all. I need to gather more allies to my cause because the truth of the matter is that my enemies have started to cast shadows over my ambitions. The destruction of Fortune Oasis may have delayedmy plans, but it has also exposed vulnerabilities and created openings to strike back.
The criminal underworld is a volatile landscape, and I must leverage every asset at my disposal. The Shadow Syndicate had been my home since their leaders first took me and my brother Dominic in. The two of us had been low on the totem pole, but once I helped to take down the leaders, I knew it was my time to shine. I soaked in all of it—the power struggle, the successes and failures, the mistakes they made—and I learned how to succeed.
And I had been well on my way.
But whenever someone tries to carve out a place of power, others always come to take it away. I knew an attack would happen eventually. I just hadn’t expected it to be so soon.
