Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 82485 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 412(@200wpm)___ 330(@250wpm)___ 275(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 82485 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 412(@200wpm)___ 330(@250wpm)___ 275(@300wpm)
I bring my hand to Carina’s head and gently drag my fingers through her soft hair. I’m an only child, but God, I would’ve killed to have a baby sister like her.
Instead, I live in a cold house filled with guns and violence. My mother is obedient to my father and does everything he says. I don’t blame her, because she’s practically been beaten into submission.
I have Diego and his family.
As I lie awake, I begin to worry about my future. I know my father expects me to take over from him one day, but is that really what I want?
“Leo,” Carina whispers.
“Yes, stellina mia.”
She rubs her cheek against the side of my chest. “I’m glad you’re here.”
“Me too.”
Once she’s quiet again, my thoughts return to my life, and for the millionth time, I wish I could’ve been born into a regular family like Diego’s.
“Carina,” Mrs. Messina calls out, and we hear her walking toward our room.
Carina takes a breath to reply, but the sound of a gunshot has her screaming with fright instead.
Intense ripples of shock vibrate through me while Diego shouts, “What the fuck was that?”
The door slams open, and not thinking, I grab Carina and toss her over me so she lands on the floor at the side of the bed.
Just as I sit up, one gunshot after the other fills the room with flashes before the light is switched on. At the same time, I roll off the bed, falling over Carina, my mind racing to process that we’re being attacked.
I’m being attacked.
My guards are stationed outside the house, and I can only hope they heard the gunshots.
Diego! Mr. and Mrs. Messina!
“L-Leo,” Carina hic-cups with terror darkening her eyes.
Just as I’m about to react, a bullet slams into my back, the pain more intense than anything I’ve ever felt.
“Leo!” Carina screams, her hand grabbing my shirt as I fall over her.
My eyes lock with her frightened ones. “Shh.” I pray they don’t see her beneath me, but I’m grabbed by the arm and hauled off of her. As I stagger backward, I watch in horror as a man grabs Carina.
“No!” I shout, then another bullet hits me in the chest, and it feels as if my entire torso is split wide open. As I fall onto my back, I can’t do anything but watch as the man carries her out of the room.
No.
“Leo. Diego,” she sobs, then she cries harder. “Mamma!”
Droplets of blood fly from my mouth when I try to call after her. A man crouches beside me, and my eyes are wide on him. “Your father should’ve backed down, little boy.”
His arm lifts, the gun pointing at my head, and as a gunshot fills the air, I expect to feel the bullet, but instead, the man falls over me, his eyes frozen.
“Leo!” Massimo, one of my guards, shouts while he shoves the body off me. “Cazzo!”
I open my mouth to tell him to go after Carina, but only blood comes out.
My vision blurs, and when it comes into focus, I glance at the bed and see Diego. He’s been hit in the head and chest, and the unbearable fact that my best friend is dead is my last thought before I pass out.
Chapter 1
LEO
Leo Toscano; 33. Haven Romano; 23.
Sitting at a table in Nicolo Romano’s backyard for the man’s sixtieth birthday, I’m tired as fuck. Everyone’s dressed as if they’re attending a fucking presidential ball.
“Just another thirty minutes, then we can head home,” Massimo, my right-hand man, murmurs beside me.
Letting out a huff, I glance over the guests. I recognize most of the people, most of them giving me cautious looks. My gaze comes to a stop on Nicolo. Watching him laugh makes the urge to kill him grow deep inside my gut.
I’ve hated the man since I was sixteen because my gut tells me the fucker played a role in the attack that changed my life for the worse. But, I can’t kill Nicolo until I have solid proof, and it grinds against my soul that I haven’t been able to find any.
After I survived the assassination attempt, it was to learn my father had been killed. Just like me, my mother survived the gunshot wounds meant to kill her.
While I suffered a crippling blow, Romano tried to take over the organization, but Massimo was a powerhouse none of the fuckers saw coming. My guard ran the organization and taught me everything I know until I was able to take over as the head of the Italian mafia. Now he’s my right-hand man and the only person I trust one hundred percent.
He saved me in more ways than one. Without him, I wouldn’t have survived the attack and the harrowing years that followed.
I lost my best friend and his parents during the attack, and Carina vanished without a trace.