The Underboss's Secret: Ten Years Of Obsession

e syndicate sweatshops jus

her still treated me l

other tried to force me into an arrange

your brother is a dea

nd leased my bedroom to a syndicate associate, l

ed to Dante, the ruthless future Don

I chose a vow of silence because my childh

hrough a decade of bloodshed, steppin

ss pawn, abandoned by my blood and in

a dangerous transfer to a hostile casino terr

my own empire and

moment I disappeared, the cold-blo

oxic family cowering in the hallway, and mobili

pte

ena

eavy in the air. Across from me, a matchmaker was negotiating the terms of my sale

across the threshold. The café's VIP room was his unofficial office-ne

quiet finality and spoke to the room at large. "Y

ted air, and a swallow caught halfway down my t

e man standing

nt

k wool so finely tailored it see

left eye, a line of pale silk stitch

rboss of the Ne

the fut

warehouse fire a decade ago-an act of salva

r chair, the blood draining from her features

ology for trespassing in his private r

hisper a venomous hiss against my

the command, lock

appease my mother, to forestall the in

t my ideal husband would be a man of quiet habits,

ing in my gut. I had, of co

icily four years ago, moving through t

st time I was se

and settled upon me. It wa

held only a profound and unnerving stillness-the kind a man le

avement. But I caught it-the briefest flex of his fingers against the rolled

rhythm against the rolled schem

as not an absence of noise, but a pa

sure began to buil

ing, and suggested to the matchmak

om pulsed in my veins, a fran

e heavy wooden doors, moving past the imposing fi

as E

childhood

and on his chest, a gesture of such famil

er perfume displaced the scent of coffee, filling t

he matchmaker, she announced that Dante had c

her expression a stu

voice weaving a tapestry of Capos' names and weapon shipme

nding, a ghost

he blood-soaked countr

nd intimacy, sent a jolt through my mem

o be the

a fortress of thre

-rumors that Dante and Elena were a bonded pair, thei

, suffocating moment I c

that felt like swall

a willing shadow, to clear the path

not push E

in the hard line of his jaw, and informed her in