My acts are vicious and cruel, vile and life-taking. My demands are unquestioned no matter how depraved. Thereβs a monster inside me, and the wounds that scar my soul are dark and deep.
Iβm Dante Simone.
Underboss of the Chicago Outfit.
She walks into the audition, eyes snapping with a fire that could cost her lifeβif she were to unleash it. Piper Tate crawls beneath my skin on our first encounter. Her audition, a condition of employment Iβve sat through a thousand times, is like no other. Itβs magnetic, cementing my traitorous eyes to her lithe form.
She infiltrates every aspect of my life.
A dancer in my club should mean nothing to me, but sheβs more.
Piper Tate has cast a spell, making me into a man who blurts Italian endearments without thought. One who gives her full thumbprint access to my penthouse. A guy who makes her breakfast and serves it to her in my bed, even though it drives me crazy.
Sheβs taken care of meβsomething I never thought I needed.
And yet, when she uses that access, I bail.
But a no-so-chance meeting in Miami gives us a second chance.
If we make it out alive, that is.
With the shitshow in Miami behind us, Piper is finally mine. I'm on the brink of accepting something I never thought possible. I think I'm falling in love, but how would I know? The monster's never allowed such emotion to fester, and he doesn't find this instance to be an exception.
He lays down the law.
If Piper's going to love me, she has to accept him too.
Through it all, a war is brewing, and our answers have finally come in the most unexpected way. It rocked the Outfit to its core. But the war is here, and preparations will take Piper and me to Boston and into a meeting with the other American Mafia organizations.
Except a single call renders the meeting null and void. An attack has taken place in Chicago that results in Madelineβs kidnapping.
Miami is responsible.
They will be eliminated.
And Iβll be the one to see it done.