Alex Di Pietro started working for the Pagano Brothers in high school, to help his mom with the bills after his dad skipped out. Several years later, heβs still a lowly associate, too young to make his bones. However, because he looks the part, heβs been given the job of guarding one of Don Nick Paganoβs precious daughters while sheβs at college.He takes that job seriously; he knows first-hand what happens to a man whoβs let the don down, and he never wants to be in that place again. But itβs not easy to ignore his growing attraction to the sweet, sad girl heβs charged to protect.Lia Pagano is trying to have a normal college experience despite who her father is. She hates all the security around her, but it helps that her bodyguard does what he can to give her some space. It doesnβt hurt that heβs handsome and kind, either.All she wants is a chance to make her own life her own way, but thatβs not so easy when your father is Don Nicolo Pagano, the so-called King of New England.Nick Pagano has been don for a long time. He knows his time at the head of the table is moving toward its end, and he intends to leave a legacy of his own choosing. To do so, he will have to declare a civil war, between the old ways of Italy and the new ways of America. Heβs marshaled his allies and is prepared to win, but it will not be easy.He means to protect his family from that war at any cost.When Lia almost falls to a danger not a part of Nickβs world but very much a part of college life, Nick calls her homeβand learns that his daughter and the bodyguard he trusted with her protection have grown much closer than heβd intended. Or wanted.They are all fighting for the future they want, for things others say are impossible.But no war can be won without pain and loss.The true victory comes in what we make of whatβs left when war is over.