Chapter 1Every word from Silas was a hammer blow to my spine.
I grabbed his hand, fighting back the tears that burned my eyes, refusing to let them fall.
"Silas, is this some kind of joke?"
Silas was paranoid, violent. He always loved to test me, to push me to the edge just to see if I’d fall.
He yanked his hand from my grasp.
He met my gaze, his voice chillingly devoid of familiarity. "Aria, there are no jokes in our world."
Just then, a call came in from Vivian.
To make me believe it, Silas deliberately put the call on speaker.
Vivian's sultry voice cooed through the speaker. "Silas, darling. Did you appreciate the little surprise I arranged for you?"
"I loved it. No woman has ever gone this far for me."
He shoved the phone toward my face. "Vivian, say hello. Aria's right here."
My heart seized, and the air in my lungs turned to stone.
Vivian's arrogant taunts came one after another. "Oh, Aria. The once-prized Principessa. Even without Julian, you still had Silas, ready to burn the city down to protect you. I was almost envious."
"Such a shame. You're good at picking men, I'll give you that. You just can't seem to hold on to them."
My mind flashed back three years, to the night my title was stripped away—the night my fate was sealed.
At the dinner, the Don who had once doted on me coldly ordered me to remove my signet ring—the mark of my standing as his ward and heir—in front of all the assembled Capos and Soldatos.
He personally placed the ring on Vivian's hand.
The Donna looked away, her expression hard as ice, and my fiancé, Julian, who had sworn to protect me, tore up our marriage contract on the spot.
"Aria, the woman I always intended to marry is the true legitimate heir. You..."
He paused. "You were just a replacement. I'm sorry."
Every word was a dagger, yet he still remembered to apologize.
The hypocrisy was nauseating.
Stripped of my family's protection, I was cornered by a rival crew in an underground club.
At the last second, Silas appeared. He hadn't even drawn his gun; a single, deadly glare had sent them scrambling.
I had collapsed into his arms, tears of terror and relief streaming down my face.
Chapter 2
He and Julian were nothing alike.
He was cold, paranoid, and untamable—a man of few words, his eyes a swirling mix of distance and ruthlessness.
When we were young, Julian and I had been inseparable, our days filled with laughter. As the son of the family's Consigliere, he was practically untouchable.
On the day of my coming-of-age ceremony, while Julian was away on business, Silas cornered me in a darkened room. He pinned my wrists above my head, his heavy body crushing against mine, and forced a brutal, consuming kiss on my lips.
His voice was a low growl against my mouth. "Aria, what's so great about him? You'd be better off with me. I'd protect you from everything."
I shoved him away, the sharp crack of my hand against his cheek echoing in the dark.
I screamed into the blackness, "Silas! I'm going to marry your brother! Have some goddamn respect!"
Just as the words left my mouth, Julian's voice called from outside the door.
Pushing the door open, I saw in the light that the corner of Silas's mouth was bleeding.
"I'm sorry..." I whispered, and walked past him.
Silas prodded the inside of his cheek with his tongue, a dark chuckle escaping him. "Heh. Aria, sooner or later, you'll regret this."
I did regret it.
And when I had nowhere else to go, I chose to rely on him.
We survived shootouts and ambushes together, and he would pull me into passionate, desperate embraces in the safety of our hideouts. His hands would map every inch of my body with a rough, territorial heat, staking his claim in the darkness.
He was never stingy either, showering me with gifts fit for a queen of the underworld: custom weapons, untraceable safe houses, blood diamonds.
He kept me out of the family's business, forbidding me from making any public appearances.
Later, the Don found out about us. The family would never tolerate such a scandal.
For me, Silas defied the family, weathering boycotts and ostracism from the other factions.
They all tried to force him to give me up, but he refused.
The exiled Principessa and the rogue Underboss became fugitives on the run, yet we never gave up on each other.
Until Silas clawed his way back to power...
The call ended. I stared at Silas, my eyes burning. "Why?" I demanded.
"Why her?!"
He casually wiped down his sidearm before holstering it.
He clasped his hands, his voice steady and cruel. "Aria, I've grown tired of our little game."
"You probably don't know. My brother and I... we never saw eye to eye. Our father always favored him. So, anything I ever wanted, I had to rip from his hands."
"Including you."
"I did genuinely like you, back then. It's just... I'm bored now."
"Come on. I'll see you out."
It was the most the man of few words had ever said to me at once.
He lifted me from the floor. I fought him, sinking my teeth into his arm.
The metallic tang of blood flooded my mouth.
Silas grunted, a flicker of pain in his eyes, but he didn't let go.
"Aria, you're almost cute when you fight back."
His voice deepened. "But right now, I need Vivian's legitimacy to secure my seat as the next Don."
He carried me downstairs, locked me in the back of a black armored SUV, and spoke to the driver in a low tone. "The plane ticket is booked. See to it that she's gone."
"Yes, boss."
The doors locked. I pounded on the window, screaming for the driver to let me out.
Through the glass, I saw a Maybach pull up. Vivian's slender form pressed against Silas, her arms wrapping around his neck as she shot a glance in my direction.
Then she leaned in, whispering something intimately in his ear...
Before I could process anything else, a violent impact threw me forward, and the world went black.
Chapter 3
When I woke, it was to darkness and the smell of smoke. The car was a smoldering wreck.
A dull, heavy ache pulsed through my limbs. I could feel a warm, sticky pool of blood by my head.
Gasping, I fumbled for my phone and dialed Silas.
When the call connected, I managed a few weak 'hellos'.
I was met with a series of breathless, feminine moans.
The wet, slapping sounds of skin against skin and Vivian's shameless cries were a blade, carving out my heart.
But survival instinct forced a final plea from my lips. "Silas! Save me..."
The sounds on the other end stopped.
My vision swam. Through the haze, I vaguely saw several armed men approaching.
The last dregs of my consciousness caught their words. "She's almost gone. Still do it?"
"Miss Vivian said to follow her and finish it at the destination. Who knew there'd be an explosion?"
"Forget it. Leave her. Let fate take care of it."
When I woke up again, Silas was holding my hand, his face a shade paler than I'd ever seen it.
"Aria. Look at me. Was it him?"
At my bedside, his men held a blood-soaked gunman.
He was kneeling, blubbering, "Boss... I was wrong, so wrong, I shouldn't have taken the contract!"
"Please, let me go! I was just a hired gun!"
Silas's dark eyes burned with anger, and something that looked like a flicker of pain for me.
I almost had to thank the hitman. His incompetence was the only reason I was alive.
I raised a weak hand and tugged on Silas's sleeve. "Silas... stop. If it wasn't for him, Vivian's men might have actually silenced me..."
Silas’s brow furrowed. He gently moved my hand away and crouched to meet my gaze.
He pinched my cheek, a cruel smile twisting his lips.
"Aria, how long are you going to keep spinning these lies? Do you really think I'd believe you didn't hire this rat to frame her?"
His face went cold. "For trying to set up the Don's trueborn daughter, you'll have plenty of time to reflect. In the estate's underground cell."
I was dragged back to the estate and locked away.
The first thing that greeted me were stockings, a short skirt, a shirt, and a suit jacket, all strewn across the floor.
Following the sounds of pleasure, I peeked through a crack in the bedroom door. I saw them kissing, lost in a world of their own.
Silas was so careful, nothing like the rough animal he was with me. His every touch was impossibly tender.
To think this paranoid, domineering man could have such a gentle side…
A sharp ache seized my chest, making it hard to breathe.
Vivian caught sight of me and stopped. She gathered her sweat-dampened hair and stared.
"What? Can't take it? It's not the first time you've seen us."
She calmly climbed off him. Silas rose and thoughtfully draped his jacket over her shoulders.
"Don't catch a cold."
They stood before me, a perfect picture of intimacy.
The usually taciturn Silas finally spoke, his voice raw. "Now you know how I felt, Aria. Seeing you with my brother… it broke me just like this."
It hit me then. This was all just revenge. Blatant and cruel.
The three of us had grown up together. I had always seen Silas as a younger brother, nothing more.
Until my coming-of-age ceremony. After I rejected him, Julian and I got drunk and ended up in bed. Silas walked in on us.
He had just bitten his lip, pretending it was nothing as he walked past. "Next time," he'd said faintly, "don't do it in the living room."
So his roughness, his cruelty with me… it was all born from hatred.
The memory brought a vicious smile to my lips. I looked right at Vivian. "That mouth? It has kissed my feet. And he's done far, far worse for me..."
"Aria! Have you no shame!"
Vivian clamped her hands over her ears and screamed, completely losing control.
Seeing her break, Silas was consumed by a mix of fury and terror. He grabbed my wrist, his grip like iron, and dragged me from the room.
