 by Penny Dee.jpg)
Total pages in book: 105
Estimated words: 103124 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 516(@200wpm)___ 412(@250wpm)___ 344(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 103124 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 516(@200wpm)___ 412(@250wpm)___ 344(@300wpm)
Cold. Detached. Ruthless.
And my new husband.
I didn’t want to marry the despicable mafia don.
But my father made a deal with the devil and lucky me, I’m the currency.
If I leave…
He’ll destroy my father’s fortune.
But if I stay…
He’ll obliterate my heart.
Because in this union, the lines between love and hate are blurred.
So blurred.
He’s a cold-blooded monster with ice in his veins and frost in his heart.
But in bed, Nico De Kysa burns like wildfire.
And in the heat of the night, I begin to forget why I hate the mobster.
I’m trapped in a world I despise.
With a man too wicked to fall for.
Yet, I can’t leave.
Maybe if I knew what was coming it would be easier to run.
The Devil’s Den is book 1 in the De Kysa Mafia series. A scorching hot enemies-to-lovers romance with tension-filled banter and sizzling chemistry. Expect ‘touch her and die’ vibes, forced proximity, and all the deliciousness of a mafia romance. For readers 18+. Please read author’s note for trigger warnings.
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
PROLOGUE
“You can’t do this to me!” I cry.
I look at my father sitting behind his vast desk looking so calm and collected as he rips my world from under me, and I feel utterly hopeless.
“I can, and I am,” he says calmly. “You will leave for New York tomorrow.”
“This isn’t fair.”
“Life isn’t fair, Bella.”
“You think I don’t know that? I lost them too.”
My father stands. He doesn’t like me bringing it up. What happened that night only six months ago tore our family apart and left me without a mother or any siblings. It stole his wife and two sons from him. It blew our family apart.
“We’re moving to America, and that is that. New York will be home from now on.” He walks around the desk to the drink cart and reaches for the bottle of grappa. “Alberto will chaperone you, and you will finish your school year at one of New York’s finest schools. I will follow in a few weeks once I have wrapped things up here.”
“I lose my mother and brothers less than six months ago, and now I’m losing my father and everything I’ve known too?”
“You need a fresh start. We need a fresh start. This is it.”
“No.”
My father looks up from pouring his drink. “No?”
“I won’t go.” I cross my arms over my chest. “I’ll be eighteen soon enough, and you won’t be able to tell me what to do anymore.”
“You’re sixteen—”
“And a half.”
He replaces the cap on the grappa and turns to fully face me. “This isn’t up for negotiation, Bella. You will do as I say, or I will make you. Do you understand me?”
My father doesn’t make idle threats. If someone doesn’t do as he says, he shoots them. Or he has Alberto, his right-hand man, do it for him. Or so the rumors go. I’ve never seen them do anything like that, but I’m not stupid enough to think it doesn’t happen. Not when you’re Mafia like he is.
Not that either of them would ever hurt me.
I am the apple in my father’s eye, and Alberto loves me like a daughter.
His phone buzzes and briefly distracts him when he sees someone’s name on the screen. But he ignores it and refocuses on me. “We have outgrown Italy and have new interests to pursue in New York City. It’s time to move forward.”
“My life is here. My friends are here.” I suddenly feel desperate when I think about all the things I’ll be leaving behind. Who I’ll be leaving behind. “You can’t ask me to give it all up.”
“I’m not asking, Bella.”
Again, his phone buzzes. Again, he ignores it.
“You can’t stop me from seeing him.”
Him being Domenico De Kysa. The boy I was born to love. Son to Gio De Kysa, my father’s best friend and don to the De Kysa. We were both born on the same day. Raised side by side by our mothers who were best friends. We were raised to be betrothed. The perfect union of the two houses.
My father taking me away from all of that to move to America doesn’t make sense.
Again, his phone lights up with a call. This time, I see the name. Mari. A woman.
“Who is Mari? Why aren’t you answering her?”
For a split second, I see the unease on his handsome face. It’s not there long, but long enough to ignite my next question.
“Are you seeing someone?” I ask, my voice raised. “Mom hasn’t even been gone six months!”
“Bella—”
“Who is she? Is she the reason you’re sending me to live nine hours away? You want to spend time with her without your daughter around—wait, Mari, as in Marianne De Kysa?” The realization rumbles through me, and I take a step back. “Why would Marianne De Kysa be so anxious to talk to you?”
Marianne is Nico’s mother. Wife to my father’s best friend.
“Many things are in play here that you don’t understand, and I will not explain them to my sixteen-year-old daughter.”
“Oh my God, are you having an affair with her?”
Mafia wives don’t call their husband’s best friend repeatedly.
My father’s intimidating voice cuts me off. “Go to your goddamn room, Bella, and don’t come out. You’ve got some packing to do, and I don’t want to see your face until morning.”
I escape out my bedroom window and bolt across the immaculate lawns of the sprawling estate. Moonlight guides my way as I sneak through the apple orchards and along the row of olive trees toward the stables at the edge of the property. The little glow coming from inside tells me Nico already waits for me.
Nico.
Just the thought of him sends butterflies loose in my stomach.
“Bella.” My name rolls off his tongue as I launch myself at him and bury my face into his neck.
“He’s sending me away, Nico. He wants to keep us apart.”