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)
“I thought you might like to know there’s some concern among the families.”
I look at my brother. He’s not one to waste time with pleasantries and small talk. “Oh yeah, how so?”
“They’re uneasy with your Mr. Popular image,” he says.
“They’re Mafia. Of course they are.”
I hand him a drink as he says, “They like things done a certain way.”
“Maybe it’s time to shake things up.”
Massimo has been my eyes and ears in New York since long before I arrived. He blends in and has the annoying quality of being impossible not to like.
“The families don’t want a glittering icon, Domenico. They want a discreet, powerful figurehead. The media treating you like you’re a goddamn rock star makes them nervous. They don’t like the attention you’re bringing to the table.”
“Hundreds of millions of dollars—that’s what I’m bringing to the table. I didn’t see them complain when a few extra zeros appeared in the coffers this year.”
I rule over the fifteen families who serve under the De Kysa banner, while my brother takes care of our corporate interests, which range from hotels and inner-city bars to technology and media companies. Thanks to my reign, the De Kysa wealth is now in the billions. I moved our focus away from the old-school money laundering, drug running, and racketeering to a much bigger slice of the modern-day pie—corporate domination.
“You need to show them you have staying power,” he says. “That you have roots in this town. Dampen the glitz and glamour with stability and commitment to the long game.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning you need a wife.”
I almost choke on my scotch. “Are you drunk?”
“After I leave here, I plan to be. I have a standing date with my buddy Jack Daniel’s at the club.” He rises to his feet. “The families meet tomorrow. You need to appease their restlessness. The match with Bianca Bamcorda is a good one and will dampen the unrest among our old-school allies.”
“You’re insane.”
“No, I’m the realist. We need this alliance. It’s only a matter of time before the Irish want their slice of the eastern border for their drug trade.”
“Over my dead fucking body.”
“Easily done if you fuck up this alliance.”
“The Bamcorda will align with us regardless.”
Massimo doesn’t look convinced. “Luca Bamcorda wants a more elevated position in the De Kysa stronghold. The kind that will come with his daughter being married to the don.”
Luca Bamcorda. Ambitious. Rich. But not as smart as he thinks he is. He’s a giant pain in my ass. He’s old school and stuck in his rigid ways. Giving him any more power within our ranks would make him think he’s more valuable than he really is, and I’d have to manage the behavior that came with it.
“Luca Bamcorda has been chasing you to marry his daughter for months now,” Massimo reminds me. “It’s expected.”
Bianca Bamcorda. Mafia princess. Impossibly beautiful. But needy and annoying. Not to mention vain and arrogant. I’d rather scoop my brains out with a spoon than marry the vapid bitch.
Although a wife could be a pleasurable experience.
Just not her.
“You have to act now, Domenico. Take a wife. Appease the families. We can’t afford any unrest when things are so volatile with the Irish.”
Fuck.
I hate it when my brother makes sense, especially when it means I have to do something I don’t like. While the De Kysa is one of the largest, most powerful underworld syndicates in the world, it relies on alliances which always come at a cost—either money, power, or marriage.
My mind slips to my greatest rival, Vincent Isle Ciccula.
The man I came to New York to destroy.
The man who broke my family apart.
The man I’ve set up to financially ruin in retribution for his sins against my family.
His greatest love is his daughter.
The beautiful but elusive Bella Isle Ciccula.
As I recall the beautiful artist and what she once meant to me, an all-too-familiar darkness sweeps through my mood. She left my life on the same night as my mother's death.
A night that shaped me into the cold-hearted asshole I am now.
I already have dice on the table when it comes to her father, Vincent. A failed business venture he unwisely invested in that will see me take his kingdom from him.
But as the thought unfurls in my dark mind, I come to accept that I’m about to roll a new set of dice.
I smile darkly.
Massimo cocks an eyebrow. “What do you have to smile about?”
“I think I have a solution.”
“Yeah, what is it?”
I raise my glass to my lips and smirk.
“I’m going to make Bella Isle Ciccula my wife.”
2
Bella
Six months later
I hit the floor with a thud and groan. I try to breathe, but my lungs rattle, and I’m winded.
Smiling, Ari stands over me and offers a hand.
“You’re distracted,” he says with an amused gleam in his eyes. “You’re making this too easy for me.”