She’s tougher than any naïve princess has the right to be, and she speaks nothing but truth.
I am evil.
But that doesn’t mean I have to like her pointing it out.
If only she knew how I became this twisted demon, then she might understand everything.
Ciro.
Elisa’s opinion of her father is far too high. I’m going to have to knock it down a few more pegs before we catch him. The bastard was barely under our control for twenty-four hours before he managed to slip away.
Fucker.
This is going to make me look weak. And if there’s one thing I can’t afford, even with all my newly acquired wealth and power, it’s to look weak. Weakness brings out the sharks, and it looks like Ciro may have a few more sharks on his side than we originally thought.
I have to wonder what his plans are now. The bastard. Is he coming for his daughter? Or will he use this opportunity to run away forever?
Both possibilities fill me up with rage. I’d like to see him even try to come for Elisa. She’s mine now, and I’ll fight whatever her father can throw my way. But the thought of him abandoning her, especially after she showed so much faith in him, makes me so angry I could punch the wall. Why does Elisa have loyalty to him? He sold her like a cheap whore. In our world, thirty million dollars is peanuts. Usually, when you give away your daughter as a bride, it’s for a share of someone else’s empire—that’s priceless, just like a daughter should be priceless. But after Dad and I got through with Ciro, no one wanted anything to do with him or his crumbling empire. We were only willing to save him from complete and immediate ruin because I wanted to make him suffer.
Have I made a mistake, letting the rat live?
He had a hand in burning down our warehouse at the docks, I know it. Dad, Nolan, Shane and I have been pouring over the security tapes from his place since we saw the smoke this morning, but nothing suspicious has caught our eyes yet. The bastard had to have gotten word out somehow—unless he was planning this attack from the moment that we made him our offer.
The treacherous fool.
There’s no doubt in my mind that he knows I’m a monster. He’s the one who turned me into the beast I am today, after all. No matter how hard I try to fight back the darkness, part of me is still that kid in the hole, burning with anger and loneliness.
Ciro must realize that he has left his daughter to the wolves. But why do I suddenly feel the need to protect Elisa from the storm I know must be coming? Ciro didn’t burn down one of my family’s most prized and highly secure warehouses on his own. He had to have had outside help, and if he had outside help, that means we’re dealing with betrayal.
The Family has been bought and paid for. They owe us even more than Ciro does. Would they dare try to undermine what I’m attempting?
Why? Because I’m not Italian?
The Family is an organized crime syndicate almost as old as America itself. They have their roots in the first Sicilian immigrants to arrive at Ellis Island, and their attitudes towards the Irish are just as old fashioned as all of their phony codes and traditions.
They are a bunch of hypocrites, but once you realize what they’re really after, you learn how to control them.
All they truly crave is money. And my family has that by the boatloads. Billions. And seventy-five percent of that is clean money too. To them, we’re like a golden turkey.
Irish? No big deal. We can bring them what they want and so, when push came to shove, they chose us over Ciro. But now I’m having second thoughts about their supposed loyalty.
We have a checkered history, and their treacherous past is not something I want to have to revisit. But if I must, then I will.
You see, after Ciro originally betrayed us, it didn’t take long for my father to start making some serious money again. Dad was always the brains behind the operation, and the only reason he got involved in the underworld in the first place was because he didn’t have anywhere else to start. The only opportunity for a poor Irish boy like him was in organized crime. Plus, at the time, he had no family to worry about, nothing to lose. He went into business with the brutal but floundering Ciro D’Ignoti and brought the blubbering Italian to the big boy table.
Together, the two of them made enough noise to get the attention of The Family. The infamous Italian mafia syndicate was made up of four powerful east coast mob families, but those four soon turned into five, then six. It didn’t take long for my dad—the first ever non-Italian let in—to meet my mom. Shortly after that, I was born.
Ciro apparently wasn’t very sentimental. He only smelled weakness in the water. Dad had something to lose now, and Ciro was ready to take it from him. With the help of that traitorous bastard, The Family decided they didn’t much like the idea of an Irish family corrupting the purity of their Italian syndicate, after all. So they betrayed Dad and took almost everything from him—including me.
Dad was crushed, but he doesn’t give up, not ever. Even after my mother’s death, he kept pushing. With the knowledge and connections that he’d once made in the underworld, he went clean. Dad started his own consulting business and slowly began poaching every last one of The Family’s legitimate business partners.
With more clean money came more power and protection. This scared the shit out of The Family. After a few years of captivity, they ordered me back to my father, hoping that, despite the damage already done, it would be enough to quell the growing beast.
And it did. For a while. But then I came of age. Full of rage and craving revenge. My father revealed that he had just been biding his time, waiting for me to make my own decision. I would inherit it all someday, so he wanted to make sure we went down the path I wanted.
And I wanted revenge.
So, we started using our newfound powers. Pulling strings to influence the movements of The Family. The Celts were now in control of Rome, and we plundered it for all it was worth.
We only stopped when they were on the brink of collapse, and we gave them an ultimatum, kick out Ciro D’Ignoti, or be destroyed.
The traitors didn’t care so much about their Italian brethren then. They were ready to kick him out onto the streets at our command. Dad and I used our countless back-door connections to bleed Ciro dry before we gave the order. But just making him go broke wasn’t enough. I needed more.
And that’s when I discovered Elisa. The D’Ignoti princess.
From the moment I laid eyes on her innocent image, I knew what had to be done.
She was going to be mine, and through her, I was finally going to get my delicious revenge, and ruin her father once and for all.
That’s what led us here. That’s what led me to turn back into the monster I’ve been trying to leave behind. Elisa brought the beast out of me in that bedroom. She reminded me of how far I’ve come, and just how far I have to fall.
I thought we had this all tied up. Ciro. The Family. The world.
But now? I can’t trust anybody. Who the hell would help out a loser like Ciro?
Only Italians. Only those foolish enough to call someone with whom they share no blood family. They still think of us Irish as barbarians. Savage Celtics who once plundered Rome. But Rome got its revenge. They wiped out the Celtic tribes and laid waste to their culture.
I think now is the time to turn the tables back around. Scorched earth motherfucker. If I have to put off going clean for a little longer just to make sure my family and our assets are legitimately safe, then so be it. I’ll burn Rome to the ground again. And I’ll ravage every virgin princess in sight. No exceptions.
