THE DON'S INNOCENT BRIDE: The Queen He Never Knew
I pointed a gun at my husband and made him sign our divorce papers.
He thought I was too soft to survive without him, he had no idea of the rebel he created. I was about to become his worst nightmare.
Dante Caruso taught me two things: how to love a monster, and how to become one. When I discovered he murdered my family for power, I carefully planned my exit and transformation into the heiress I was meant to be. I transformed from an innocent bride to his worst nightmare, I spent two years building an empire on the ashes of the girl he thought he knew.
Now I'm back. Not as Bella Russo, the wife he's been desperately searching for. But as a force shaking the underworld, the enemy that is systematically destroying everything he built.
He wants his wife back.
I want him buried.
Now the real question is what will be his decision, when he discovers the enemy that is destroying his empire and the woman he's lost are the same person.
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Chapter 9
BELLA'S POV
I couldn't stop thinking of the possibilities of Dante not being involved in this attack, I really wanted to believe he wasn't involved, but it's not possible for anyone to carry out orders outside Dante's knowledge.
I can remember clearly the day Lilo authorized the payment of jewelry I found while shopping. Lilo was supposed to be with me for the day. I saw a pretty Vancleef bracelet, and I decided to get it. The price of the bracelet was a thousand pounds more than the initial amount in the card. I convinced Lilo to allow me use the company credit card, which he accepted. That was the biggest mistake of his life.
Dante never starved me of money, gifts, or presents, I thought that extends to the company's card too.
Lilo was sacked because of that. Not since the event happened without clarifying from Dante first. This led to the dismissal and probably death of Lilo. The appearance of one of Caruso men only means one thing. It was authorized by Dante.
I kept on staring at the picture, the dead man's face, frozen in death. Eyes open. Blood pooled beneath him. I couldn't stop staring at him.
And the Caruso family crest tattooed on his inner wrist.
Dante's men all had that tattoo. Loyalty branded into flesh.
Why the fuck was he attacking me with Vitale soldiers?
Coward!
It just doesn't make sense, does he know my whereabouts?
That's not possible, my mind is spiraling.
"Principessa?" Lucia's voice broke through my thoughts, she entered the room clutching her injured arm. "You should rest. It's been a long night."
"I can't." I zoomed in on the tattoo again.
I turned to look at Lucia, "I know this man", I recounted how I met him doing one of Dante's suspicious meetings.
"This man works for Caruso. He was one of Marco's personal guards."
Lucia leaned over my shoulder, studying the screen. Her face paled. "Are you certain?"
"Positive." I pulled up another photo from my phone. One I'd taken months ago at a family dinner. Marco in the background, flanked by two guards.
The dead man was on his left.
"Merda," Lucia whispered.
"Exactly." I set down the phone, mind racing. "Why would Marco's man be with Lorenzo's soldiers? Attacking me?"
"Perhaps he defected. Switched sides."
I almost laughed, they aren't that generous.
"Marco doesn't let people defect. He kills them." I stood, pacing, recounting Lilo's incident . "No. This is something else."
Something worse. It's either they are hunting Bella Russo or hunting the last Sovereign.
"I need to talk to Tommaso." I scurried towards the door. My mind raises at the thought of what could possibly go wrong.
I found him in the armory, cleaning weapons used earlier.
"We need to talk." I hurried towards him, pointing the phone towards him.
He looked up, saw my face, and set down the gun. "What's wrong?"
I showed him the photo. "This man. He works for Marco Salvatore. Dante's right hand." The name irks me.
Tommaso took the phone, studied it. His jaw clenched. "You're sure?"
"I've seen him at the penthouse. Multiple times. He's one of Marco's personal guards." I leaned against the table, my fingers pressed against my temple. "The question is why was he attacking us with Vitale soldiers?"
Tommaso was quiet for a long moment.
"You're thinking what I'm thinking?," I asked, studying his face
"That Dante is using Lorenzo as cover for his own attacks?" Tommaso's voice was grim. "Sì. It's possible."
"It's more than possible. It's the only explanation that makes sense." I pulled up the Lilo story, explaining how Dante controlled everything. "Nothing happens in his organization without his knowledge. Nothing. He micro-manages every detail."
"Then this was deliberate." Tommaso rested on the wall, crossing his arm across his chest.
"This was calculated." I felt the familiar lump rising again, I need to stop letting him determine my emotions, but I can't help it.
"He killed my family, and now he's trying to finish the job by making it look like Lorenzo did it." What is going through his mind.
Tommaso studied me carefully. "What do you want to do?"
"I want proof." I straightened. "Real, undeniable proof that Dante ordered this. That he's been playing both sides."
"And when you have it?"
I thought of the gun in my hand tonight. The two men I'd killed without hesitation. The blood on my hands that didn't bother me anymore.
"Then I stop playing defense." I met Tommaso's eyes. "And I make him pay for every lie he's ever told."
Tommaso nodded slowly. "I'll put people on it. See if we can trace the connection between Dante and Lorenzo's attack."
"Do it quietly. If Dante has men in Lorenzo's organization, he might have men in ours too."
I shivered at the thought, my men?
How deep did his reach go? How many people around me were reporting back to him?
"Trust no one," I said. "Not until we know for certain."
After Tommaso left, I sat alone with the photo.
Dante's man. Dead on the ground. Wearing Vitale colors but bearing Caruso marks.
The evidence was damning.
My husband-ex-husband-was trying to kill me while pretending to search for me.
The man I'd loved. The man I'd given six years to. The man who'd promised to protect me with his life.
He'd been my enemy all along.
And I'd been too blind to see it.
I walked weakly back to my room. I'd always said I was free from him, but his betrayal hurts Everytime.
What can I possibly do?
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7.1
"Don't tease me again or else you really want it. There are no safe words in my bed."
He is rumored to know a thousand ways to disarm and pleasure a woman, and I am Olivia, the nymphomaniac.
In a quest for revenge against my childhood bullies, I got locked into an unhappy marriage, with an untamed brother-in-law. Colt Fletcher, the morally-grey, rebel biker is ever excited by danger and prefers life on the edge. And from the moment he laid eyes on me, I became his forbidden want.
I should know better, to steer clear of deadly desires like these but when fate forces us to live under the same roof, share the same boardroom, and every accidental touch burns, my resolve begins to collapse.
But scandals don't stay buried, and my husband is the devil. The price of this betrayal is death. I must choose between my husband who owns my name, and his brother who owns my body.
8.9
They killed her father. Now she's racing straight into the heart of enemy territory.
Mia Chen has one rule, never let them see your face. As the underground racing legend "Ghost Rider," she's untouchable until a rigged race tears off her mask and exposes her identity to the worst possible person. Dax Steele, VP of the Iron Wolves MC, the club that bankrupted her father and drove him to an early grave.
Now she owes $50,000 to men who don't accept apologies, and Dax offers her a deal she can't refuse, race for the Iron Wolves in the inter-club championship, and he'll clear her debt. But working for her enemy means living in his world, sleeping under his roof, and discovering that everything she believed about her father's death might be a lie.
Dax has secrets of his own, evidence that his father was framed, and the real culprit is still out there. He needs Mia's skills on the track and her mechanical genius in the garage. What he doesn't need is the fire she ignites in his blood every time she defies him.
As they dig deeper into the past, attraction sparks into something dangerous. Because in the biker world, loyalty is everything and loving your enemy could get you both killed.
She came for revenge. She stayed for the truth. She'll risk everything for him.
8.0
"I..hate you" I croaked out brokenly, struggling and failing to hold back the tears spilling in waves from my eyes.
"Awwww, is my fat queen crying?" Brandon jested mockingly, laughing as if he had just said something funny.
His friends echoed his laughter, making the tears spill even faster from how embarrassed I was.
Shaking my head, I turned away from his crude handsome face, but was held back by his hands, gripping my hair painfully.
I screamed as he slammed me against the wall, feeling the metallic taste of blood in my mouth.
He grabbed my hair roughly, pressing my face harshly against the wall.
"You don't walk out till I am done with you," he gritted out, pressing his body against mine.
"Please.... Stop, please..." I cried out.
"Do I make myself clear?" Brandon snapped, his other hand gripping my waist tightly.
I could feel his hard hot body against mine, and his nails digging painfully into my waist.
"Yes," I whispered, "please let me go."
He pressed harder against my body, his hands on my waist tightening.
I could feel his hot breath against my neck, and despite my situation, my body was shamelessly reacting to him.
Loud snickers alerted us to the fact we were not alone.
Brandon released my hair, leaning away from my body, before pushing me forward.
I stumbled, nearly falling to my feet.
"Now run you fat bitch," he yelled, before laughing with his friends.
I hightailed it out of there, crying my eyes out.
Being fat wasn't a problem, her mother always told her, never failing to remind her how beautiful she was.
But for Christy Morris, being fat was a curse.
Especially since college and her arch enemy Brandon made it so.
Forced to babysit her bully and enemy baby sister, Christy's life takes an unexpected turn.
For the worst or better, was still what she was yet to find out.
Find out Christy and Brandon's story in this thrilling novel filled with...
Romance.
Unexpected twist.
And dare I say....
Love.
8.8
She married the devil. Then she divorced him. Now she carries his child.
All Isabella Lorenzo wanted was to protect her family, and she thought marrying the ruthless and feared Luca Moretti... heir to the Moretti crime empire would be enough, but she was wrong. Instead of protection, her father was brutally executed and her heart left shattered in a million pieces.
Two years later, she has managed to move on from the past and rebuild her life in the shadows. Every feeling of emotion was buried in her past, but they soon reignite after a reckless night with a masked stranger... a stranger that happens to be Luca Moretti.
Now she's pregnant, and Luca will do anything to get her back.
But forgiveness is not something that exists in her heart anymore... will she be able to fully heal, or will her urge for revenge burn everything down?
7.4
As a princess who could not wield magic, Princess Daphne's only value to her kingdom was her arranged marriage. The task was simple, but when Daphne was kidnapped and brought to the cold mountains of Vramid, she realized that she was in over her head.
She had heard of these cursed mountains before― rocky terrain, freezing temperatures, and the land was ruled by a man feared by many within the continent.
King Atticus Heinvres, the blood-thirsty ruler of the North.
Even though she had never met him before, tales were spread of King Atticus's ruthlessness. Some said he was a monster, others claimed he was the devil himself, but whatever the story was, everyone knew of the man who had powers beyond anyone's imagination. He could topple armies and crumble nations with just one wave of his hand, aided by what others rumored to be a cursed obsidian ring.
No one outside of Vramid had ever met the fearsome king before. Not until Daphne.
However, upon meeting the formidable man, Daphne found out that the king might not really be the monster others had claimed him to be.
In fact, what was hidden under that obsidian shield could just be a diamond in the rough.
―
[Excerpt]
"Now... where should I put you both?" he asked casually, not expecting a reply. "It's regretful that I only have one chandelier."
"Underneath my bed? No, no, too dirty. My dust bunnies don't deserve this," Atticus mused to himself. "The mantlepiece? How about the vanity table? I suppose if I lop off one of your heads I could mount it over... Wife, which head do you want to stare at while you do your hair?"
"Atticus!" Daphne screamed. "I don't want any heads! Let them go."
"Fair enough." Atticus shrugged, and flicked his fingers.
There were two identical cracks as both necks snapped at once.
Daphne gasped, horrified. This man, her husband, had just killed two men with a flick of his finger, as though he was snuffing out candles.
"I told you to let them go!" Daphne cried out.
"Yes, I let them go," Atticus said. Then, his eyes darkened. "To receive divine judgment from the heavens."
8.9
Six years ago, I was given to New York's most ruthless mafia Don as collateral to pay off my father's gambling debt.
After one terrifying, pitch-black night with him, his grandfather framed me for treason and threw me out onto the freezing streets.
They threw me away, not knowing I was pregnant with his triplets.
Now, I only came back to his city to get his signature on our divorce papers so my children and I could disappear to Europe.
But his men ambushed us at the airport and dragged us to his underground interrogation room.
Damien threw a DNA consent form on the steel desk, staring at my fierce five-year-old son with dark reverence.
"Sign the paper. Or I will personally forge him into the sharpest weapon this family has ever seen."
I was trembling with absolute terror.
He believed the lies that I had sold his family's secrets and abandoned his firstborn heir for money.
I didn't understand why this monster wouldn't just let me go, but I couldn't let him drag my innocent babies into his violent hell.
Just as I tearfully picked up the pen to surrender, the room plunged into darkness, and a digital threat hijacked his monitors.
My other five-year-old son had hacked the Don's network, starting a 60-second countdown to wipe out all his billions.
Damien was forced to yield, but when the steel doors opened, his severely traumatized, silent six-year-old heir walked in—and immediately curled into my arms.
Damien stared at us in shock, then slowly tore my divorce papers into pieces.
"The deal is off."