When Nikolai Romanov came looking for my brother, I emptied my savings hoping I could pay off his debt. But I didn't have even close to enough, so the bastard decided to take me instead. I didn't expect a Russian mafia boss like him to be gentle with me...and he wasn't. Not when he spanked me for daring to wear panties under the dress he chose for me, and certainly not when he stripped me out of that same dress and made me scream in his bed.

I learned very early on that every life matters—no life is insignificant, most especially not my own mother’s, whose life was cruelly slain. I vowed to do what I can so that no one has to feel as if they’re nothing at all when they lose their loved ones. So when I’m forced into a marriage with Dominic Luca—the man next in line to be the head of the biggest crime family in all of New York—the ring he puts on my finger is a gun to my head with his finger on the trigger.

Charming, captivating, seductive—and a cold-blooded killer. I married the Pakhan of the Russian Bratva anyway. I had to, it was part of the deal. Now, I’m faking marital bliss as I tremble with fear, and I cannot wait to be out of the clutches of this ruthless man.

Money. It’s the root of all evil and I need it bad. You could call it the wrong place, wrong time. To me the day I met Enzo was the day the old me died. When he kidnaps me thinking I’m the daughter of his enemy, the only thing I can do is pretend to be something I’m not. But the more I pretend, the deeper I fall. Enzo is dark, cruel, and menacing, but he’s protective, fierce, and determined. Soon he wants to forge a contract between our families, making me his bride, but he has no idea I’m not whom he thinks I am and when he finds out … well, I know I’m as good as dead.

It was an innocent mistake; she knocked on the wrong door. It was mine. If I were a better man, I would've just let her go. But I'm not. I'm a cruel bastard. I ruthlessly claimed her virtue for my own. It should've been enough but it wasn't. I needed more...I craved it. She became my obsession. Her sweetness and purity taunted my dark soul. The need to possess her nearly drove me mad. A Russian arms dealer had no business pursuing a naive librarian student. She didn't belong in my world. I would bring her only pain. But it was too late...she was mine and I was keeping her.