

My father was one of the first dons to rise out of the Naples mob. My mother was an iron-fisted businesswoman with a reputation that made grown men flinch. When I was ten, somebody had the nerve to hijack one of my father's freight ships. He had the man's arms and legs broken with a crowbar, then stuffed a handful of gold rings down his throat — told him to count his money while he crawled. When I was fifteen, some scheming woman tried to get her claws into my father. My mother hired the filthiest pimps off the docks, shipped her down to a back-alley bar in Marseille, and told her to make her own way. And me — I grew up running the streets of Naples like I owned them. The sons of every other family knew to call me Miss Ferrante and keep their hands to themselves. Then I met him. A rough, quiet man fresh out of the army. For him I put down the knives, traded the silk for plain cotton, and followed him back to that little nothing of a coastal town, Porto Scuro. Today my mother-in-law and my husband went down to the dock warehouses to settle a dispute. They held her face down in a barrel of rotting fish guts. They kicked in three of his ribs. I stared at the salt fish I'd been slicing on the kitchen board, let out a cold laugh, and brought the knife down so hard the oak split in half. Then I dialed my father's private line.

To investigate his mother's death, Jose Lynch went undercover as a taxi driver.He had a one-night stand with CEO Sherly Shawna. Years later, she returned with their daughter Celeste, proposing marriage so she could focus on saving her failing company.Jose cared deeply for Celeste and promised to protect her. When Sherly's parents locked the asthmatic girl in a room during an attack, Jose arrived just in time to save her.Later, Jose's billionaire father learned about his granddaughter and hosted a charity banquet to meet her. But Sherly was humiliated by her arranged fiancé from the Jackson family...