Chapter 1: The Beginning of the End
Rain hammered the flooded asphalt, washing blood from his black suit and carrying it toward the gutter. He lay beneath the cold stone columns of the church, barely conscious, his breathing shallow, every nerve screaming with pain. Several bullet holes tore through his jacket, darkening the fabric around them, while spent shell casings glittered across the pavement like fragments of a nightmare. Yet even with death tightening its grip around his throat, his mind wasn't on the bullets. It was on her. He could still remember the phantom warmth of her body against his chest, the whisper of dark silk beneath his fingertips, the dangerous curve of her silhouette, and those unforgettable lips that had once curved into a smile capable of haunting him for three years.
For three years, he had hunted his greatest enemy. Three years of searching. Three years of hatred. Three years of convincing himself that the woman who consumed his thoughts was nothing more than the enemy he was destined to destroy. But he had been wrong. She was both his greatest temptation and his most dangerous enemy—the woman who had driven him to the edge of reason and somehow taken a piece of his soul with her. Then a shadow emerged through the curtain of rain. She stepped from the darkness slowly, deliberately, as though the storm belonged to her. The wet fabric of her dress clung to her silhouette as she walked over the scattered shell casings and stopped directly above him. Her eyes traveled over his blood-soaked suit before settling on his face. Cold. Unhurried. Completely in control.
Even now, that look stirred something inside him. She reached into her clutch and withdrew a phone without taking her eyes off him. She dialed, and when the call connected, she remained silent for several seconds. Then her voice slipped through the thunder, soft as a whisper and twice as dangerous. “He's mine now.” A pause. Her gaze remained fixed on him as the faintest smile touched her lips. “And the Mafia's darkest day has just begun.” The call ended. The sirens grew louder, their flashing lights slicing through the rain. He stared at the woman he had spent three years hunting—the woman he had once sworn to destroy, the woman he could never stop wanting.
His vision blurred as darkness began swallowing the world around him. I should have known. A bitter smile touched his lips. The woman I couldn't stop wanting would be the woman who finally destroyed me. Thunder rolled above the church. The rain kept falling. And somewhere beyond the darkness, three years were waiting to be remembered. Three years before the blood. Before the bullets. Before the war. Before she became his greatest enemy, there was only a smile. Three years earlier...
