Mafia King: A Mafia Royals Novella, Rachel Dyken [i am malala young readers edition .txt] 📗

from. He looked so pathetic, so damn sexy and pathetic that rather than be star-struck, I took pity. I knew though; I knew the minute I signed that NDA, the minute our fingers brushed and my body became insanely aware of how close he was—I was in dangerous territory, I just didn't know how dangerous until it was too late. Until I fell for the star and realized that no matter how high they are in the sky—they're still human and fall just as hard.

 

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Envy: An Eagle Elite Novella

By Rachel Van Dyken

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Every family has rules, the mafia just has more....

Do not speak to the bosses unless spoken to.

Do not make eye contact unless you want to die.

And above all else, do not fall in love.

Renee Cassani's future is set.

Her betrothal is set.

Her life, after nannying for the five families for the summer, is set.

Somebody should have told Vic Colezan that.

He's a man who doesn't take no for an answer.

And he only wants one thing.

Her.

Somebody should have told Renee that her bodyguard needed as much discipline as the kids she was nannying.

Good thing Vic has a firm hand.

Destructive King: A Mafia Bully Romance

Mafia Royals Book 3

By Rachel Van Dyken

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A mafia romance about love and loss by Rachel Van Dyken, the number one New York Times bestselling author of the Eagle Elite series.

…When you awaken in the morning’s hush

I am the swift uplifting rush

Of quiet birds in circled flight.

I am the soft stars that shine at night.

Do not stand at my grave and cry;

I am not there. I did not die.

— Mary Elizabeth Fyre

“I'm sorry for your loss.” I would rather be tortured for an eternity than hear those damn words from one more person, as if Claire, my dead fiancé, was a cell phone or car keys.

How about, I'm sorry your life is over.

I’m sorry you want to die too.

I’m sorry you see her in your dreams and wake up only to relive the nightmare.

I’m supposed to be the strongest of them all. Ash Abandonato, ruler, assassin, made man, brother, friend—instead, I hurt everyone I touch in hopes that they'll feel even a sliver of the pain that bears down on my shoulders.

I didn’t lose.

It was taken from me.

And it’s all her fault, Annie Smith.

I daydream about her death.

And then I close my eyes, and I see her soft smile. I feel her touch, her kiss—it was a mistake what we did that night, but I can’t take it back, and now she’s under my father's protection—my protection.

My worst enemy.

The woman I’m the most attracted to.

I can’t decide if I want to strangle her or kiss her, and now that she’s stuck in my life, my only goal is to make her feel the same loss I do and destroy her in the process.

I’ll trick her with my touch.

Seduce her with my kiss.

And in the end, when my enemy is at her most vulnerable—I’ll bring down an entire Empire and continue my reign as King.

Bow down, I’ll say as I bring the Five Families to their knees.

Blood in.

Never out.

Damned.

* * * *

A light flickered from the bathroom.

I sighed in relief, then went over and knocked, the door creaked open, and there he was, sitting in the bathtub completely naked.

It was impossible not to notice his perfect physique; even drunk out of his mind, he was beautiful—like a fallen angel that forgot his place was in Heaven—not his own personal hell.

“You know…” He held out a giant knife and thumbed the blade, studying the point as a trickle of blood trailed down his thumb. “Most people do it wrong…”

I froze. “You’re drunk, Ash. Let’s just get you some clothes—”

“Fucking idiots.” His pupils were pinpoints as he looked at me over the blade of the knife. “They cut against the vein forgetting that you’re supposed to cut with it. But there’s other ways, Claire—other ways to join you…”

He was out of his mind. My chest heaved with panic as I weighed my options. He was an expert at killing things, even drunk. I was a college nerd on scholarship who had zero hand-to-hand combat skills.

Let alone against a proven killer.

“Three seconds,” he rasped as he lowered the knife to the inside of his thigh. “Three seconds, and I’ll see you, sweetheart. Three seconds and you’ll be real again, three seconds, and we’ll be a family.” Tears streamed down his face. “That’s all, Claire. That’s all it would take.”

The knife was so dangerously close to his femoral artery that I had no time to call Chase or the ambulance.

No time but to figure out a way to save his life.

No other way.

“Don’t,” I whispered. “Ash, please…don’t.”

“I have to.” He sobbed. “I have to!”

“Please!” I choked on my tears. “Please don’t, Ash, please! Just stay, stay with me, right here, right now—hand me the knife.”

“Three seconds, Claire.”

“Ash, Claire would want you to live.”

“I killed you…” He grabbed the blade with his other hand and squeezed as blood spurted all over the bathtub. “This may as well be your blood. You were my soul, and I spilled it, I spilled it all. I didn’t see, I didn’t—” The knife slipped out of his bloody hand.

I lunged for it and barely grabbed it in time before he did; he was thankfully too slow.

I threw the knife away from us; it clattered against the bathroom floor as I tripped against his legs as they dangled out of the tub.

With a grunt, I fell on top of him.

He held me there.

Bleeding on me.

Sobbing.

His arms came around me. “You’re gone, you’re gone!”

I squeezed my eyes shut as he held me close, and then he was kissing the back of my neck.

“It’s Annie…” I moved away from him. “I’m not Claire—”

“Claire…” He moaned. “Please…”

“Ash,” I said it more firmly that time. “It’s Annie.”

I finally broke free from him, but he was fast; he grabbed me again, this time shoving up from the bathtub and reaching for me, jerking me against his