mango_latte

When Jasmine’s car collides with Antonio’s, she expects nothing more than an accident report and a headache. But from the moment he lays eyes on her, Antonio is captivated—her beauty, her presence, the quiet fire in her eyes. She’s been hurt before, and love is not something she’s searching for. All she wants is peace, warmth, and a place where she feels safe.

But Antonio is not a man who walks away from what he wants. And from the moment he sees her, he knows—he wants her.

HIS ENDEAVORS

Jasmine sat in her small apartment, feeling the weight of the silence once again. It had been a few days since she last saw Antonio, and the uneasy feeling in her chest hadn't gone away. In fact, it had only grown stronger.

Unable to shake her curiosity, she found herself typing Antonio Romano's name into the search bar of her laptop.

She knew he was the CEO of AR Corporation, the largest and most powerful company in the country.

But everything she found about him seemed intentionally vague. There were the usual headlines about his rise to power, his involvement in various charity events, and his unmatched success in business.

But when she tried to dig deeper—into his personal life, his family, anything that might shed some light on the man she'd come to know—everything was blocked.Every website she visited led to dead ends or filled with scam warnings. It was almost as if someone had deliberately scrubbed every trace of him from the internet.

Jasmine frowned. She clicked through more links, but each one led to more frustration. The information she sought was just out of reach, and it made her feel like she was missing something important. The sheer volume of censorship made it clear that Antonio's life was being carefully controlled—and it didn't sit well with her.

But the truth was, Jasmine didn't need to know every detail of Antonio's life to know that his world was dangerous. His ties to the underworld were something she had already sensed, even before she had received that threatening message.

Still, there was something about him that kept drawing her in. He was more than just the mafia boss, more than just the CEO. She had seen the way he looked at her—the softness in his gaze that contradicted everything about the man he presented to the world.

She shut the laptop with a frustrated sigh. Antonio's world wasn't hers, and no matter how much she wanted to understand him, she couldn't. The most important thing now was to stay away from it, to stay out of it all, and keep herself safe.

She couldn't afford to be caught in the middle of his battles, or his rivalries, or his world of power and influence.

Her phone buzzed, pulling her from her thoughts. It was a message from Konrad.

"Stay alert. They're getting closer."

Jasmine stared at the words, her heart dropping into her stomach. The Johnsons were making their move. The danger was no longer theoretical—it was real. And the person who had warned her about it was nowhere to be found.It was up to her to stay ahead of the threat.

chapter thirty