excelloveday9

Elena Romano thought she had left the criminal underworld behind. But when a deadly ambush forces her back into the life she swore to forget, she finds herself entangled with Luca DeLuca, the cold, calculating heir to a powerful mafia family.

Their uneasy alliance is built on survival—both hunted by an unknown enemy who seems to know their every move. As danger closes in, old betrayals resurface, secrets unravel, and the undeniable tension between them ignites into something just as dangerous as the world they live in.

But when the enemy reveals himself, Elena comes face to face with a past she thought was buried—a ghost she never expected to see again.

Now, the real game begins. And in a world where power is everything, trusting the wrong person could be deadly.

Blood and Drawn Desire

Elena barely slept that night. Every time she closed her eyes, she saw Riccardo Bianchi's stare—calculating, cold, and far too familiar.

By morning, she had convinced herself it was nothing. Maybe he had just been curious, or maybe he was looking for a weakness in Luca's organization. She was the outsider, after all.

But when she stepped into the dining room for breakfast, her heart stuttered.

Luca sat at the head of the long wooden table, sipping his coffee like it was any other morning. Matteo stood nearby, phone in hand, his usual serious expression in place.

And sitting across from Luca—calm as ever—was Riccardo Bianchi.

Luca didn't look at her right away, but Riccardo did. A slow smirk pulled at his lips as he studied her.

"Elena," Luca said smoothly, finally acknowledging her. "Come sit."

Every instinct screamed at her to turn around and leave, but she forced herself forward, keeping her expression neutral as she slid into the chair beside Luca.

The tension in the air was suffocating.

"Elena," Riccardo repeated, his voice like silk laced with poison. "Now that's a name I haven't heard in years."

Her pulse spiked. Years? What did he mean?

Luca's grip on his coffee cup tightened, but his face remained unreadable. "You knew each other?"

Riccardo's smirk widened. "Not personally. But I knew her family."

She hadn't spoken about them since she was a child. Since the night her entire world burned to the ground.

"Funny," Riccardo mused, swirling his glass of dark liquor at this early hour. "I always wondered what happened to the little girl who vanished after the Mendoza Massacre."

Elena's breath caught. The room tilted.

She barely heard Matteo curse under his breath. Barely saw the way Luca's expression darkened with something lethal.

That was a name Elena hadn't dared to say in over a decade.

Her past—one she thought she had buried—was no longer a secret.

And from the way Luca was staring at her now, sharp and unreadable…

She wasn't sure if that made her more dangerous to him or more valuable.

A marked Woman