Chapter 1

I spent the night partying naked with three models.

The next morning, Katerina, the Godmother, shoved a gun into my hand, her face a storm cloud.

"Come back to me, or kill me."

But I just smiled and shot her in the leg.

"I won't kill you, but I won't forgive you either."

Her eyes scarlet, she collapsed onto the ground, watching as the models and I walked away.

All because for ten years, as her right-hand man, I'd helped her seize territory, only for her to choose to marry some college boy instead of keeping her promise to marry me.

My crew couldn't wrap their heads around it, all of them outraged on my behalf.

"Sean Murphy fought by your side to build this empire, he was your most effective weapon. Weren't you always proudest of him? Why are you marrying someone else now?"

Katerina snuffed out her cigarette, absently tracing the matching silver ring she wore with Lucas.

"Sean? A man whose hands are stained with blood. Every time I think of sharing a bed with him, it makes me sick. How could he ever compare to my darling Lucas?"

"But Sean is incredibly shrewd. What if he finds out and breaks ties with you?"

Katerina frowned, scoffing. "The entire East Coast is mine now. What's one man? Do you think the territory will just disappear without him?"

Little did she know, I'd heard every word from just outside the door.

Tossing the healing salve I'd meant to give her into the trash, I immediately messaged Veronica, her sworn enemy.

"Want Katerina's territory? And her life? They're yours!"