PROLOGUEThere are some people you should never fall in love with.Your best friend's brother.Your teacher.Your best friend's ex.Your brother's best friend.Especially when that best friend happens to be the person who would probably bury you alive if he ever found out.Unfortunately for me, I had never been very good at following rules.It started years ago.Back when Adrian Cole was just the annoyingly handsome college boy who always showed up at our house with my brother.Back when I was young enough to believe that having a crush on him was harmless.I thought it would disappear.It didn't.If anything, it got worse.And now I was eighteen, standing at the beginning of my final year of high school, with a secret I'd carried for years.I was in love with my brother's best friend.And Adrian?He still called me Mia in that effortless way that made my stomach twist.He still ruffled my hair whenever he saw me.He still teased me.He still looked at me like I was Ethan's little sister.At least, that's what I thought.Until that summer night.Until the moment Adrian looked across the room at me and didn't look away.For the first time, there was something different in his eyes.Something I couldn't explain.Something I probably shouldn't have noticed.And that was the moment I realized my biggest problem wasn't that I was in love with Adrian Cole.It was that maybe...He was starting to feel the same way.And if my brother ever found out—We were both screwed.

Sophia Romano's life falls apart the day her father dies.His business is bankrupt, his secrets are buried with him, and the only thing he leaves his daughter is a mysterious note with two words:Go to Luca Moretti.Sophia has no idea who Luca Moretti really is.She only knows that he is powerful, dangerously influential, and surrounded by men who never seem to smile. But when she arrives at his estate searching for answers, Luca tells her something far more terrifying than she expected.Her father's death wasn't the end of his problems.It was the beginning of hers.Someone is hunting Sophia.And Luca insists that his estate is the only place where she can be safe.Sophia doesn't trust him. She doesn't want his protection, his rules, or the secrets he refuses to explain.But when danger finds her anyway, she begins to realize that the cold, intimidating man she's been trying to keep at a distance may be the only person standing between her and the people who want her dead.As Sophia settles into Luca's world, she discovers a softer side of the man everyone fears. Beneath the ruthless exterior is someone who makes her laugh, listens when she speaks, and looks at her like she's something worth protecting at any cost.But Luca Moretti has secrets of his own.And Sophia's father's past is connected to a world she never knew existed—a world of power, blood, loyalty, and old grudges.The closer Sophia gets to Luca, the harder it becomes to tell where protection ends and something far more dangerous begins.Because falling for Luca Moretti was never supposed to be part of the plan.And in his world, love has always come with a price.

When Sofia Romano's father dies, he leaves behind only a cryptic note:Go to Dante Moretti.Sofia expects answers.Instead, she finds herself standing in the home of Italy's most feared mafia boss.Dante Moretti is cold, powerful, and dangerous, the kind of man people lower their eyes around. He claims he's honoring an old promise made to her father, but the more time Sofia spends under his protection, the more she realizes he's hiding secrets of his own.Someone is hunting her.Someone believes she possesses information that could destroy one of the most powerful mafia families in Italy.And Dante is willing to do anything to keep her alive.As enemies close in and secrets unravel, Sofia must decide whether the man everyone fears is her greatest danger...Or her only chance of survival.

"In the shadow of the Rome, where the gods once walked among mortals, a creature stirred. For centuries, he had lived, feasting on the blood of the living, his heart long dead. Yet, as he gazed upon the moonlit city, a spark within him flickered to life. For in the streets below, a woman walked, her footsteps echoing through the night, her presence calling to him like a siren's song. And he, Theodoros, the ancient one, felt the weight of his immortal years bearing down upon him, for he knew that he would stop at nothing to claim her as his own."