Chapter One
Alessandra
The call comes at 2:37 a.m.
I wake to the sharp trill of my phone vibrating against my nightstand, the sound splitting the heavy silence of my Chicago apartment. My heart pounds before I even pick up. Calls in the middle of the night never bring good news.
For a second, I consider letting it go to voicemail. But then I see the name flashing on my screen.
Luca Romano. My brother.
A cold weight settles in my chest as I answer. “Luca?”
There’s a pause on the other end, and in that single breath of silence, I already know.
“Alessa…” His voice is hoarse, broken in a way I’ve never heard before. “He’s gone.”
The weight in my chest turns to ice.
I sit up, fingers tightening around my phone. “What do you mean gone?”
Luca inhales sharply, like he’s struggling to keep himself together. “Papà. He was shot outside the club. He didn’t make it.”
The words hit like a bullet to my own chest. My father—Alfonso Romano, head of the Romano crime family, a man who had seemed untouchable—is dead.
I press a trembling hand to my mouth, my vision blurring. “Who?” I whisper.
“We don’t know yet.” A dark, ragged edge lines Luca’s voice. “But we’re going to find out.”
I squeeze my eyes shut, willing myself to breathe. This can’t be real. My father was the king of New York’s underworld. He ruled with an iron fist, commanded fear and respect in equal measure. No one would dare go after him—unless they were prepared for war.
And war is exactly what this means.
“Alessa.” Luca’s voice pulls me back. “You need to come home.”
I shake my head, even though he can’t see me. “No. I—”
“You don’t have a choice.” His tone hardens. “Things are bad. We’re vulnerable. I need you here.”
I left New York five years ago for a reason. To escape the blood, the power plays, the violence that defined our family’s name. I built a life in Chicago—a normal one. But all of that shatters in an instant.
Because no matter how far I ran, I was always a Romano. And now, I have no choice but to go back.
Back to the city that raised me.
Back to the empire my father left behind.
Back to the war waiting in the shadows.
---
