 by Nichole Rose.jpg)
Total pages in book: 59
Estimated words: 54092 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 270(@200wpm)___ 216(@250wpm)___ 180(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 54092 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 270(@200wpm)___ 216(@250wpm)___ 180(@300wpm)
Rafe Valentino
A life in chains was the deal I made with my father to win my twin's freedom.
My soul is black with the things I've done to keep my promise.
I never regretted any of it until now. Until her.
Amalia Santiago's bravado and fierce defiance make me feel alive in a way I never expected.
I was never meant to fall for her.
I don't deserve to put my filthy hands all over her pristine body.
She's supposed to be my prisoner.
But now, she'll become my world instead.
Amalia Santiago
When the devil came for my foster brother, I let him take me in his place.
I swore I'd find a way out of this mess for both of us.
Except Rafe Valentino wasn't supposed to have a heart...
And I wasn't supposed to fall for the ruthless crime boss.
So why do I come alive when he touches me?
Now, I'm one wrong move from destroying everything.
And nothing is what it seems.
How do I sacrifice the man I love to save my brother?
If you enjoy OTT possessive older men with a little bit of darkness in them and sassy, curvy heroines with heart, get ready to fall for Rafe and Amalia in this sweet and extra steamy romance. Each book in the Ruined Trilogy features a different Valentino brother and can be read as a standalone story.
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Prologue
Amalia
The quiet scratching on my bedroom door brings me fully awake. My heart thuds against my breastbone, jarring my senses. For a moment, I think I dreamed the noise. And then I hear the bone-chilling sound again.
This is no dream.
Someone is inside my apartment.
I slip my shaking hand between my bed and my nightstand, feeling for the small bat I keep hidden there. As a woman alone in Chicago, one can never be too careful. I learned that lesson early. My foster brother, Diego Butera, made sure I did. He and my foster father, Alvise, drilled it into my head before I even learned my multiplication tables.
My hand closes around the handle of the bat. I grit my teeth, holding my breath when the cool wood jostles against the metal bedframe. If whoever is trying to get into my room hears the faint noise, they don't sound the alarm.
I send up a prayer, hoping that means there's only one intruder.
The scratching comes again.
I carefully pull the bat up onto the bed with me and then sit upright. I move slowly, trying to keep whoever is out there from hearing me. If they know I'm awake, I lose the element of surprise, and it's the only thing I've got on my side right now.
Whoever they are, they're not trying to get into my bedroom for the fun of it. If they wanted to rob me, they could have taken my stuff and left already. No, that's not what they're here for.
Did they find out who I am? No. How could they? I haven't been her since I was ten years old.
Diego.
What did you do, Diego?
I love my brother. He's the only family I have since Alvise died when I was a teenager. But Diego is…complicated. He's been playing both sides of the law for so long, I'm no longer sure if he knows which side he's actually on. He clawed his way out of the streets, only to fall right back into them as soon as the ink dried on his law degree. Isn't that usually how it goes in places like this?
You can take the boy out of the streets, but you can't take the streets out of the boy. Especially when La Cosa Nostra is involved. They may play a more sophisticated game, but at the end of the day, they're a gang just like the rest. Blood in, blood out. That's how the saying goes, isn't it?
He was never really out anyway. Not entirely. This world calls to him just like it did his biological father. The mafia is in his blood. He’ll never be free. Not so long as the man who killed his father still breathes. He wants vengeance too badly.
Diego's been working toward that goal for as long as I've known him. Every step he takes moves him a little bit closer. He'll succeed…or he'll die trying. There is no changing his mind. I know because I've tried. He wants vengeance. And I want out so badly I can taste it.
But I won't leave him here alone. I can't.
I creep from the bed, tiptoeing across the plush carpet with the bat clutched firmly in my hands. I place my feet carefully, my eyes picking out a path across my room in the moonlight trickling in from the windows. It's not much light, barely enough to turn my furniture into thick, shadowy blotches in the dark. But I've walked this same stretch of carpeting often enough to wear it thin, trying to outpace the night.
The doorknob rattles, turning slowly.
I scurry the last few feet, cursing myself for not wearing something more than a worn camisole and shorts to bed tonight. Fighting off an intruder with the bottom of my curvy ass hanging out isn't appealing. And the chill in the air turned my nipples to hard points as soon as I threw the covers back. The last thing I need is for some random, disgusting pervert to mistake that for interest.
I'm sure whichever lawyer is assigned to defend him would have a field day with that in court.
Dios. It's a sad day when you find yourself hoping whoever is trying to break into your room is a random pervert like any of the fifty who live in this building. But any one of them is better than the alternative. I stand a chance with them.
If Diego pushed one of his associates too far and they found out about me, I'm already dead. The long lost principessa whose father murdered the Capo dei capi's mother? Well, there's a reason I haven't been her since I was ten years old. Alvise and Diego knew exactly what would happen to me if anyone ever found out who I really am.
I hide behind the door, lifting the bat like I'm Roberto Clemente standing at home plate. I keep my body angled, and my feet planted like Diego taught me. My heart beats so loudly, I'm a little afraid it's going to give away my position. I hold my breath as the door creaks open.