Carmen Castilo was the only daughter of one of the most powerful mafia dons in the city—until the night her father was shot in front of her.

At his funeral, while the family mourns, Carmen disappears.

Kidnapped from her own home and drugged, she wakes beneath blinding lights in an underground auction where the most powerful criminals in the world gather to bid—not on weapons or territory, but on her.

To them, Carmen isn’t just a woman.

She’s the last piece of her father’s empire.

The final bid reaches a staggering one billion dollars.

The buyer is Nico Romano—the stepbrother she betrayed five years ago.

Once cast out of the family after Carmen accused him of treachery, Nico returns more powerful, more ruthless, and determined to collect the debt he believes she owes him.

Escape is impossible.

Alone, stripped of allies, and trapped under Nico’s control, Carmen is forced to play by his rules—a calculated system of rewards and consequences he calls repayment.

But Nico isn’t the only one playing a game.

While he believes he owns her, Carmen is quietly rebuilding what was stolen from her. Someone murdered her father, and the deeper she digs, the clearer it becomes that his death—and her reason for getting Nico’s exiled—may have been part of the same carefully planned conspiracy.

Surrounded by enemies and secrets, Carmen must reclaim her father’s empire before it falls permanently into the wrong hands.

And the one man who might damn her soul…may also be the only ally powerful enough to help her win.

*Please this is a mafia story. If you’re uncomfortable with blood and killing this is not the story for you*

The realization hit hard—that we had been in the presence of a suicide bomber. One that Nico himself had almost missed. My heart hammered loudly in my chest as I stared at the girl, then at Nico, who knelt in front of her, calmly prying the grenades off her body with careful precision.


She was still alive… but she was better off dead.


And just minutes ago, I had pitied her. Even if only a little.


Fucking stupid, I scolded myself, realizing I had actually believed her lies—about not knowing what it was, about her mother, about being innocent. The difference between Nico and me had never been clearer. In his place, she would have gotten free, stabbed me, and worse—pulled the pin on one of the grenades before she died.


Chapter 30 - Not ready