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*

"Fuck," I muttered under my breath, my hands trembling as I tried to pull the single straps of my gown back up over my arms. How had things gotten this far? I should have stopped it the moment it started, but Nico's hands… they felt like fire tracing over my skin, igniting something I'd never felt before. Something that made me question why I'd ever let anyone else touch me in the way he did.


I fought to look away, but my gaze kept drifting to him. His eyes were dark, intense, locked on me in a way that made me forget everything else. My pulse thundered in my ears, and for a moment, I felt dizzy, unsure if it was desire or fear—or maybe both—that was knocking me off balance.


Chapter 42 - Fuck