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*

He was right about me running—but I was never going to admit that. Instead, I fixed my gaze on him stubbornly, holding it for a second longer than necessary before turning away to stare out the window. The city lights blurred past in streaks of gold and white, but I barely saw them.


If I had been unsure before about anything remotely sexual between us, that moment erased all doubt.


It had been a mistake to kiss him—an even bigger one to let my judgment become so clouded. I should never have allowed things to get that far, something I now fully intended to rectify. Whatever this was between us, it needed boundaries. Clear ones.


Nico didn't speak after that, and neither did I. The silence in the car was thick, almost suffocating, filled with a thousand thoughts clashing in my mind. Regret. Frustration. Confusion. And something else I refused to name.


Chapter 45 - Red Savant