 by Nichole Rose.jpg)
Total pages in book: 38
Estimated words: 35213 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 176(@200wpm)___ 141(@250wpm)___ 117(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 35213 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 176(@200wpm)___ 141(@250wpm)___ 117(@300wpm)
Gabriel
They say those with the power make the rules.
They lied.
Genesis Santiago refuses to bend to my will.
I know because I’ve tried.
She wants nothing to do with me.
That isn’t going to work for me.
She’s the only thing in this world I need.
One way or another, I’ll make her mine.
Even if I have to break her to claim her.
Genesis
I know what people say about Gabriel Valentino.
He’s not just a billionaire. He’s a criminal.
When he catches me trying to steal from him, I expect a quick death.
Instead, the bossy, arrogant man hires me.
But I won’t bow to any man…
Not even the one who owns my soul.
Not even to save my own life.
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
Chapter One
Gabriel
"Your brothers are worried about you."
It's always fascinating to watch night descend on Chicago. Darkness falls over the city in increments, casting odd distortions as the sun disappears into its cradle. The places standing in the shadows of the high-rises take the plunge first, daylight giving way to night well before the sun sinks below the horizon. Back alleys, nooks, and crannies go dark next, followed by the river and the lake. By the time the last ray winks out, the entire city glows with a distorted, artificial light…none of which guards it against the goddamn chill.
None of which protects it, either.
But we light the city up anyway, surrounding ourselves with halos most of us haven't earned. Shit. Half of us have deluded ourselves into thinking they're real. Just ask the fire-and-brimstone preachers shouting from the pulpits. Half of them prattle on in self-righteous piety, sin behind closed doors, and then think their lip service has secured their place in heaven.
If God is watching, he's probably laughing his ass off.
He turned from me a long time ago.
"Did you hear me, Gabriel? Your brothers are worried about you."
"I heard you, and I'm fine," I tell Mattia Agostino with a sigh. My breath fogs a section of the glass in front of me, distorting part of the city laid out far below. Up here, I'm closer to heaven than almost anyone else in this city…and yet I'll be one of the last motherfuckers allowed through the gates. I have less blood on my hands than most of the men I know, but I may be the most damned of all. "They worry too much."
"Yes, well, I believe that's in the job description," he says wryly. The bastard. "Older brothers and all."
"Rafe and Luca need to spend more time worried about their own shit and less time worried about me and mine." I turn from the windows in my office to look at Mattia, who leans against my desk with his arms crossed, a smirk on his face. He's a smug son of a bitch. He fits the executive office better than I do in his Italian suit, though. In my leather bomber jacket and jeans, I look more like I belong in a mechanic's shop. "I'm least likely to die with a knife in my back."
"Touché."
I shrug. Facts are facts. When you're a Valentino, betrayal and murder come with the territory. It comes often for our family. It started…fuck, I honestly don't know when the death and dying started. When our father's ambitions got our mother killed decades ago, maybe. He moved into territory that didn't belong to him, and she paid the price.
So did Rafe and Nico, my older twin brothers.
One, Nico, has been on a quest to find heaven ever since. The other, Rafe, started his descent into hell. He took two bullets that day. It changed him, hardened him. He was eleven. At eighteen, he sold his soul to our father to save the twin he loved. Luca and I sold ours to guard his back. Nico stopped speaking to all of us, and it's been all downhill from there.
Murder, mayhem, and destruction…our family legacy. It's a goddamn albatross around our necks. But we've carried it too far to cut it loose now. Too many lives are intertwined with ours, too many other legacies.
La Costa Nostra demands everything you have and then a little more. To protect us, Rafe made himself king of kings, the Capo dei capi. If he falls, so do most of the families in Chicago and men like Mattia, those who swore an oath to serve our family.
We may hate the fucking mafia, but we protect our own.
"You spend too much time alone," Mattia says.
So that's what this is about. My brothers are happily married now, and Mattia thinks I should be too. I have bad news for him. It's not fucking happening. There isn't a woman on earth who deserves to be saddled with a motherfucker like me.
I eye him coldly. "Rafe asked you to be his advisor, Mattia. I didn't. You don't get to pry into where I stick my dick." Not that I stick it anywhere. My father hired an escort on my eighteenth birthday. We did X and went clubbing. Spent thousands of his ill-gained dollars. He patted me on the back when I stumbled out of my room two days later, oblivious to the fact that I never touched her.
Back then, I had this grandiose belief that sex should mean something. Now? Well, maybe back then I deserved the pleasure.
Mattia holds up his hands in a placating gesture. "I didn't say it as the consigliere, Gabriel. I said it as your friend." His eyes meet mine. "You called me that once, you know."
"That was a long time ago."
"Before Omertà, you mean."