RIA SMIRNOV I was born into a legacy dominated by men who saw being female as a weakness, even though I have the brains and the balls to rise straight to the top. All I needed was a chance to prove myself to my father, the formidable head of the family. My opportunity comes when I meet King, the son of my father's greatest rival and one of the world's most powerful and ruthless Italian mob bosses. All I have to do is deliver King to my father and earn the respect and place in his hierarchy that I've always craved. King is within my grasp; the only problem is that I don't want to let him go. As the lines between duty and desire blur, I know that keeping King may be the biggest mistake of my life. How can I risk so much for a man whose assignment was to kill me? How can I ignore the devastation his family has caused mine just because he rebelled against his father for me? King may not want my blood on his hands, but how can I be sure he won't remember where his loyalty lies and deliver me to someone who would revel in it? I'm caught in a dangerous game of loyalty, betrayal, and unexpected passion with my greatest enemy, and I must decide how far I'm willing to go to rewrite the rules of the game I'm not even playing in. Do I follow my heart, or will my ambition lead to my downfall? The only thing I know for sure is that I will carve my own path, and live with the consequences. KING MEDICI I have one assignment from my father: kill the daughter of the head of the Russian mafia in retaliation for my brother. An eye for an eye is how we handle things in our world. Though once I lay my eyes on Ria Smirnov, I decide she's too pretty to kill, at least not until after I've had a little fun with her. From the moment we meet in a dark alley on a tiny Italian island, I fall into the role of protecting Ria, especially after I find out that she's not even a part of our dirty world. My decision not to kill her was because she was innocent, and then because I craved her too much. Then I had to protect her because my father was a monster. With the threat of war on the horizon, I didn't have much time to deny how I felt about Ria, and to decide if she was worth losing everyone I loved.