PROLOGUE
Draven Esposito didn’t want to be here. He wasn’t interested in looking for a wife, or to help anyone out. When The Boss ordered him to make an appearance, he had no choice but to do what he’d been told. So here he was, sitting in a strip club, an exclusive one, for a one-time event.
He knew what tonight was all about. A young woman named Maria.
He picked up his glass of scotch and took a sip. Her family could no longer be called. She now had no last name, as anyone with that last name was banished, or put six feet under. The decisions that Maria’s father made had put her in a rather tough position, but from what The Boss had told him, Maria had stopped the deaths of several capos, as well as the big man himself. If it hadn’t been for Maria, her father’s plot to take over the mafia would have succeeded.
It was the only reason Maria was given this chance. She had to be taken and married tonight. There was no second chance. No other night. If none of the men in this room wanted her, she was going to have a bullet put through her head.
The choices were not great.
Draven was here as a potential bidder. He didn’t want a woman. The only women he was interested in were the ones that left when he finished with them. He had no interest in having a wife, especially one so young. She was only twenty-one years old.
When he asked why this Maria was so young and unmarried, The Boss had told him she was a curvy woman and not considered quite as beautiful as her older sister. Only, the older sister had been very keen on becoming her father’s puppet, so she was dead, along with Maria’s older brother.
There was no one left. Just Maria.
He’d not seen a picture of her. According to The Boss, he had seen her in person a few times, but Draven couldn’t recall at first who she was.
Glancing around the strip club, he saw thirty men waiting. Not all of them were capos. Some were soldiers, and there were associates as well. Did The Boss not believe someone was going to buy her?
He finished off his scotch, and just as he had, the lights went down and the stage lit up.
Draven turned his attention to the stage as an older woman, the one who ran the strip club, dragged the younger woman up the stage. The moment he saw her, Draven recognized her, but he knew instantly why she’d not been married off. Most men within the mafia didn’t appreciate a woman with thick curves, and this woman, even beneath the oversized t-shirt and pants, was fuller than most women within their circles.
He’d tried to forget the woman he’d seen, only from a short distance at parties, a few months ago. In their world, he knew there was no chance of him ever being able to have the woman he wanted. Now, he couldn't
look away.
She let out a scream as the older woman suddenly tore the clothes right off her body, leaving her standing there in nothing more than a pair of panties and a bra.
Her blonde hair covered her face, but that didn’t last for long as the older woman grabbed it in her fist and revealed Maria to him.
Draven did recognize her.
It was a party he’d gone to over six months ago at her parents’ house. Maria had been there, dressed all in black, looking like she wanted the walls to swallow her whole. Where most of the men in their world wanted a slim woman, Draven wanted the opposite. He liked his women curvy. There was nothing appealing about a woman whimpering because he was too big, too strong, and she couldn’t take all of him.
Staring at her now, he wanted her.
Even though Maria had come to The Boss to save him and the capos, in extracting and saving her, they hadn’t been kind. He saw the bruise lining the left side of her face. All the mottled bruises that covered that beautiful face. He wasn’t impressed. In fact, he was mightily pissed off.
She’d done what she could to save The Boss and the family, and yet here she was, after being abused and treated like dirt, being sold to anyone who would take her. There was no money being exchanged. Someone had to be willing to marry her, to give her a new name.
Her humiliation wasn’t over because as Draven watched, not a single man put his hand up. Not one.
Maria didn’t shed a single tear, but he watched, and he sensed this air of acceptance. She had known she wasn’t going to be taken. There had been no choice in the matter. Watching her now, he had a feeling she wanted death rather than this. He didn’t want to be intrigued by this woman, and yet as she stood there, staring out into the club, he saw this acceptance, almost like she was at peace with the decision of dying.
Seconds passed. And as the woman was about to drag her from the stage, Draven
had enough.
“I’ll take her,” Draven said.
He didn’t expect anyone to fight him for the right to her, so he unbuttoned his suit jacket and made his way to the stage.
Draven wrapped his jacket around her, hiding what his future wife was going to be giving him as a gift.
The Boss had already told him Maria was a virgin. That would be the gift she gave to any husband. There were times he hated the world in which he lived.
CHAPTER ONE
Maria wasn’t going to die. She couldn’t quite believe it. It didn’t seem real to her.
The Boss had told her exactly what was going to happen, and she didn’t think she would be claimed. All her life, she’d been told how ugly she was, how fat and disgusting. Why would anyone want her? Her parents had always told her they were deeply ashamed of her, how they never wanted anything to do with her. She hated them.
When she learned what they were planning, at first she had panicked. She didn’t know what to do, or who to go to. They were planning to take over the mafia family, to kill The Boss, and they even had a list of capos they planned to eliminate.
Maria had seen all those details. She wasn’t meant to see any of it, but they fucked up. Thankfully, she had spent most of her life pretending to be dumb so they’d leave her alone. Fat, ugly, and dumb. No one had the time of day for her.
So, being ignored became a blessing. They only put up with her when there were social gatherings, and they could no longer pretend she wasn’t part of their family. Once she realized what she was doing, she snuck into her father’s office, found all the details, and that night, she had no choice but to go and find The Boss.
Doing so put her life at risk, but she couldn’t allow her father and mother to do what they wished. They were cruel, horrible people. Even though the mafia family was no better, she knew there was also mercy, there was order, and to kill The Boss and allow them to take over would have meant death to a lot of people. Her mother was the jealous type, and she’d order the kill of any woman she deemed a rival for her spot.
There was a lot of damage her family could do, which was why she went to The Boss and revealed their plans. She had no choice but to take proof, ...
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