His Tesoro: An Arranged Marriage Age Gap Mafia Romance (Empire of Royals Book 1)
His Tesoro: PROLOGUE

The first gunshot rents the air, and the clock starts ticking.

One.

Two.

Three.

Just one bullet, followed by a scream. It echoes through my mind, the horrific soundtrack to my nightmare. Was it a killing shot?

Or did I still have time?

Four.

Five.

Six.

Even in the midst of this memory, all these years later, I can feel the echoes of that bullet vibrating in my very bones.

The knowledge that I am to blame brings more pain than any physical injury ever could.

Seven.

Eight.

Nine.

I see their blood every night in my dreams. It’s my punishment for not seeing it in real life. It’s all too easy to imagine it dripping onto the floor. I’ve spilled enough blood since then to know what it must have looked like, how the metallic tinge of iron would have filled the air.

Ten.

Eleven.

Twelve.

Each second brings death a little closer, and there I stand, frozen. Then, Sienna’s small hand fills mine, and the decision is made.

I pull her with me toward the hidden door at the back of the house.

Thirteen.

Fourteen.

Fifteen.

The second gunshot splits the air.

We barely made it out alive, but the seconds between those two gunshots haunt me. Did I still have time to save one of them? I would never know because I abandoned my parents, our home, my rightful inheritance.

It took two years for me to win it back. Two years of enduring the slow and painful death of Matteo Rossi, son and brother, to rise again as Matteo Rossi, Don of the Italian Mafia, head of the Five Families in New York City.