Mafia Wars

You would think that being forced into a loveless marriage to ensure an alliance would be unheard of in this day and age. And in most cases, you would be correct in that assumption. But not for me. A cartel princess has no vote on who she can or cannot marry—much less love. Any decision in my life was forfeited just by being born into the most powerful Mexican cartel there is.

I was sold to my enemies; a deal made to keep the peace, but deals get broken all the time... What did these powerful families have as collateral? Their daughters. A decade earlier, they decided that we were expendable, that we could be sold in marriage to keep their dealings honest. I didn’t matter more than the security I could bring to the marketplace. I was twelve when they decided that, in ten years, I’d belong to the Hernandez family. Everyone knew what was coming for me. Everyone…except me.

I was sold to my enemies. And not just my enemies. I was sold to monsters. I should know all about how to survive monsters, though; I come from a family of them. Surely the Rossi family can’t be as bad as the devil that’s been destroying me since I was eight years old. New York City, the powerful head of the Cosa Nostra, is my new home. Where Lucian, Raphael, and Gabriel Rossi now think they own me. But a dahlia has always bloomed best in the light, and even though everything about this place and these men is shrouded in darkness, I’m determined to thrive…to win.

I was sold to my enemies; the rivalry between the Italians of the Outfit and the Cosa Nostra has been ongoing for decades. Imagine my terror when I find myself, the daughter of the Cosa Nostra's boss, at the bitter end of a raw deal with the heirs of the Outfit. Now I’m a casualty of a so-called ‘peace treaty,’ forced into the calloused, blood-stained hands of the Moretti brothers: Salvatore, Armani, and Fausto.

I was sold to my enemies. The Butchers of the London mob, who run an empire built on sin and greed. The stories I’ve heard about the way they rule their underworld are enough to make my heart race. But those rumors have nothing on the truth. Danny, Church, Frank. The three men who own me now. They made a peace deal with my family, which came at a cost—me. A mafia princess gifted to them as a bride. So here I am in my white dress with a gun to my head and a knife in my garter. The war between our families might have ended with this union, but I’m starting a battle of my own.

The Volkov’s are the nightmares they warned me of as a child, the ones they spoke of in the dark in hushed tones. Traitors and killers—the boogeymen themselves—sent to scare children like me; the children of their enemies. I'm a Kelly. A family that they have been at war with since before I was born. Now, I am to marry into the Bratva Pigs; to become their blushing bride. It's my father's plan, and theirs as well. A marriage to create peace. To unite the families and end the bloodshed once and for all. We are a symbol of hope, of the future, of harmony. I have other ideas.