11 Minutes Paulo Coelho

“Tell me what you want from me.” * * * | Athena Hendrix | The Spades are the second highest ranking mafia. As daughter of the mafia's leader, Athena Hendrix is nothing less than the most skilled in the mafia. She is usually sent on solo or duo missions, her father knowing she doesn't need anyone else. | Callum H. Rivers | The youngest man to ever take over a mafia, let alone the highest ranking mafia. As leader of The Skulls, Callum H. Rivers is brutal and ruthless. With his nickname "Hades," this man kills anyone who gets in his way. | The Spades Vs. The Skulls | As two of the highest ranking mafias, these rivals reek of nothing but hatred for each other. They are enemies; nothing more, nothing less. What happens when these two meet? * * * TW: mentions of violence, self-harm, etc.

My fiancé, Luca, dragged me along to a party with his crew. We had barely walked through the door before his boys were hounding him to play "Seven Minutes in Heaven." "Angelina, babe, come join us!" Fiona, Luca’s "best friend" from back home, called out to me with a smirk. I shook my head and slipped onto a barstool, my fingers nervously tracing the rim of my glass. I watched them huddle in a circle, drawing cigar bands with names scribbled on them. Luca drew Fiona. They shared a laugh before disappearing into the storage room behind the bar. "Seven minutes! Starting... now!" someone hollered, followed by a chorus of whistles. But seven minutes came and went. The door stayed shut. Ten minutes. Fifteen. Twenty... I finally stood up, my heart hammering against my ribs, ready to see what was going on. Just then, I heard Luca’s friends whispering in a thick Sicilian dialect. "This American guy... her head is greener than a lemon tree in Palermo and she doesn’t even know it." "I bet Luca and Fiona are having the time of their lives in there right now." "Poor Boston girl. Look at her, sitting there like a loyal little dog. Hilarious." I froze. My blood turned to ice, and the air felt too thin to breathe. Suddenly, the storage room door creaked open. Luca walked out, wiping sweat from his brow, followed closely by Fiona, who was busy smoothing out her rumpled shirt. "Whoa, how was it? Seven minutes in heaven live up to the hype?" someone teased. Luca smirked, his eyes glazed with satisfaction. "Better. I didn't want to leave."

In university, it was common to play games and spice up the school life. But at work? Oh hell no! Reigna Amethyst was a typical office worker, not until she found her boyfriend cheating with her older sister. And, with a little twist, her heartbroken self was picked up by a cute kid who led her to her boss, the cold and detached CEO of XCC corp., Carlisle Amoroso. "I have to keep an eye on you." intimidatingly, he closed their distance, a gleam of malice and threat evident in his piercing green orbs. "Speak about my son and you'll regret it your entire life." To keep his secret to the world, along with the newfound spark of entertainment by messing with the innocent Reigna, Carlisle made themselves a player of the game '7 minutes in heaven' to have all sorts of reason to keep her close. "Secretaries don't do this, sir..." flustered, she sat on his lap with hesitancy in her flushed face. Can her gentle heart keep up with the lust incarnate himself? And oh...what if there's another twist? Carlisle's ex, the birth mother, returns?

In the dead of this frozen apocalypse, the shelter's fusion core was on the verge of overload. I grabbed my repair kit and sprinted for the basement, only to have the guard captain's girlfriend, Miranda Dunn, step right into my path. "Everyone, come look! Zach’s about to dump poison into the vents. He's gonna kill us all!" Her voice cut through the air as she shrieked. "I didn’t approve a private room for him two days ago, and now, he wants us all dead!" The guards didn't bother asking questions. They slammed me hard against the freezing metal door. "Zach, are you going to kill us all over a room? We're taking you in for interrogation!" I stared at the control panel, its readings spiking into the red, and shouted, "If the core blows up, none of us will make it out alive!" But they were too busy trying to impress Miranda and brushed off my warning, thinking I had lost it. Nineteen minutes remained before the core exploded.

It was meant to be the happiest night of Layla’s life—her birthday, the moment she officially stepped into adulthood. Instead, she walked into a crowded nightclub and watched her boyfriend laugh, drink, and kiss another girl while the world looked on. Humiliation followed swiftly. Dragged into a cruel game of Truth or Dare, Layla became the night’s entertainment. When the bottle landed on her, the challenge sounded harmless enough: seven minutes in heaven with a man of her choice. Everyone expected her to choose him. She didn’t. Her gaze went to the man watching silently from the shadows—his uncle. The one man she was never supposed to want, yet couldn’t look away from. Seven minutes was all it took to spark something forbidden. Something dark. Something that refused to stay contained. When the night ended, nothing returned to normal. He became her obsession and most dangerous temptation. And Layla found herself willing to risk everything—family, reputation, even her own heart—for a man she was never meant to desire. This is a story of betrayal, passion, and the pull of a love that should never exist. Once caught in it, there is no turning back.

16 year old Scarlet Paine struggles to understand what’s happening to her, as she wakes and realizes she’s becoming a vampire. Alienated from her parents and her friends, the only person she has left to turn to is Sage, the mysterious boy who has quickly become the love of her life. Yet Sage, whose house she finds boarded up, is nowhere to be found. <br><br>Scarlet, alone in the world, with nowhere left to turn, seeks out her friends and tries to reconcile with them. All seems to be patched up when they invite her to join them on a trip to an abandoned island in the Hudson—but as things get out of hand and Scarlet’s true powers are revealed, who her friends and enemies are becomes more confusing than ever. <br><br>Blake, still interested in her, tries to make amends. He seems sincere, and Scarlet is confused as she has to grapple with whether to be with Blake or to wait for Sage, who is nowhere to be found. <br><br>When Scarlet finally finds Sage, they have the most romantic time of her life; yet it is tinged with tragedy, as Sage is dying, with but a few days left to live. <br><br>Kyle, meanwhile, turned into the only other vampire left in the world, is on a murderous rampage, seeking Scarlet; Caitlin and Caleb consult with Aiden, and they each embark on different missions—Caleb to stop and kill Kyle, and Caitlin, to the famed Yale University library, to research the ancient relic rumored to both cure and kill vampires for all time. <br><br>It is a race against time, and it may be too late. Scarlet is changing rapidly, barely able to control what she’s becoming, and Sage is dying with each passing moment. As the book culminates in an action-packed, shocking twist, Scarlet will be left with a monumental choice—one that will change the world forever. Will Scarlet make the ultimate sacrifice to save Sage’s life? Will she risk everything she has for love?