Devotion Mafia Short Stories & Revenge Novels

For five years, I'd poured every resource my family had into making my fiancé, Julian Vane, a star. Now he was slipping the wedding gown of the century, the one supposedly made to my measurements, onto my best friend, Mia Shaw. The gown that had been digging into my ribs fit Mia perfectly. He looked at me with disgust. "Chloe, you don't deserve my designs." Meanwhile, my family was facing bankruptcy and liquidation. Julian was waiting for me to crawl back and beg him like a kicked dog. Instead, I knocked on the door of Killian Valentine, the most ruthless tyrant on Wall Street. He'd been my family's sworn enemy for ten years. "You hold the Winslow debt. Name your price. What do you want in exchange for leaving my family alone?" "I want you. Take off those dirty clothes and be my wife."

Five years ago, the Franco family threw cash in my face, forced me to break up with their daughter, and ran me out of Blackhaven like a stray dog. Five years later, I came back as the Don of the Raven Syndicate, the most powerful mafia organization in Europe. But the Franco family had already been set up and destroyed, their old stronghold burned to the ground. In an abandoned slaughterhouse, blood ran across the floor. Isaac, the insufferable prince of the rising Leoni family, tilted Marcella Franco's chin up with the toe of his expensive leather shoe. "Franco trash. Kneel and beg me. Be my plaything, and I'll toss you a scrap of food." Marcella's hair was a mess and her clothes had been torn open, but she clutched the Zippo lighter—my lighter—to her chest and refused to give an inch. "Get away. Don't put your filthy hands on what Gian left me." Isaac flew into a rage and slapped her. "You're still mooning over that disowned bastard? "He was blacklisted and cast out years ago. He's probably hauling crates on some dock right now!" He motioned for his thugs to tear off Marcella's clothes. At that instant, an armored Humvee tore the slaughterhouse's iron door off its hinges. I crossed the broken glass, went straight for Isaac, and knocked him off his feet with one punch. "You lay hands on my woman? Who the hell do you think you are?"

One second before the ceremony was set to begin, my groom, Alvin Mercer, suddenly turned and walked out. "Lillian, Hannah's exhibition is falling apart. She's home alone right now and I have to be with her. We'll reschedule the wedding." Hannah Deneuve was the maid's daughter he'd grown up with. I caught him by the cuff. My voice came out flat and cold. "Alvin, this is the sixth time you have called off our wedding for her. If you walk out that door today, you and I are finished." But Alvin flung my hand off. "Enough! We can get married any time. Hannah needs me right now!" He left without looking back, and my heart slowly went cold. The priest clutched his Bible, visibly uncomfortable, and quietly asked me whether the ceremony should continue. I looked past a room full of stunned guests, straight at the man sitting in the corner of the very last row. "Of course. "Just with a different groom."

I was Orion Blake's pampered trophy girlfriend, treasured above everything else. Everyone in his organization thought I had nothing going for me but a pretty face and a killer body. Orion's right-hand woman, Diana Reyes, resented me most. She saw me as nothing more than a useless trophy girlfriend, and she never tried to hide it. No one knew that this supposedly useless trophy girlfriend had someone even more powerful protecting her: my father, Edmund Sorrentino, the mafia Don who ruled the East Coast. But I was sick of the scheming and backstabbing within my family. I wanted no part in another power struggle, so I chose to stay with Orion and remain his pampered trophy girlfriend. That arrangement worked until the gangs that had always operated independently suddenly joined forces against Orion and tried to strip him of control. "Orion, be smart. Swallow your pride, hand over your shipping routes, and give me your woman. Do that, and I'll let you live." The man speaking was Rhys Kessler, Orion's longtime enemy. He looked me up and down, making no effort to hide the naked lust in his eyes. It turned my stomach. Orion ordered his men to take me to safety, but just before I boarded the boat, I insisted on going back to him. Facing a wall of guns, I calmly activated my family's private line and called my father, the Don. "The West Coast keeps tearing itself apart. It's time you stepped in and took control of this mess. "Within 20 minutes, I want them to understand exactly who they've crossed."

The day I came of age, I had to honor the pact: marry a son of the Blackwood family. In my first life, I chose Julian, the man I’d loved for years. But after we were married, he treated me as nothing more than a tool for his pleasure and cheated on me with my adopted sister, Seraphina. They flaunted their affair right in front of me. In the end, they poisoned me, leaving me to die a bitter, hateful death. Reborn, when the Don Blackwood asked who I would choose for the marriage pact, I didn’t hesitate. I pointed to the sickly Damien. This time, I’d let Julian and Seraphina have each other. But this time, Julian was the one filled with regret.