Don't Mind By Kent Jones

Late one night, a thread blew up and hit the front page of a famous forum deep in New York’s underworld. The original poster had dug up an old prompt: “Name three words that sum up your youth.” Then an account that’d been dormant for years popped up in the replies. Its avatar was a backlit silhouette of a girl in a white dress, username: Seraphina. That was Seraphina Rossi. The Rossi family heiress, the undisputed it girl of New York’s underworld. She typed: Vibrant. Passionate. And Rico Valentino. All hell broke loose in the thread. The wild Valentino’s heir and the breathtaking Rossi heiress had once loved each other hard, only for it all to end in bitter regret. Nearly everyone in New York’s underworld had watched that heartbreak play out. Including me. I turned my head, staring at the man sleeping beside me. This was the man next to me: the once reckless kid who’d ruled the streets of Queens with his bare fists, now the Don of the Valention family. Poised. Unshakable. And he didn’t love me. I’d always known Rico still kept in touch with Seraphina. That he’d met her in secret, more than once. That’s why he’d refused to make our marriage public. His excuse was always the same: “Keeping your identity off the grid keeps our enemies from targeting you.” But I knew I was the one standing between Rico and the woman he’d never stopped loving. If all three of us were just going to keep hurting like this? I’d rather walk away. Let them have each other. I’d made up my mind. I was divorcing Rico.

I’m sorry, it was an accident. I swear it was an accident!” Silver stuttered out in fear. Rodriguez stared at the trembling girl before him, heart torn in two. He’d usually revel in a sight like this, but not today. Instead he simply swiped away her tears. The feeling of her silky skin underneath his rough palms, sent a jolt of electricity through his veins. *** Silver was a waitress at the Blue Phoenix Bar. One night she found a flash drive left behind by some customers. She kept it, in hopes that the men would come back for it. Unaware that she has inadvertently stumbled into a sprawling operation between the top echelons of the Russian Mafia. Rodriguez is known to be the most dangerous man in the world, The Russian Mafia Don. When he discovers that a vital flash drive is missing, he goes into a destructive rage and blames the waitress who took it. He soughts after her life but meeting her alone is enough to change his mind. He decides instead to kidnap her and take away her freedom, making her a slave in his empire. But as it turns out, his slave holds a strong attraction to both his heart and body.

“I’ll keep you safe, Anya. Even if I have to lock you away.” * * Her brother kept her away from the Bratva’s bloody world. But the night he was killed, Anya Vasiliev was thrown into it. Straight into the arms of his best friend, Roman Sokolov. Now the new Pakhan, Roman swears she’s safest with him. But his protection feels like a prison… and his obsession, like chains tightening around her throat. He says he’ll burn Moscow to the ground for her. But will she ever escape the man who swore she’ll belong to him? No matter the cost?

Charlotte Quan, a sheltered and captivating young woman, finds herself at the center of an extraordinary turn of events. As the last female heir of her esteemed family, she has always been protected and shielded from the outside world. However, everything changes when she is unexpectedly persuaded to embark on a business trip with the man who has captivated her heart since childhood. Her crush, a charismatic and enigmatic figure, holds the powerful position of a respected Don in the underworld. Though feared by many, he has always treated Charlotte with a mix of familiarity and tenderness, often referring to her as his "princess." Despite her upbringing in a sheltered environment, Charlotte has always been drawn to his intriguing world. As they venture together on the business trip, Charlotte's senses awaken to a world she has never dreamt of. Surrounded by luxury and danger, she begins to see glimpses of the man beyond the Don—a complex individual with layers of mystery.

The second I opened my eyes, I knew. I was twenty-seven again. Back when I was the Leone heiress. The golden girl of Arezzo. Engaged to the Don of the Grimaldis—Marco Grimaldi. Handsome. Loaded. Time magazine's "No.1 Most Desirable Husband in the World." Even the royal family of Inglane had tried to marry a princess off to him. Everyone called me the luckiest woman alive. Yeah. Right. The first thing I did after coming back? I grabbed the marriage contract and walked straight to my father's affair daughter— the fiancée Marco had actually wanted all along. Bella Leone. I slid the contract across the table. "It's yours. You're marrying Marco." She just stared at me. Six years. That's how long I'd chased him. And now I was handing over the contract like it meant nothing. "Everyone thinks you're the better match anyway," I said. "So go ahead. Convince Dad to get the Grimaldis to switch the contract. You can have the Grimaldi Donna title." Not this time. I'm not becoming that suffocated, invisible Don's wife ever again.

As my due date approached, a massive discrepancy surfaced in the Galante family's arms accounts. The leadership made a swift decision. They sent me, Sophia Vitale, the Don's wife, the woman everyone claimed had nothing better to do, to personally inspect the armory and verify the inventory. I believed it was a routine check. I never imagined my husband's godsister, Monica Leone, would use it as cover to blow up the entire armory. The explosion was deafening. Fire ripped through the sky. Concrete collapsed around me, crushing my body as a searing pain tore through my abdomen. I did not call my husband on his highest-priority private line. Instead, I sent a distress signal to my father. In my previous life, the moment the explosion occurred, I had used that same priority channel to call my husband. The child had survived. Monica had been obliterated in the blast. My husband had claimed he did not blame me. He had said Monica was an outsider and that an heir mattered more. He had spared no expense, hiring elite obstetric specialists to monitor me day and night. He had told me to stay calm and wait for delivery. Then, on the day I went into labor, he personally locked me and the baby inside an abandoned warehouse drenched in gasoline and burned us alive. "If you hadn't deliberately delayed, she wouldn't have died. Do you really think playing the innocent victim could fool me? Dream on," he said. "You like playing with fire so much? Fine. I'll let you experience her despair yourself." When I opened my eyes again, I was back at the armory, at the exact moment of the explosion.

“What do you want from me, Don? I'm your wife.” My voice trembled as the reality of what Alessandro might do to me settled in like a forest fog. “Exactly what I should get knowing how talented your mother was.” He growled, not sounding at all like the man I loved, while he unzipped his dress pants. Sure, I wanted to get laid but not like this. ~~~ To Don Alessandro Moretti, Elena is nothing more than a tool of vengeance. The daughter of the woman who once shattered his father’s empire. But what Alessandro doesn’t know is this: The amnesiac woman he married is no lamb—she's the top assassin and hacker of a phantom organisation. And when her memories return… All hell will break loose.

"Go on Athena," Luciano whispered, sliding a hand around my waist. "Shoot me. This was what you wanted all along wasn't it?" Tears ran down my cheeks. My hands trembled with the gun. He was right. This was what I had wanted. "Athena," He leaned forward, burying his face in my neck, his hands around me tightening. "Shoot already. End this. For both our sakes..." **** When Athena was given the mission to infiltrate Moretti Industries as an undercover agent for the FBI and find information on the Lord of the Mafia, she sees it as the golden opportunity to get her revenge on the man whom she thinks killed her father- Luciano Moretti. Her plan is simple. Entice Luciano until he spills all his secrets to her and then kill him. However, along the line, Athena realizes that she would have to fight, not only against Luciano and his enemies but against her feelings as well. What happens when Athena begins to yearn for her enemy? Will she complete her mission, avenge her father's death or Instead, allow her heart to decide? FB handle - HB Temilorun IG handle - hb_temilo

I met him in a place no sane woman should ever be in Blackgate Prison. As a prison therapist, I was trained to see danger. Every part of me screamed to stay away, but I couldn’t. He was a legend behind bars, Nikolai Sokolov, ruthless, untouchable, the leader of one of Russia’s most feared Mafia syndicates. Darkness clung to him like a second skin. The dim light carved his face into something sharp and dangerous. He looked at me, cold and unreadable, and held me in place with his gaze. “Who are you?” His voice was rough, heavy with threats and scars I couldn’t see. I forced a smile, trying to keep my voice steady. And yet… a part of me felt at home in this danger, a shadow inside I had never admitted, one that hummed quietly at his presence. It was darkness like his, though he couldn’t know it. “I’m Dr. Korovin. I’m here to evaluate you.” The chains rattled as he shifted, a predator testing the limits of his cage. His lips curved, not into a smile, but into a warning. “My name is Nikolai,” he said slowly, deliberately, heavy with threat. “Remember it, Doctor.” I should have been scared. I should have run. But something inside me stirred, something dark, like him, and I didn’t yet understand it.

Everyone said my good looks were what saved me from my family's downfall. It was how I managed to become a Donna. I was the only one who knew why he had to compromise to marry me. Xavier Whitmore, the tall and handsome Don, was unable to have physical relationships with a woman. When I shyly took off the gown on our wedding night, he sat in his chair and lit a cigarette before remarking in an icy voice, "I'm allergic to women. That said, you have my word that you will be the only woman in my life." He kept his promise. Though he never so much as touched me in the five years of our marriage, he provided me with a life of luxury and wealth. Although it was merely a title, being his only woman brought me happiness. Everything changed on the day my men and I were ambushed by a rival mafia family. We barely made it out alive. When I returned home, I found him locked in a tight embrace with his widowed sister-in-law, Alice Ortega. "Alice, I won't let you remarry. If you do, I'll make sure that man dies a thousand deaths." I scoffed. It wasn't so much that he couldn't handle being physical with a woman. It was simply that he could not be physical with anyone but her. In that case, she could have the pleasure of being the Donna.