Prologue
Mario
There were three reasons that would get you killed by the hands of your own family—the family you were supposed to put above all else, and all others. The family you swore an oath to. The family that swore that same oath to you.
Family.
Loyalty.
It’s what our lives revolved around.
It was instilled in us.
Tattooed into our skin with our own blood.
Remain loyal. You were protected.
Abide by the rules. You were protected.
Break one. You were a dead man.
You could try running, prolonging the inevitable, but death would always be knocking on your door. It was a knock that came from the hand of a family member. That same someone you’d once trusted with your life was being forced to take it from you…or they’d be joining you six feet under.
There was no escaping.
The only way out was a coffin.
Three rules.
They were simple.
You didn’t disobey an order. You didn’t betray your family. And you didn’t touch a made man’s girl.
Sitting in the back seat of the black sedan between two men, headed to my pending execution, I knew what I was guilty of, what had, most likely, landed me in my current predicament. I just didn’t know if they knew why they’d been ordered to kill me.
It didn’t matter. One mistake was all it took. I was fucked. There was no way out. I knew it the moment I heard the pounding of their fists on my apartment door in the middle of the fucking night. Unexpected, yet expected. It was only a matter of time before the shit I’d gotten myself into caught up to me.
