Owned by the Irish Mafia Boss
I was forced to marry the monster I hated
Cade Burns, the most ruthless mafia boss in the city
And my brother’s best friend…
Chapter 1
Aria Ruso
I glanced around at the attendees of my father’s funeral, and my heart ached at the dozens of people surrounding us. Despite the large attendance, out of all the people who stood in the room, I knew that only a handful of them cared about his death. I’d managed to control my tears as waves of people came and offered their condolences, and to my surprise, my brother hadn’t cried at all. I supposed I still thought of him as my older teenage brother—the one who was more sensitive than even me. In the past decade, I could count on one hand the number of genuine conversations we’d had that didn’t include dinner table small talk.
He didn’t seem fazed by our father’s demise in the slightest, and he’d been the one working at his side for the past few years.
Somehow, though, it didn’t surprise me. I didn’t think anything Matteo did could surprise me anymore. And frankly, I couldn’t care less about the way Matteo reacted. Not while we shook everyone’s hands. Not as four of the most powerful New York mafia leaders came through the funeral procession, offering us condolences, and especially not as I sat and waited for the pastor to call me up for my speech.
When I was finally called up to the podium, I strode toward it confidently, but the nerves inside of me showed anything but confidence. I stopped and adjusted the microphone. “Hi,” I said, clearing my throat. “I’m Aria, Alessandro’s daughter. I know most of you don’t recognize me, and that’s okay. We’re not here to talk about me. We’re here to talk about him.”
I glanced at the notecards I had before me, but I slid them away, deciding that the planned speech I’d orchestrated didn’t feel right for this moment.
“Most of you knew him as Mr. Ruso, but I am fortunate to have been able to call him Dad during my life here. He is an inspiration, leading me down the path of compassion and justice. If any of you knew him well, you’d know that his biggest ideology was justice. He believed that people deserved to get what they put into the world, and our family lived by that for as long as I could remember. This death may have been unexpected, but I’d like to think that those responsible will get the justice they deserve.”
The sour taste that had been hibernating at the back of my throat returned, and the reminder of what had happened to him resurfaced. His life abruptly ended. And it occurred because of our biggest enemy.
My biggest enemy
I took a deep breath and controlled myself, and the rage I couldn’t help but feel at his loss.
“But justice isn’t why we’re here today. Today we’re here to celebrate the life and legacy of my father. We’re here to celebrate all the good things he did for this world. His title may be deceptive,” I said, looking around. I wouldn’t say it aloud, but everyone here knew that I spoke of his job title in the Italian mafia. Boss. “But he took many people from the streets and gave them purpose. He pushed me in the direction of becoming a nurse, and with that push, I’ve saved hundreds of lives. Alessandro Ruso spent his entire life defending and protecting his people, and everyone here experienced that side of him. He was an exceptional man and leader, and his son has a lot to live up to in order to continue his legacy.”
I glanced at my brother and paused, finding that he didn’t seem at all affected by my speech. Why did I care about his approval so much when he’d made it clear that he didn’t care about me? If I were the one in this coffin, I couldn’t even be sure he’d be here.
“I’ll end this by reminding you of what he stood for. Justice, protection, and strength. Hold your loved ones extra close and hope that the legacy he created can be defended despite his loss. I may have lost him physically, but I’ll never lose all the lessons he taught me, and I hope none of you do either.”
I nodded, everyone clapped, and I returned to my seat. If I had said what I had on my notecards, the speech would have gone in an entirely different direction. I’d included a story of him teaching me to ride a bike and kissing my scraped knee when I wrecked for the first time. I would have talked about the way he taught me to hunt when I was in first grade. I would have spoken of the three weeks I’d had with him here before he’d died—the three weeks between leaving my ICU nursing job in Seattle, Washington, and moving back to New York only to watch him die.
The years of ICU experience I had did nothing to save my father when he’d been so brutally harmed by Cade Burns, the leader of the Irish mob.
It made it worse knowing that Cade hadn’t even been the one to take the shot. He just ordered it to be done.
The funeral came to an uneventful end, and everyone began moving out of the room, some people stopping at the doors to have a conversation. It felt surreal that people could converse as if my father wasn’t lying dead in front of them and as if nothing tragic had happened.
I needed a second away.
I turned away from the closed casket and moved toward the back corner of the room, where I hoped to have a few minutes of alone time. I’d sat there for long minutes in the middle of the calling hours to catch my breath and compose myself before returning, but this time as I turned the corner, I found Matteo standing there, leaning against the wall.
“Oh, sorry,” I said, turning to walk away.
“No, stay,” he demanded, and I stopped in my tracks. It was time we had a conversation, especially after all of this happened, but I didn’t get the feeling he was interested—not in discussing what needed to be discussed most. He hadn’t been interested in talking to me for years. Not since I was thirteen years old, and I betrayed his trust.
I took a small step toward him.
“We have some things we need to talk about,” he said.
“A lot of things,” I amended.
“I’m the new boss of this territory and these people,” he told me. “The Colombo boss told me today that the Commission approved my request, so it’s official.”
I had no idea where this was going. The Commission always approved things like this, so it came as no surprise. “We knew it would be. You’re his older son, and you’ve been shadowing him for years. You’d be the best at it, and they’d be fools not to know it.”
He shook his head. “I don’t need your compliments,” he said, and I closed my mouth immediately.
“Matteo, I’m sorry about everything that happened between us when I was a kid. I know you’re still hurt about it, and I don’t know how to make it better anymore. I—”
“I don’t want to hear your apologies, Aria. It’s too late for that,” he said, his voice rising slightly as he whipped his entire body toward me. I wanted to argue that I’d apologized every time it had been brought up for years. There were so many things that needed to be said. “You told Dad about my friendship with Cade. Yeah, he k*11ed my dog, but you have no idea how he made me pay every day since then. I’ve never lived down that friendship, and it’s time you help me end that chapter in my life.”
I had no idea what he meant by “end that chapter,” but I knew that even though I felt bad about ruining his friendship when he’d barely been an adult, I wouldn’t do it any differently. Cade hadn’t only been a threat to my father, but he’d been a threat to me. He constantly took it upon himself to do something to pester me. He’d left a dead snake in my bed. He’d put a stink bomb in my bookbag. But it had been the day he’d cornered me and acted interested in me—the day he’d leaned in to kiss me and laughed in my face—that I was done. And when I discovered later that he’d used it as a distraction to poison my dog, I had to tell my Dad.
I didn’t have a choice. I had to either tell the truth or lose my precious dog, and I wouldn’t defend him after all he’d done.
As the son of an Irish mob boss, Cade was off limits to Matteo, and when my father learned of their friendship, he’d ended it.
He’d learned of it because of me, and Matteo had never forgiven me. I’d thought it had been because, in a fit of rage, Dad had k*11ed the same dog that he’d gotten him two months before. It had been a fitting punishment, but still horrible and cruel. Now, I wondered if that hadn’t been the full extent of his punishment.
“What did he do to you?” I asked.
“What you should be asking is how you can make it better.”
I bit my lip and took a deep breath, nodding slowly. If I could mend our relationship, I’d do anything. I just wanted my brother back. “What do you need me to do?”
He didn’t hesitate. “I need you to marry Cade.”
I coughed, choking on my own saliva as the surprise of his demand chilled me. “I can’t marry him. He’s the enemy. He just k*11ed our father.”
“He’s wanted an alliance since he took his father’s role as boss, and we’re going to give it to him. You’re the only bargaining key I have to ensure this goes smoothly, and I expect you to play your role.”
I shook my head. “I can’t,” I told him. “This—this is asking too much.”
He stuck out and grabbed my arm, flipping it over roughly and showing me the brand that still appeared fresh. I’d taken it the day I’d come back, and the scabs had just recently faded, leaving angry red burns that still needed a few more weeks to heal. “Do you see this brand?” he asked. “This means that I own you, and I decide where you go and how you can best help our family keep power in this f**cked up world. This is how.”
I never thought he’d ask something like this from me. Cade was cruel as a child, and I didn’t even want to imagine how he’d refined his cruelty over the years.
“Do you not want my forgiveness?”
“At this price?”
He scoffed and shoved my arm back toward me. “You have two options. You either do this, or you die a traitor to this family. If our father had asked something like this from you, you would have done it out of respect. Do you not respect me?”
“Of course, I do—”
“Then agree.”
I took a deep breath. This could easily be the end of my life as I knew it. Marrying someone like Cade Burns would destroy me, but if it didn’t and if I managed to get away with enough of myself intact, everything would change. Everything would be better if my brother trusted me, and we could live a life as friends rather than feuding siblings.
Could I really become the wife of the person who k*11ed my father? The person who humiliated and tortured me as a child? Could I overlook everything and believe that this would make it easier for us in the long run?
I had to if I ever hoped to earn my brother’s respect, and it was all I’d wanted for so long that I couldn’t imagine telling him no. “Okay,” I whispered, nodding and holding my branded wrist to my chest. “I’ll do it.” I hoped I wasn’t selling my soul by doing this, but if it meant mending things between my brother and me, I’d do it.
Chapter 2
Cade Burns
I took a risk, and I had to believe it would pay off. People didn’t survive long in this line of business without taking risks, and I’d put off taking the most important one for years. I’d put off attacking Alessandro because of the loyalty I’d felt for Matteo Ruso, but his father had taken our rivalry too far, and I had to reciprocate.
I’d been in my office, going over all the potential movements of the Ruso family in retaliation. Sergeant Carter Burns, my cousin, best friend, and underboss spent just as much time as I had in my office, going over all the possibilities. There were too many of them to count, and as the third day passed, I began losing hope that the outcome of this would be beneficial to us.
But there hadn’t been a choice. He could threaten us in small ways, but this attack had been personal. He’d taken it beyond what we could accept. The f**ck1ng Ruso family had taken jabs at us for years, trying to detect weaknesses in our ranks. They’d k*11ed our soldiers, and I’d allowed it to go unpunished for too long.
I imagined we’d have until after the funeral to prepare for the Rusos’ counter-attack, but a mere three hours after the funeral, my phone rang. Serg sat on the other side of my desk, feet propped up on the surface, and I glanced at him before answering the unknown number. He leaned forward, and I put the call on speaker, hoping above all odds that this wasn’t a notification about the attack that I anticipated.
“What?”
“Cade? Is that you?” the person on the other end of the line asked.
I recognized the voice, though it had certainly matured in the years since we’d been friends. The voice on the other end of the line was the reason I hadn’t launched an attack on the Rusos up until now. He was the reason I’d kept a cool head through all of this.
“Matteo, I didn’t expect a call from you,” I said, meeting Serg’s glance. Matteo. The new and undisputed boss of one of the five Italian mafia families in New York. With his father’s death, he’d inherited the title, and I’d hoped that with his father out of the picture, our people would be on better terms.
It had been a calculated risk that I hoped had paid off.
“You k*11ed my father,” he commented coolly.
I took a deep breath. “I sent someone to k*11 him,” I clarified. “But it had to be done. He’s launched attacks on my family for years, and I gave him leeway for too long out of respect for you. I couldn’t continue losing family and friends to targeted attacks without any form of retaliation. I’d hoped you would understand that.”
I didn’t mention the years of friendship he’d thrown down the drain for the sake of his father and his rules. I didn’t even bother bringing up that old friendship that I’d continued honoring for years.
“I appreciate that you waited so long before doing what needed to be done,” he said. Serg narrowed his eyes and shook his head. His jaw ticked as the words registered. “Now that he’s gone, things are going to be different on my end, and I want one of those differences to be an alliance with you.”
An alliance. I’d hoped for a general understanding among us—a vow to leave one another’s people to do business as usual without interference. I had attacks on too many fronts, and I couldn’t be in dispute with the closest mafia boss to us. The other four Italian families didn’t respect our position here, but they were far enough that we could remain separate.
The Rusos had always been the primary threat.
“What do you propose to cement the alliance?” I asked. “We have nothing to offer to you.”
“You do have something to offer,” he told me. “You can marry my sister, and it will cement the alliance between us.”
I froze, gaping at the phone as I remembered the young thirteen-year-old girl who had always been more of a nuisance than anything else. I recalled all the ways I’d f**cked with her, and I remembered the day that Matteo told me how she’d snitched on him. She’d been the reason for our lost friendship and all that had happened since then. Aria, I recalled. She was ten years younger.
She would be only twenty-five years old if my calculations were correct.
“She’s the one who burned the bridge between us, and she’s agreed to help mend it. With my sister as a new bridge between us, I believe we can accomplish a lot of great things together. If you agree, it will be the start of something unstoppable.”
My job was my entire life, and aside from f**ck1ng women when work became too stressful, I had no interest in marrying anyone. And even through marriage, there wasn’t anything stopping me from sleeping with other women discreetly. We wouldn’t be married in spirit. Just in name.
And I’d finally have a chance to get revenge for all the shit she’d caused.
“Okay,” I told him. “When do you want to meet?”
Serg reached forward and put the phone on mute. “We have to be careful. You just k*11ed his father, and I wouldn’t put it past him to plan an attack on us. He may be speaking of an alliance, but it wouldn’t be the first time something like this went south. A head for a head is their biggest motto, so we have to be careful about how we do this.”
Simultaneously, Matteo spoke on the other end of the line. “The sooner we get this taken care of, the better. We have too many people on my end hungry for revenge, and we need to have this taken care of before someone decides to act out.”
I processed all the words from Matteo and Serg, both making good points, before unmuting the line. “I can clear my schedule at your earliest convenience.” I muted the phone again. “Serg, we will have five tactical teams ready and on guard outside the venue. Four of them will be in civies, and the other will be in full tactical gear.”
“We need to get this done right now,” he said. “Secure this alliance before anyone gets wind of it occurring.”
“I agree.”
“We can meet at my house—”
“A neutral location. I’m not going in somewhere blind. I respect that we used to be friends, but this situation is too delicate to trust you after what your family has done to mine.” His end went silent for a moment. “You attacked us just the same,” he retorted.