Where the Wicked Reign (Coveted Kingdom #1)

Prologue

~Caterina~

Three Years Ago

I was doing it.

I was making my mark.

Signing on the dotted line today would be the beginning of something spectacular.

The creation of my own empire, my own fucking dynasty, actually.

Something completely independent from my father and all the crazy bullshit that came along with him being at the helm of the Leone Family.

Yes, that nightmare was firmly behind me.

He was firmly behind me.

He’d brought it upon himself when he’d denied me my birthright and made it abundantly clear that I would never be considered his heir, that I’d never be able to take his place as Boss of the Family.

I’d been working non-stop since childhood to prove my smarts, my talent, and my aptitude.

All for nothing.

Just because I didn’t have a dick.

If anything, that should have been an asset, because it meant I didn’t have to think with it. Unlike him with his many whores, those he bedded behind my mother’s back time and time again.

As if she didn’t know.

Bianca Leone was no fool.

Like mother, like daughter.

My silver Manolos clacked on the concrete, echoing around the warehouse—a former steel factory—that the owner had been desperate to get rid of following his retirement after forty years in the business. He wanted to reap the rewards of all that hard work and chill now.

And I wanted to reap the rewards of what was left behind.

Most notably, the perfect space and location to build my nightclub, what was to become the cornerstone of my new empire. I even had the architectural plans drawn up for what it was to become and I had a construction crew waiting in the wings, prepared to start work without any delay.

Speaking of something I hated—delays—both the seller of this place, Mark Ross, and my lawyer were late for this meeting to officially finalize everything.

Rather than meeting in the latter’s office, I’d insisted on meeting here, in order to keep it off certain people’s radars. Once the deal went through, there would be nothing they could do about it. But until things were solidified, I wasn’t taking any chances.

Especially given the fact that Leone Realty had also bid on this place. It was basically the legitimate front of the Leone Family. Well, if you didn’t count the payoffs to certain city officials. According to my intel, my father had intended this bid to be part of a major expansion. So acquiring this place would kill two birds with one stone—getting my empire off the ground and stopping that shitshow from happening. He’d already proven himself unhinged of late after I’d discovered some despicable shit he’d been involved with. The last thing needed was him gaining even more power. It was bad enough as it was—a formidable goliath.

I pulled my phone out from the inner pocket of my turquoise satin blazer, intending to reach out to my lawyer, who was supposed to be bringing the owner in with him, but the distinctive thunder of a Ferrari sounded outside.

It had me tensing because my lawyer drove a Bentley.

I’d barely had time to process that when heavy footsteps drew my attention, coming closer into the building itself.

When they came into view, tensing was the least of it, and adrenaline shot down my spine as I took in the sight of Nico Marchetti and his guard dog, Emilio Bardi, striding toward me.

Normally, coming face-to-face with either of them wouldn’t unnerve me.

Although Nico was a mafia prince, his father the Boss of the notorious Marchetti Syndicate, there was no ill will between our families. Not these days, anyway.

In our home city of Tolhurst, the Leones and the Marchettis, along with the Benzinos co-existed together, the three families each ruling over a piece of the proverbial pie. After a bloodied war a few years back, a truce had been reached and upheld ever since. It was normal—or it had been before I’d gone out on my own independently from the Family—to encounter Nico and his best friend and guard at charity events and functions.

But given that I was no longer part of all of that and the fact that they were walking into this particular building at this given time, and that those I was supposed to meet were late, it really didn’t bode well.

Nico had his usual swagger about him with his every step, exuding that dark charm of his that served him well whenever he had to step into the limelight to keep up legitimate appearances for his family. It served to conceal—for the most part—what really resided beneath. A depraved monster. The slick designer leather jacket that his broad shoulders and muscular form filled out well couldn’t hide the truth from me, though. Neither could those striking deep sapphire eyes of his. Or the interesting combination of both pretty and rugged that he somehow radiated at the same time. His inky black hair brushed the open collar of his crisp, white shirt that was tucked in perfectly to a pair of tailored dress pants. Tattoos of vulture wings wrapping around his throat peeked out from under the shirt. His right hand was inked too with a dragon head, the rest of the tattoo disappearing beneath his shirt and jacket sleeve.

When it came to tattoos, Emilio took the cake, though. A whole lot of ink was visible all over his throat and the top of his chest, covering every inch of his thick arms that were on display in his gray tank. I’d heard rumors that they covered every inch of his body from the neck down, including his dick. That was some hardcore shit. Just like he was. As Nico’s guard and his second, that was par for the course. He had a few inches on Nico’s six-foot height, but a great deal more girth, too. He was a hulk of a man, every inch of him solid muscle. That shocking silver spiky hair of his only served to add to the intimidation factor. As did the fearsome edge he put forth in the unforgiving stare of his espresso eyes that he levied upon anyone within Nico’s vicinity.

Nico gave him a discreet hand signal, and he remained put as the former strode closer to me. “Long time, Caterina.”

A year, at least.

But I didn’t give a fuck about that.

All I cared about was what the hell the two of them were playing at.

“Where’s my lawyer and Mark?”

He lifted a shoulder. “They were intercepted.”

I ground my teeth. “What did you do to them?”

“Do? Nothing. Nothing nefarious anyway. They were merely both offered incentives to accept another bid instead of closing here with you.”

“Devil fuckers,” I muttered.

“Hmm,” Emilio uttered, with a faraway look in his eyes. “Fucking the devil… I’d be up for taking a crack at that.”

“The way I’ve heard it, it would be the other way around.”

He tensed, his eyes narrowing.

Before he could react more than that, Nico tsked at me. “Now, that’s not very nice, especially given the fact that Emilio stepped in during that Rainforest Gala a couple of years back when one of the underwriters followed you into the bathroom.”

Something I’d had handled. But they couldn’t know that. “Merely referencing what I’ve heard. And that was then. This is now. Your interference and underhanded bullshit that’s threatening to upset my business deal here.”

“Not threatening to. It absolutely will.”

“You’re making a mistake,” I warned.

“That’s not really my thing.”

“It’s about to be.”

Emilio whistled. “Damn.” He thumbed Nico. “You sure you want to challenge him? They don’t call him the Beast at the Gates for nothing.”

“Ah, yes, the Beast at the Gates of the Marchetti Syndicate. Nothing and no one gets past him to hurt the Family.” I took a step forward toward the man in question. The monster in question. “But, you know, all beasts can be slain.”

Nico grinned. “You believe you’re up to the task, is that it?”

I glared out at him. “If I need to be.”

He closed the distance between us in a few wide strides.

And then he reacted so quickly, grasping my jaw before I could draw in my next breath.

I fisted my hands down by my sides, knowing I had to endure the indignity for the greater good of my plans.

Plans beyond building my own empire.

Plans that involved a whole lot of destruction.

“Such hubris, principessa,” he spoke, looking me up and down like he usually did, yet in far more up-way-too-close-and-personal detail, his gaze trailing down my closed blazer to my black mini skirt, lingering on my thighs for a while, before taking in my studded knee-high black leather boots.

He clearly wanted to make me squirm. The lust sparking in his eyes couldn’t be genuine. All we’d ever done was butt heads. He hated me, and that feeling was most definitely mutual.

I refused to give him the reaction he desired, gritting out instead, “Don’t call me that.”

“I’ll call you whatever I like,” he rebutted, reaching out and fingering my green tourmaline bar necklace, something given to me as a protection charm and a source of peace. “Levi’s doing, yes?”

I started. How did he know that? How did he know about my close friend, Levi Knight, at all? We’d been very careful to keep our friendship hidden from the outside world.

Despite me pulling away from the Family, I was still watched, and men coming into my life were in particular—a holdover from old, misogynistic customs that my father enforced when he saw fit, when it suited him. So I’d made sure to keep my thing with Levi off his radar as a means to protect him. He didn’t need the bullshit of my world infecting him. He’d had enough darkness from other sources to last him a lifetime.

Not to mention, as the son of tycoon, Roman Knight, and heir to the massive Knightsridge Engineering, whose base was located here in the City of Tolhurst, any move against him risked starting one hell of a war. His father could be just as dangerous as mine when provoked.

There was also another reason I didn’t want my connection to Levi disclosed. It was our mutual passion for what the uninitiated would refer to as hacking. That could not be known—not on my end. It would fuck up my other mission.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

The corner of his mouth turned up. “I see. You barely know him, yes? You only met him once and briefly at that during that failed business deal between his father and yours? When Roman refused to allow him to buy him out of Knightsridge Tower when he’d desired the location to develop with Leone Realty?”

Why was he giving me a way out?

Because he knew he didn’t have solid evidence and he’d just believed the rumors that had stemmed from that one time we had crossed paths publicly during that business deal—something my father had tried to use me to close?

Basically, he’d tried to whore me out to Roman’s second at Knightsridge, but the guy hadn’t been the seedy type, and he’d been happily married. And, honestly, he’d taken pity on me too for being thrust into that position when I’d been only eighteen years old—shortly before I’d gotten the hell out of here for a time and gone off to college.

“That’s right.”

“That’s good that he’s out of the picture. Keep your focus on what you’re trying to build here.” He gestured around the space. “Just not literally here at this factory. That’s off the table, I’m afraid.” He released me with a self-satisfied smirk. “Now run along.”

“The hell I will.”

“He’s being hella diplomatic with you, bellezza ,” Emilio warned me.

I kept my eyes on Nico. “What do you even need this space for? It wouldn’t be conducive to your operations. It’s too far out from your drug routes to be useful as a storage facility. And there are no businesses around for you to extort protection money from either.”

“Our business isn’t your concern. But your business could be Santino’s concern.”

I scoffed. “He wouldn’t care.”

A nasty grin spread over his face. “You don’t think so?”

“I have nothing to do with Leone Family business. I don’t represent the family in any way. What I do has no bearing on him and he’s made sure that’s been well-established to everyone across the three families.”

“Thought you’d embarrass him by going out on your own, huh?” Emilio said. “So he disowned you in the public eye.” He winced. “That’s harsh.”

It was my punishment for wanting to be independent from the Family. He couldn’t understand the fact that there’d been nothing left for me there when he’d dismissed me as his heir. He couldn’t understand that an ambitious and driven young woman had no other choice but to go out on their own.

“It was my price,” I told them. “And, again, none of your business.”

Nico stared at me for a moment, and I thought I saw a glimmer of understanding.

But it was gone like it had never been with his next words. “I could make the entire thing my business if you don’t walk away from this. Especially the fact that you purposely outbid Leone Realty for a piece of land just outside the Entertainment District, because you wanted it for yourself for a part of this new empire of yours that you’re building. You made sure not to do it under your name and you even hid the fact of your ownership in the name that you did bid under. Camlann Corporation?” At my stunned reaction that he’d put the pieces together, he explained, “I know you have a thing for Arthurian legend. Camlann was the site of King Arthur’s final battle where he perished. I’m sure you intended to transfer ownership of whatever you planned to build here too to Camlann Corporation when the time was right.”

“Don’t do this.”

“It’s one thing to separate yourself from him, but a whole other thing to actively hinder his business. I can’t imagine how he’ll take to that, or what obstacles he’ll put in the way of your business aspirations, what favors he’ll call in to sabotage you.”

“Don’t threaten me with this, of all things.” He would not like the outcome.

“The threat’s already laid down, Caterina. We could have done this nicely, but you clearly don’t like nice, do you?”

“You know nothing.”

“I know a lot more than you think.”

“You piece of shit.”

Emilio stepped forward at my disrespect to his best friend and Capo, but Nico held up his hand, willing him to be still.

Then Nico stepped up to me again, making me tense as he leaned in, his hot breath fanning over the side of my neck, that minty scent of his cologne enveloping me. Damn him. “Keep that fire, tough girl,” he whispered in haunting words at my ear. “You’ll need it.”

With that, he stepped back and demanded, “Do we have a deal?”

I gritted my teeth. “Fine. I’ll stand down. The place is yours.”

“Smart decision.” He turned away then and threw up his hand behind him as he strolled back to Emilio. “Nice doing business with you, Caterina.”

I growled low in my throat and watched the two of them walk out.

“This isn’t over,” I hissed under my breath.

In fact, it was just the beginning.

They really shouldn’t have crossed me.

A red haze plagued my vision.

Not mere anger, or even rage.

It was beyond even that.

The thirst for blood.

My hands shook with the need to deliver pain and punishment.

My blood heated at the promise of the satisfaction that it would bring.

Tonight would mark the moment that they all learned I wasn’t someone to trifle with, that I could give back as good as I got.

That I was no pushover, not a victim of anyone’s designs.

I stared out at Il Forno across the street.

It was one of the only restaurants that the Marchetti Syndicate actually operated. All the rest they were involved with were businesses that they extorted. They being Nico and his soldiers in this area of the city, as this was considered his territory to manage.

As for this restaurant in particular, it was actually owned by them and it was where Nico was known to take his dates. As per orders, those dates were socialites and It-Girls handpicked by his father as a means to maintain Nico Marchetti’s most-eligible young bachelor image. The facade that people in the city either really believed, or kidded themselves into believing for fear of reprisals from the Marchetti Syndicate if they didn’t. It made me sick that they were essentially marketing him as a legitimate individual when he was anything but. He really was a monster. The things he’d done… they were beyond fucked up. And what made it worse was that he enjoyed it. I’d witnessed that for myself once. One twisted night when I’d happened upon something that I shouldn’t have.

Little did he know that he wasn’t the only monster.

Sometimes you had to fight fire with fire.

Just like I was about to do now.

I looked through the floor-to-ceiling restaurant windows, spotting Nico sitting at a booth in the far corner with a blonde beauty in a pink mini-dress with a stunning Prada clutch on the booth beside her. Nico was dressed to the nines in a black pinstripe Armani suit.

I was going to stick out like a sore thumb in my turquoise leather jacket and black jeans ensemble. I was usually a stickler for dressing to impress, knowing how to put together an impeccable outfit for any given occasion, known for my sophistication. But tonight wasn’t about sophistication. In fact, it was about to be a far cry from it.

The rest of the place was empty tonight to give him privacy for his date.

Well, with one exception.

His guard dog.

Emilio was there all the way over by the bar. He was always with him, joined at the hip.

No matter.

I’d just circumvent him.

All I needed was a head start anyway, to make my point. Pun definitely intended.

I made sure to double back a few blocks, then I crossed the street out of the view of my targets and ducked into the back alley, heading for the rear entrance.

I was very aware of the blinking red light of a surveillance camera over the metal door as I strode toward it. I blew it a kiss, then brought out my pick set, picking the lock in record time.

I hauled the door open, then stormed inside, picking up my pace quickly, bursting through the storage area and passing the kitchen to my left wherein two employees were facing away from me as they stood at the ready should their guest of honor choose to order anything else.

I saw Emilio notice me as I strode out onto the restaurant floor right near Nico’s booth.

But it was too late.

I was already upon my target.

I passed by the girl, ignoring her, and just as Nico looked up, his flirty expression turning to one of surprise and confusion, I snatched up the steak knife resting on his plate and stabbed it through the back of his hand, plunging it so deep that it drove into the table below.

Chaos erupted in an instant as he jolted and grunted.

I’d been going for screams of pain, but I only got that from his date, who jumped up shrieking and stumbling unsteadily out of the booth.

Emilio’s footsteps thundered down the gangway toward us.

“Get her out of here,” Nico ground out to Emilio just before he reached me, gesturing with his good right hand at the girl. “Call her a car, then get back in here and cut the surveillance feed and wipe the data of the last five minutes.”

Emilio looked between Nico and his fucked-up, bloodied hand, unsure.

So I wasn’t the only one surprised that he’d barely reacted to that brutal stabbing?

“Now,” Nico told him.

As soon as Emilio started ushering the girl out, Nico ripped the knife from his hand and tossed it across the restaurant floor. “I knew you were pissed, but this is another level.”

“The punishment fits the crime and you know it.”

“Doing this on my own territory… you wanted to humiliate me, too. Pain wasn’t enough for you, was it?”

“Now we’re even,” I muttered, and turned to go.

I didn’t get in two steps, before he snagged my arm, then dragged me into the men’s bathroom just around the corner, kicking the door shut, then hauling me up against the wall, crowding me against it with his big, hard body.

“You’re playing with raging flames, Caterina.” He slapped his good hand to the wall right beside my head.

When I didn’t react and failed to fake a worried reaction too—shit—he smirked. “But you already knew that. You want the fire, don’t you? You want to feel the burn.”

I wasn’t prepared to hear what he was suggesting, to accept that it could be the case. Beyond this night. Far beyond this night, actually. Doing that, accepting it, would be like cementing that path for myself. It felt like if I did that, there’d be no going back.

“No,” I forced out.

“Hmm, not ready to admit it yet.”

“You don’t know—”

My words were cut off as he suddenly brought his bloodied hand up and wiped it all over my cheeks, my lips, down my throat and to the tops of my breasts, even brushing the bust of my white tank.

I sucked in a harsh breath at the shock of it.

And something else.

Something wholly unsettling.

Heat speared me—in places that it shouldn’t have.

And as he leaned in, no doubt to growl more provocative words at me, I grasped his nape and jerked him down to me.

The moment our mouths clashed, it further ignited what he’d just stoked in me, and then I was digging my nails into his skin, certainly hard enough to draw blood.

A low, threatening growl came from him, and then he was grabbing my thigh with his good hand and hooking it around his hip, opening me up so he could grind his cock between my legs, his very hard cock rubbing against my pussy through our clothes in an insanely rough and aggressive way.

Sparks of pleasure shot through me, colliding with the heat and intensity, making me chase it and grind right back against him.

He slicked his tongue over my lips, then pushed it into my mouth, and I tasted his blood, the coppery tang assaulting my tastebuds.

It should have been repulsive.

It should have been nothing but unquestionably fucked up.

And so incredibly wrong.

Especially because it was him.

Because it was us.

But it was anything but. It just took things to another realm of intensity entirely.

The whole thing was depraved beyond belief.

The kiss was hard and punishing.

The aggression was another level and seemed destined to reach dangerous heights that would no doubt tear my whole world down.

All of that slamming up against a whole lot of repressed passion unleashed threatened to consume me.

The feel of all that hard muscle surrounding me, his big cock rubbing up against me with him angled in the perfect way had shudders of need wracking my body, that alluring minty scent of his, the heat from his skin… and just how fucking good it felt… the whole thing threatened to have me succumbing entirely—in a way I could never come back from.

When he pulled back slightly so we could catch our breath, the twisted spell that had gripped me started to break.

Enough for at least some of my good sense to come through.

He nipped my ear and growled, “Don’t deny your true nature. That would be a tragedy.”

Oh my God. What had I done? What had I just given into within me too?

This was… this was a nightmare brought to life.

It was beyond dangerous.

And not just with Nico Marchetti being a part of the equation.

As if that wasn’t already bad enough.

I’d screwed up.

I’d allowed him to get under my skin in a way I shouldn’t be allowing anyone, especially not right now while I was embarking on building my own empire.

I couldn’t… I couldn’t allow it.

That was why, as he shifted his weight, easing off me just enough for me to suck in an unencumbered breath, I thrust my knee up right between his thick, muscular thighs.

He grunted and fell back, clutching himself.

That was all I saw before I pushed away and made a break for the door.

A creepy, dark laugh echoed through the room as I staggered away, my limbs shaky from that heady and insane turn of events.

Growled words sounded then, sending a shudder down my spine, “This means war, principessa.”