Sold to the Mafia king

His eyes returned to me—slow, assessing. Then, without warning, his hands shot up and clamped around my throat. I gasped, instinctively clawing at his arms. He didn’t move. “Disobey me again,” he said, voice low, stripped of warmth, “and we won’t be counting next time.” Even shaking, I lifted my chin. “Then don’t mistake silence for obedience,” I said hoarsely. Carlino’s voice followed—calm, absolute, as if nothing had happened. “Lock her floor tonight.” That was when it settled. There was no mercy here. No exaggeration. Every word, every threat—he meant them. He wasn’t pretending to be the devil. He simply didn’t bother hiding it. *** She hates him. He refuses to let himself want her. Lina Gray never thought love would betray her. Until the man she trusted, traded her life to pay his debts. Delivered into the hands of Carlino Lacentra, the Mafia king whose name ends conversations. Lina is stripped of choice and crowned Donna to secure a throne she never asked for. In his world, power is law, loyalty is currency, and a woman beside the king is never just a woman.