Dante Pov

“I didn’t come to the club to kill anyone. But plans change.

My name is Dante Moretti. I run New York—the docks, the casinos, the streets that never sleep. I didn’t ask for this life. It was handed to me the night my father was gunned down in front of our house. I was twelve. I’ve been cleaning blood ever since.

The man sitting across from me has been my most trusted dealer for years. Tonight, I found out he had been selling to the Russians behind my back. He knew I knew. I could see it in his eyes.

“Boss, I can explain—“

“You can explain,” I said leaning back in the booth while he bled out.

“Continue beating him,” I told one of my men. “Pass me the gun”, I said to Alex, one of my closest guys.

“Open your mouth!” I yelled at the traitor.”

I placed the gun inside his mouth and pulled the trigger.

“Handle his body,” I told my men.

I turned to leave——and stopped.

A woman stood frozen in the VIP corridor. Young. Wide eyes. She’d seen everything.

Our eyes met.

She ran.

“Alex” I said, my voice flat, “Get her.”

***

Elena’s Pov

“I hated the mirror in the dressing room. It showed me exactly who I was——and exactly who I wasn’t.

Scarlet stared back at me. Red lips. Dark eyes. A lace bodysuit that left nothing to the imagination. She was beautiful. She was confident. She was everything I wasn’t.

I was Elena Hayes. A small-town girl who left home at eighteen because her parents said no. No to college. No to New York. No to the business degree I’d been dreaming about since I was twelve. So i packed my bag, took a bus, and never looked back.

After getting dressed, I moved to the stage and I started dancing. I hated the way these men stared at me. But I had no choice anyway. I couldn’t wait for this night to end so I could go home.

“So I took a break. I grabbed my phone from the locker and checked my messages while walking to the back to get some fresh air. There was a text from my friend Lisa about a group project. Then a text popped up from my landlady—— my rent was due. I was so exhausted. I needed to go home.

My shift ended, went back to the dressing room,changed, and packed my bag. Heading toward the back exit, I took the VIP corridor——the shortcut we dancers use.

I was five steps from the door when I heard a voice, a thud. A man begging.

I froze and turned to look. A man was on his knees, bleeding. Another man had a gun in his mouth.

All of a sudden, he pulled the trigger.

Blood. Silence.

My heart pounded. My breath caught. I couldn’t move.

Then my eyes met with his.

I ran immediately, not looking back. I heard footsteps behind me, I didn’t see the hand that grabbed me. I only felt it——cold,hard,final.

And then the world went blank.