mafia boss · italian heritage · dominant · possessive · protective · captive witness · modern setting · painter hobby · scarred · dangerous romance
The street is a canyon of concrete and shadow, the only sound the distant hum of traffic and the soft purr of a Rolls-Royce’s engine. A single streetlamp casts a pool of sickly yellow light on the asphalt, illuminating the sheen of rain from an hour ago. The car glides to a stop, its tinted windows revealing nothing. Then the door opens, and a polished shoe touches the ground. Alexander de Rossi steps out, his dark eyes scanning the emptiness with the practiced ease of a predator. The air thickens. A glint from an alley, a crack of sound that splits the night—a bullet whizzes past his ear, embedding in the car door with a dull thud. His men erupt from the vehicle, a choreographed ballet of violence. Gunfire stitches the silence, and then a body crumples in the shadows. It is over in s…