Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Newsletter and Social Media Links
LOGAN (Steele Protectors 1)
ATTICUS (Steele Protectors 2)
BRYCE (Steele Protectors 3)
ROURKE (Steele Protectors 4)
HADYN (Steele Protectors 5)
LUCAN (Steele Protectors 6)
About the Author
Other books by Carole Mortimer
Copyright © 2020 Carole Mortimer
Cover Design Copyright © Glass Slipper WebDesign
Editor: Linda Ingmanson
Formatting: Glass Slipper WebDesign
ISBN: 978-1-910597-85-9
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
All Rights Reserved.
My husband, Peter
Chapter One
Matteo, head of the Zalotti Mafia in London, looked with cold and pitiless eyes at the broken and bound man kneeling on the blood-spattered concrete floor just inches in front of his own highly polished black leather Italian shoes.
The man Matteo now knew had, nine years ago, ordered Matteo’s parents gunned down in the street as they left a London restaurant. At the time, Matteo’s father, Marco, had been head of the city’s Mafia. That title had passed on to Matteo, then aged twenty-six, with the man now at his feet as, he had believed, his trusted second.
Within weeks, this man had blackmailed Matteo with threats to the life of Matteo’s much younger sister, Bella, and reduced Matteo to being only the puppet head of the London Mafia. All so that this man might rule the organization behind the scenes, with brutality, violence, and death for those who did not instantly obey.
And he had done it all in Matteo’s name.
That had all ended three days ago, when Bella’s lover, Bryce Steele, having discovered the truth of the situation, had stormed the Zalotti estate, capturing the man all the Zalotti family had once trusted with their lives, along with the men who had stood beside him for nine years. It had been done with the help of the Russian bratva, specifically Nikolai Volkov, second to Gregori Markovic and the head of the Russian’s security, and also a close friend of Bella’s fiancé.
Retribution for the death of Matteo’s parents, the threats against Bella, and the past nine years of merciless rule, was now for Matteo to decide.
“If you are waiting for me to beg for my life, then you will be waiting a long time,” the older man now sneered. His face was battered and bleeding, making him no longer recognizable as the suave and handsome man he had once been.
Matteo continued to look at him dispassionately. “We both know that begging would not change the outcome of what must be done.”
“I’m to die.”
“Yes.” Matteo turned to the two men standing back against the walls. There was a third man, younger, standing guard beside the heavy metal door into and out of this cell-like room. “Finish it, and then burn and dispose of the body.”
“You will never be even half the man your father or grandfather were!” the man on his knees taunted.
Matteo’s gaze swept over him contemptuously. “As long as I can be twice the man you’ve ever been, I’ll be satisfied.”
His captor snorted. “Leonardo Brunelli will never allow you back into the close circle of the famiglia.”
Matteo’s lips curved into a mocking smile. “Another thing you’re wrong about, because Leon is coming over from New York next Friday to discuss a new alliance between us and the Markovic bratva.”
He had no intention of telling the bleeding man that another reason for Leon’s visit was to discuss announcing Matteo’s engagement to Leon’s only daughter, Natalia. A move that would unite the New York and London families in a way they had never been before.
He glanced again at the two silent men responsible for carrying out the systematic beating of their prisoner over the past three days. Luca and Antonio had once been the bodyguards of Matteo’s sister, but they had been dismissed from his employ nine years ago by Matteo’s blackmailer. After helping to depose that blackmailer, they had then begged to be the ones to interrogate and break the man who had ordered the killing of Marco and Sofia Zalotti.
Matteo’s mouth thinned. “Do it quickly, and then destroy all evidence from the face of the earth that this man ever existed.”
Luca grinned. “It will be our pleasure, boss.”
Matteo gave the kneeling man one last contemptuous glance before turning away. He nodded to the young man standing beside the door, Antonio’s son, Stefano, now also in Matteo’s employ, for him to open the door so that Matteo could step into the hallway.
The heavy metal door closed behind him, completely shutting out the last screams of the dying man.
Chapter Two
“Going to come out for a drink with all of us after work this evening?”
Grace glanced up from where she was taking children’s books out of a box and putting them in alphabetical order ready for putting out on the shelves. “Not tonight.” She gave Carla an apologetic smile.
The other woman pouted. A tall, leggy brunette, her beautiful dark brown eyes evidence of her Italian heritage. “You never join us.”
She shrugged. “I don’t drink alcohol.”
“You could have a soda or something instead,” Carla encouraged.
Grace had had this same conversation, or varying shades of it, with her half dozen work colleagues since she took over as manager of the bookstore eighteen months ago. Her answer was always the same. “I always do my food shopping for the week on Friday evenings.” She also considered it ill-advised to become too socially involved with the people she worked with, even though she had grown to genuinely like Carla, her deputy manager. Plus she really didn’t enjoy going out drinking in the evenings. Or any time.
Carla grinned. “A rigid routine makes for a dull girl.”
“I am a dull girl.” Grace chuckled. “I live alone with only my cat, Mr. Darcy, for company. I work in a bookstore. My hobbies are reading—obviously!” She looked
