Dirty Hearts
A Bad Bod Mafia Romance
Khardine Gray
Contents
Dirty Hearts
Prologue
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
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Untitled
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Epilogue
Dirty Hearts
From USA Today Bestselling author Khardine Gray comes a sexy, delightfully devilish, seductive second chance Mafia Romance. Be prepared to take a walk on the dark side.
Claudius
Rule #1 of being mafia boss- Trust no one.
Rule # 2- Keep your friends and enemies damn close. In the underground world, friends and enemies could be the same thing.
My story started out with a guy who liked a girl.
She looked like an angel to him.
I was the guy, Ava the angel.
But I got caught in a game I didn’t want to play.
A game with the devil that destroyed me.
My life turned into this world where I got married to her twin sister and Ava hated me.
The situation became my weakness when my enemies used it against me, and killed my wife.
Ava could have died too so I stayed away from her.
It was safer that way.
Year in, year out I tell myself the same thing, and I stay away.
But, the universe had other ideas, and threw her right back in my path.
I can’t have her.
An angel like her doesn’t belong in the darkness of my world.
I know this, except, I’m selfish.
I should leave her alone, but I can’t.
The problem is …history is repeating itself, and there’s an enemy in my circle.
It’s the same game as before and this time losing could get her killed.
Ava
Avoid him…
That was the most sensible thing to do.
Besides, Claudius wasn’t any old guy.
He was the don of the Chicago mafia.
Ten years ago, when I’d first met him, I knew the man was trouble, but I didn’t listen.
He’d made me love’s fool and broke my heart in so many ways when he married my sister.
That was a lesson to learn.
So, what was I doing running back into the arms of a man I shouldn’t be with?
We were like darkness and light.
Different. Too different.
Coincidence reunited us, but my heart did the rest.
My heart blinded me to sense and logic, and stifled the voice inside that told me to run away.
My heart made me selfish...
I wanted him for myself.
I knew I shouldn’t be with him, but I couldn’t leave him alone.
That very thing could be my downfall.
This isn’t like any other second chance romance you’ve read before…
If you loved Lucian Morientz from Mafia Boss, you’re gonna love his brother, Claudius.
Dirty Hearts is a complete standalone, full length novel, with no cliff hanger and part of the Gangsters and Dolls series.
The Gangsters and Dolls series is a spin off from The Accidental Mafia Queen series. Continue the adventure with these sizzling hot, drool-worthy Alpha males.
Meet the Chicago Familia in this Mafia Romance series by USA Today bestselling author, Khardine Gray!
The Accidental Mafia Queen
1.Mafia Boss
2.Mafia Scars
3.Mafia Love
Gangsters and Dolls
1.Dirty Hearts
2.Stolen Kisses- Coming soon
3.Remember when we – Coming soon
4.Double Edged Hearts- Coming soon
5.The Sting of love - Coming soon
Prologue
Claudius
&
Ava
Claudius
I usually did what I wanted. As I damn well pleased, never caring what people thought.
After all, I was Claudius Morientz, now the new leader of the Chicago Mafia.
Proud owner of everything. A billion-dollar fortune inherited from the great Raphael Rossi. I got the business and everything that came with it.
Money and power.
Yes, I had it all.
I had everything… Except the girl.
This day was always bad. It always felt the same no matter how much time passed.
This day always got to me. It got to me because it was a yearly reminder of what I’d lost, and what I couldn’t have.
I stood in the bell tower of the church overlooking the grave site. My wife’s grave site. My wife, Marissa.
Kneeling next to the grave was Ava. Her twin sister.
And like every other year, I did the same thing.
Cemetery first thing in the morning. Then stay in the shadows of the bell tower watching Ava and her family mourn.
Stay in the shadows watching Ava spend those last few moments with her sister after her parents left. Allowing and respecting her time to be alone with the one person who’d shared everything with her.
I must have been a hundred feet away, but I could see the sadness in her. I could feel it. I could almost touch it. Sadness and confusion. Sadness for her loss and confusion over what had really happened.
What had happened to us.
Mine was a story that I was certain would confuse the shit out of a lot of people.
It confused me sometimes. One thing was certain though. My feelings for her had never changed.
The sun was low, and the place had that feel about it. That feeling of anticipation.
Ava stood up and looked around. I knew she could sense me. It was almost like magic. There was a time when I’d look at her and I didn’t have to say anything. She’d know what I was thinking. She was the only woman to truly tame the beast in me.
The only woman to reach that place in my soul and make me want to try to be anything other than I was. The standard mobster who was ruthless to the bone.
It was happening now. The lure of her. It grew stronger the more she looked around.
* * *
Ava
I was sure he was here. I could feel him.
Claudius.
He’d always leave a single white rose on Marissa’s grave. Always before anybody else came. Ma and Pa would bring dahlias. I’d bring lilies. The pink Calla lilies Marissa had loved so much.
The minute I saw the rose, I knew he’d been here, and I knew he still was. My parents and I got here an hour ago. Like always, I’d asked for time alone. Time to grieve and talk to my sister. But admittedly, I wanted this time to feel him too.
I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want that. I’d be lying to myself if I didn’t accept the truth of the matter.
His presence was so strong, he could have been standing before me.
And there was the confliction that would always fill my soul.
What wa
s I supposed to think after the last time?
What was I supposed to feel?
Nothing?
It was simple. I knew the answer was simple. I needed to forget. That was it. Forget.
A person couldn’t keep living in the past. Worse when all the memories were just figments of what my heart wanted.
Forget everything and move on. Not just from four years ago when Claudius and I had last seen each other.
It needed to be the whole thing. The whole damn thing from start to finish.
Us, before him and Marissa.
Forget it like it never happened.
I needed to forget him. It was making me feel like a hypocrite.
How was I supposed to grieve for my sister and at the same time fight the inner turmoil that roiled within me for her husband?
It sounded like a colossal mess.
One damn mess that no one could really fix. I looked around for him, and my stupid heart betrayed me as I thought of last time.
* * *
Last time was a mistake. I shouldn’t have…
I just shouldn’t have gone there again with her, but I did. I didn’t regret it. I just hated that I fell prey to my selfishness. It made the situation so much worse and confusing.
More confusing for her.
More painful for me.
I didn’t know how I stayed away for so long, but it was for the best. It was torture to see her, torture to be with her, torture to think that we could be more than we were right now.
She should hate me.
She should at the very least hate me because it was my fault her sister died. Everyone could tell me I shouldn’t blame myself, but it was my fault.
Four years ago, I was selfish. I changed things up and made the situation messier than it already was. I needed to stay away from her.
* * *
I hated what happened, and I should hate him for crushing my heart.
But mostly, I wished he wouldn’t stay away.
“Claudius… why do you still do this to me?” I whispered against the cool breeze that rustled through the willow trees. It lifted the ends of my hair, pushing the white blonde strands to the black velvet sleeves of my dress.
I looked ahead to the old bell tower on the top of the church and brought my hands up to my heart.
My heart was breaking again, and I really needed to move on.
* * *
Some things were best left alone. Forever.
She was one of them.
As she looked ahead to where I was, we could have been staring right at each other.
I hoped she hated me. It would be easier.
I’d put her in danger once before, and it nearly cost her, her life.
It was better this way.
She’d be safer.
Better to hate me and live than for her to love me and die.
I was a selfish man, but I wouldn’t make the same mistake twice.
Not with her.
Once was enough.
Chapter 1
Claudius
* * *
Seven Years ago…
“Greedy, foolish mobster. You’ll get yours,” Goliath taunted with a cynical sardonic laugh that actually made my skin crawl.
Not many things could get to me. Not many things could instill the fucking fear of God in me, but this guy…
He did it. He reached a place inside me that I never knew existed, and I hated that. Same as I hated the macramé of knots that had tangled through my nerves and the fibers of my soul.
“Where is my wife!” I screamed. “Where is Marissa?”
All he did was laugh. Of course, he would. The man was insane.
Insane and ruthless. Ruthless and heartless. I didn’t know how I’d gotten myself mixed up in this shit with him.
“The thing is, Claudius, I am going to tell you where she is. We’re going to play a game.”
“Don’t be a fucking prick. Give her back to me.” My heart squeezed at the thought of what he must have done to her.
And…I didn’t know how he’d gotten to her in the first place.
When shit went down yesterday and the deal fell through, I’d taken Marissa to the safe house. A place that only me and a few people knew about. A place that only me and The Four, my men, knew I was taking her to.
When I saw she was gone, I didn’t have time to think that I had a rat in my circle. The worst kind because I trusted those guys with my life and couldn’t’ think of what reason on earth they could have to double-cross me in the way they had.
Marissa was my priority. I had to get her back.
“She has nothing to do with this,” I cried, slamming my fists down on the kitchen counter.
I’d come home in my search for her, looking everywhere like a maniac, refusing to believe that she’d been taken.
“She is yours. That means she’s your price. The price you will pay for messing up my plans. Plans that lost me money. Millions, billions, who can say?” Goliath bellowed into the phone. “So, Claudius, you know how I love games. The last one was so much fun.”
My blood boiled then froze. The game he was referring to wasn’t a game. It was evil.
There was a difference between being bad and pure evil.
I was a bad person, a criminal at best. But I wasn’t evil.
This guy was.
The other day, one of his bodyguards allowed a cop to get too close to him. It was no fault of the bodyguard; it just happened.
However, Goliath blindfolded the man and made him walk near the edge of a cliff.
I tried to stop him from falling over the side, but I was too late.
When I actually saw what was happening, I was too late. Goliath told the man to step backwards and walk toward him, making the man believe that by stepping backwards he’d be on the ground still. One step back, and he went hurtling down to his death.
“You ready?” He laughed.
“I’m ready, asshole.”
“Testy, testy, considering it was me who you wronged. This is mild. You could be dead with your head on display someplace or hanging from a mountain.”
“Goliath, you tell me where my wife is!” I had no patience left. I didn’t have any in the first place.
“Fine, calm down. So, here’s the thing, I got confused, so I took your wife and her sister. Twins can be so tricky, and you’re a mobster. Those can be tricky too.”
Everything stilled inside me.
He has Ava too.
Fuck, no!
No.
Nooo...
Mindlessly, I walked outside the house, my legs weak, my heart barely beating, my soul…
My soul screaming so loud it was deafening, and I couldn’t think straight.
“Why?” The word fell from my lips.
“I just told you, Claudius. Mobsters are tricksters. Can’t trust them. You could have put the twin in the safe house. Sure, I doubted it, but best to be on the safe side, right? They’re at the docks in two different warehouses. I have a glorious bomb in one, as to which you have to guess. Bomb’s set to go off in half an hour.”
I was moving before he could finish.
Fucking bastard. He knew it would take me at least twenty minutes to get to the docks, and at rush hour it would be crazy.
I jumped on my Harley and tore down the streets like a demon, driving around the traffic, driving on the pavements, driving where I could that had a path that could get me to my destination.
I couldn’t believe this, and Goliath wasn’t by any means right. It wasn’t greed that got me mixed up with him.
I had enough money. My brother Luc and I were capos to the Rossi Family. Raphael Rossi owned Chicago.
I had long since abandoned the poor life I had lived in my teens and God, I had so much money I could barely keep up with what I had and what I didn’t have.
So, why’d I think it was a good idea to take on this fucking side deal that put both my wife and her sister in danger?
The truth
was, it was a distraction from all the shit that had happened in my life. A fucking selfish distraction.
Now I was paying for it in the worst way possible. Bad enough to take Marissa, but Ava too.
Ava… the woman I…
No. I willed myself not to think of the mess of a situation I’d had with her. I willed my heart not to venture down that path. I willed my mind not to contemplate the possibility of the fear that rose in me, telling me what this game was.
Two warehouses.
One had a bomb.
One sister in each.
With so little time to get to the docks, the crux of the game was either to kill me and one twin, or make me choose who I saved.
Bile rose in my throat at the thought. Bile and the cold tendrils of fear that wrapped around my nerves.
Twenty minutes.
It took me twenty minutes to get there. The darkness of night was already settling over the place. I leapt off the bike and ran down the boardwalk that led to the host of warehouses. There were at least twenty of them.
How the hell was I supposed to know which to go in was anyone’s guess. Time was ticking, moving, getting away from me.
Like a madman I ran for all I was worth, adrenaline kicking in. I opened the first door and abandoned the place when I saw it was empty. It was a storage facility.
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