Mafia King: A Mafia Royals Novella Read online

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  Discover More Rachel Van Dyken

  Provoke: A Seaside Pictures Novella

  By Rachel Van Dyken

  Click here to purchase.

  The music industry called me a savant at age sixteen when I uploaded my first video and gained instant fame. And then Drew Amherst of Adrenaline became my mentor, and my career took off.

  Everything was great.

  Until tragedy struck, and I wondered if I’d ever be able to perform again. I fought back, but all it took was a falling light to bring it all back to the fore. So, I walked away. Because I knew it wasn’t just stage fright. It was so much more.

  The only problem?

  Drew and the guys are counting on me. If I can’t combat the crippling anxiety threatening to kill me, I might lose more than I ever dreamed of.

  Enter Piper Rayne, life coach, with her bullshit about empowerment, rainbows, and butterflies. She smiles all the damn time, and I'm ninety-nine percent sure there’s not a problem she can’t solve.

  Until me.

  She was given twenty-one days to fix me. To make me see what’s important. What’s real. The problem is, all I can see now is her. The sexy woman who pushes me. Provokes me.

  Only time will tell if she’s able to do her job—and I can make her mine.

  * * * *

  Abandon: A Seaside Pictures Novella

  By Rachel Van Dyken

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  It’s not every day you're slapped on stage by two different women you've been dating for the last year.

  I know what you're thinking. What sort of ballsy woman gets on stage and slaps a rockstar? Does nobody have self-control anymore? It may have been the talk of the Grammys.

  Oh, yeah, forgot to mention that. I, Ty Cuban, was taken down by two psychotic women in front of the entire world. Lucky for us the audience thought it was part of the breakup song my band and I had just finished performing. I was thirty-three, hardly ready to settle down.

  Except now it's getting forced on me. Seaside, Oregon. My bandmates were more than happy to settle down, dig their roots into the sand, and start popping out kids. Meanwhile I was still enjoying life.

  Until now. Until my forced hiatus teaching freaking guitar lessons at the local studio for the next two months. Part of my punishment, do something for the community while I think deep thoughts about all my life choices.

  Sixty days of hell.

  It doesn't help that the other volunteer is a past flame that literally looks at me as if I've sold my soul to the devil. She has the voice of an angel and looks to kill—I would know, because she looks ready to kill me every second of every day. I broke her heart when we were on tour together a decade ago.

  I'm ready to put the past behind us. She's ready to run me over with her car then stand on top of it and strum her guitar with glee.

  Sixty days. I can do anything for sixty days. Including making the sexy Von Abigail fall for me all over again. This time for good.

  Damn, maybe there’s something in the water.

  * * * *

  All Stars Fall: A Seaside Pictures/Big Sky Novella

  By Rachel Van Dyken

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  She left.

  Two words I can't really get out of my head.

  She left us.

  Three more words that make it that much worse.

  Three being another word I can't seem to wrap my mind around.

  Three kids under the age of six, and she left because she missed it. Because her dream had never been to have a family, no, her dream had been to marry a rockstar and live the high life.

  Moving my recording studio to Seaside Oregon seems like the best idea in the world right now especially since Seaside Oregon has turned into the place for celebrities to stay and raise families in between touring and producing. It would be lucrative to make the move, but I'm doing it for my kids because they need normal, they deserve normal. And me? Well, I just need a break and help, that too. I need a sitter and fast. Someone who won't flip me off when I ask them to sign an Iron Clad NDA, someone who won't sell our pictures to the press, and most of all? Someone who looks absolutely nothing like my ex-wife.

  He's tall.

  That was my first instinct when I saw the notorious Trevor Wood, drummer for the rock band Adrenaline, in the local coffee shop. He ordered a tall black coffee which made me smirk, and five minutes later I somehow agreed to interview for a nanny position. I couldn't help it; the smaller one had gum stuck in her hair while the eldest was standing on his feet and asking where babies came from. He looked so pathetic, so damn sexy and pathetic that rather than be star-struck, I took pity. I knew though; I knew the minute I signed that NDA, the minute our fingers brushed and my body became insanely aware of how close he was—I was in dangerous territory, I just didn't know how dangerous until it was too late. Until I fell for the star and realized that no matter how high they are in the sky—they're still human and fall just as hard.

  * * * *

  Envy: An Eagle Elite Novella

  By Rachel Van Dyken

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  Every family has rules, the mafia just has more....

  Do not speak to the bosses unless spoken to.

  Do not make eye contact unless you want to die.

  And above all else, do not fall in love.

  Renee Cassani's future is set.

  Her betrothal is set.

  Her life, after nannying for the five families for the summer, is set.

  Somebody should have told Vic Colezan that.

  He's a man who doesn't take no for an answer.

  And he only wants one thing.

  Her.

  Somebody should have told Renee that her bodyguard needed as much discipline as the kids she was nannying.

  Good thing Vic has a firm hand.

  Destructive King: A Mafia Bully Romance

  Mafia Royals Book 3

  By Rachel Van Dyken

  Click here to purchase.

  A mafia romance about love and loss by Rachel Van Dyken, the number one New York Times bestselling author of the Eagle Elite series.

  …When you awaken in the morning’s hush

  I am the swift uplifting rush

  Of quiet birds in circled flight.

  I am the soft stars that shine at night.

  Do not stand at my grave and cry;

  I am not there. I did not die.

  — Mary Elizabeth Fyre

  “I'm sorry for your loss.” I would rather be tortured for an eternity than hear those damn words from one more person, as if Claire, my dead fiancé, was a cell phone or car keys.

  How about, I'm sorry your life is over.

  I’m sorry you want to die too.

  I’m sorry you see her in your dreams and wake up only to relive the nightmare.

  I’m supposed to be the strongest of them all. Ash Abandonato, ruler, assassin, made man, brother, friend—instead, I hurt everyone I touch in hopes that they'll feel even a sliver of the pain that bears down on my shoulders.

  I didn’t lose.

  It was taken from me.

  And it’s all her fault, Annie Smith.

  I daydream about her death.

  And then I close my eyes, and I see her soft smile. I feel her touch, her kiss—it was a mistake what we did that night, but I can’t take it back, and now she’s under my father's protection—my protection.

  My worst enemy.

  The woman I’m the most attracted to.

  I can’t decide if I want to strangle her or kiss her, and now that s
he’s stuck in my life, my only goal is to make her feel the same loss I do and destroy her in the process.

  I’ll trick her with my touch.

  Seduce her with my kiss.

  And in the end, when my enemy is at her most vulnerable—I’ll bring down an entire Empire and continue my reign as King.

  Bow down, I’ll say as I bring the Five Families to their knees.

  Blood in.

  Never out.

  Damned.

  * * * *

  A light flickered from the bathroom.

  I sighed in relief, then went over and knocked, the door creaked open, and there he was, sitting in the bathtub completely naked.

  It was impossible not to notice his perfect physique; even drunk out of his mind, he was beautiful—like a fallen angel that forgot his place was in Heaven—not his own personal hell.

  “You know…” He held out a giant knife and thumbed the blade, studying the point as a trickle of blood trailed down his thumb. “Most people do it wrong…”

  I froze. “You’re drunk, Ash. Let’s just get you some clothes—”

  “Fucking idiots.” His pupils were pinpoints as he looked at me over the blade of the knife. “They cut against the vein forgetting that you’re supposed to cut with it. But there’s other ways, Claire—other ways to join you…”

  He was out of his mind. My chest heaved with panic as I weighed my options. He was an expert at killing things, even drunk. I was a college nerd on scholarship who had zero hand-to-hand combat skills.

  Let alone against a proven killer.

  “Three seconds,” he rasped as he lowered the knife to the inside of his thigh. “Three seconds, and I’ll see you, sweetheart. Three seconds and you’ll be real again, three seconds, and we’ll be a family.” Tears streamed down his face. “That’s all, Claire. That’s all it would take.”

  The knife was so dangerously close to his femoral artery that I had no time to call Chase or the ambulance.

  No time but to figure out a way to save his life.

  No other way.

  “Don’t,” I whispered. “Ash, please…don’t.”

  “I have to.” He sobbed. “I have to!”

  “Please!” I choked on my tears. “Please don’t, Ash, please! Just stay, stay with me, right here, right now—hand me the knife.”

  “Three seconds, Claire.”

  “Ash, Claire would want you to live.”

  “I killed you…” He grabbed the blade with his other hand and squeezed as blood spurted all over the bathtub. “This may as well be your blood. You were my soul, and I spilled it, I spilled it all. I didn’t see, I didn’t—” The knife slipped out of his bloody hand.

  I lunged for it and barely grabbed it in time before he did; he was thankfully too slow.

  I threw the knife away from us; it clattered against the bathroom floor as I tripped against his legs as they dangled out of the tub.

  With a grunt, I fell on top of him.

  He held me there.

  Bleeding on me.

  Sobbing.

  His arms came around me. “You’re gone, you’re gone!”

  I squeezed my eyes shut as he held me close, and then he was kissing the back of my neck.

  “It’s Annie…” I moved away from him. “I’m not Claire—”

  “Claire…” He moaned. “Please…”

  “Ash,” I said it more firmly that time. “It’s Annie.”

  I finally broke free from him, but he was fast; he grabbed me again, this time shoving up from the bathtub and reaching for me, jerking me against his chest as he pressed a hungry kiss to my mouth.

  Every time I tried to pull away, he pulled me back.

  And then he was turning the shower on.

  My sweatshirt was coming off.

  Escape was futile.

  “Claire—”

  “Ash.” My heart cracked in half.

  He stole it then.

  He stomped on it.

  He wrecked it like he wrecked everything.

  And I let him because I was too afraid he’d kill himself.

  Too afraid that he’d snap.

  I’d always been too afraid.

  And half in love with a man who loved a ghost and would do anything to follow her into Heaven.

  “Until the sky falls…” he whispered as he kissed me again and again, so I said the only thing I could say back.

  The only thing I’d ever heard Claire repeat over and over again.

  “Even,” I whispered, “Until the sky falls, Ash.”

  “You’re here…” He smiled for the first time. “Finally…finally…”

  A tear slid down my cheek and joined the blood, and whatever was left of my broken heart as I swore to take this to my grave.

  Right along with any feelings I’d ever had for Ash Abandonato.

  He may as well be dead.

  I may as well have let him do the digging.

  “Goodbye, Ash,” I whispered under my breath.

  This time I kissed him.

  This time I pulled him.

  This time I gave him what he’d been wanting since yelling into the dark night sky—Claire.

  I gave him Claire.

  Discover the World of 1001 Dark Nights

  Collection One

  Collection Two

  Collection Three

  Collection Four

  Collection Five

  Collection Six

  Collection Seven

  Bundles

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  Rising Storm

  Liliana Hart's MacKenzie Family

  Lexi Blake's Crossover Collection

  Kristen Proby's Crossover Collection

  On behalf of 1001 Dark Nights,

  Liz Berry, M.J. Rose, and Jillian Stein would like to thank ~

  Steve Berry

  Doug Scofield

  Benjamin Stein

  Kim Guidroz

  Social Butterfly PR

  Ashley Wells

  Asha Hossain

  Chris Graham

  Chelle Olson

  Kasi Alexander

  Jessica Johns

  Dylan Stockton

  Richard Blake

  and Simon Lipskar

  Table of Contents

  Book Description

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Epilogue