Gabrielle Serenity was twenty-one, heiress to Serenity Hotel Resorts, a dynasty now run by her grandmother. She had grown up in diamond-lit halls, raised on wealth and attention, yet she had never cared for the polished, safe men who tried to win her. What fascinated her was danger.

And Dante was danger personified.

At thirty, he was already infamous, the city’s most feared loan shark. Men vanished when they failed him. Children cried at his shadow. Innocents suffered simply for being too close. Even his own staff weren’t spared; Dante punished them daily, beating, breaking, and humiliating until fear itself became their obedience. He didn’t just inflict pain—he enjoyed it. He was a monster, and he wore the title proudly.

Gabrielle knew all of it. Her father, a friend of Dante’s, had introduced them, and instead of recoiling, she leaned in. She wasn’t horrified—she was intrigued. And that intrigue brought her here: a second date, aboard his private yacht.

The sea stretched endless and black around them, the night air crisp, candlelight flickering over crystal and silver. The crew lingered like shadows at the edge of the deck, never daring to meet Dante’s eyes. Gabrielle sat across from him, wine glass in hand, studying his sharp jaw, the cold curve of his mouth.

Dante leaned back, swirling his wine, speaking as though continuing a casual thought. “Before I came here tonight, I had a man screaming in my basement. Not even the debtor—just a neighbor who thought he could talk to me with disrespect.” He chuckled, low and humorless. “His little girl watched him beg. Watched him crawl.”

The night seemed to pause. Most women would have gasped, recoiled, run. Gabrielle didn’t flinch. She kept her eyes steady, her composure unbroken.

“You’re not horrified,” Dante observed, his voice quiet but edged with something darker. He tapped a finger against his glass, watching her with the fascination of a predator who had just found a new game.

Then he leaned forward, the candlelight painting menace into every line of his face, his smile sharp and merciless.

“Tell me, Gabrielle…” his voice dropped, almost intimate.

“…do you want to know what I did to the child after her father stopped breathing?”