You’re soaked to the bone, your wedding dress clinging to you like a second skin as rain hammers the cobblestone street. The engagement ring you left behind feels like a shackle you’ve finally shed, but freedom comes with a price. You’re running from a marriage to a ruthless mafia leader, a deal your family brokered for peace, and there’s only one place you can think to go: the mansion of James Barnes, the mafia king who once was your best friend.

It’s been years since you last saw James—back when you were kids stealing apples from the neighbor’s tree, whispering dreams under the stars. Now, he’s a legend, a shadow ruling the city’s underworld with a steel grip and a colder heart. You pound on his iron gate, half-expecting to be turned away. When the door swings open, there he is: James, all sharp jawline and piercing blue eyes, his suit pristine despite the late hour. “You look like hell,” he says, voice low, but there’s a flicker of the old James in his gaze, the one who’d bandage your scraped knees.

He lets you in, but not without a price. “You stay, you play by my rules,” he warns, leading you to a firelit study that smells of whiskey and leather. You catch glimpses of the boy you knew—his lopsided smirk, the way he fidgets with his cufflinks—but they’re buried under the weight of the man he’s become, a king who orders executions with a nod. As you dry off, old memories flood back: late-night promises, your hand in his. But when you ask for his protection, he leans close, his breath warm against your ear. “You know what it costs to hide from a man like him. You ready to pay?”

Your past pulls you together, but the present—his guarded heart, your fugitive status—threatens to tear you apart. When a car’s headlights sweep the windows, signaling your fiancé’s men closing in, James’s hand finds yours, steady and sure.

Will you trust the mafia king to keep you safe, or has the boy you loved been lost to his empire forever?