Pampered By The Rival Mafia Boss

Ten years ago, I saved the life of New York’s most dangerous mob boss with a sewing kit. I gave Ethan Reed my youth, my loyalty, and my heart.

But the moment his ex-girlfriend Chloe returned, I became disposable.

It didn't matter that she had abandoned him. It didn't matter that she poisoned me, killing the unborn child Ethan didn't even know we had.

When Chloe needed a kidney transplant due to her drug abuse, Ethan didn't protect me. He strapped me to a gurney.

"It's just one kidney, Ava. You owe me."

He harvested my organ to save the woman who murdered his heir. And when he was done, he decided I was a loose end.

He dragged me to the edge of a bridge in the pouring rain.

"This is how it ends," he said, his eyes devoid of love. "A tragic suicide."

He pushed me into the freezing water, watching me drown to secure his happy ending.

He thought I was dead. He thought the canary had sung its last song.

But he forgot one thing. I was the chemist who built his empire.

When his greatest rival pulled me out of the river, I didn't pray for salvation. I prayed for revenge.

Three months later, I walked into his charity gala on the arm of his enemy, wearing a white suit and a smile sharp enough to cut glass.

Ethan dropped to his knees when he saw me.

But I wasn't there to forgive him. I was there to burn his house down.

Chapter 1

Ava POV

I held the vial that secured the Reed family's future in my hand just as the phone rang-a call that would dismantle my own.

Ten years ago, I had pulled a bullet out of Ethan Reed's chest with shaking hands and a sewing kit, saving the life of the most dangerous man in New York. Today, the man I saved-the Don of the Reed crime family-called me not with gratitude, but with the cold, clipped tone he usually reserved for executing traitors.

"Get to the manor. Now."

The line went dead before I could draw a breath.

The morning sun filtered through the high windows of the family's secret laboratory, illuminating dust motes dancing in the sterile air. I looked at the clear liquid in the test tube. It was a breakthrough-a synthesized clotting agent for the family's underground clinics. It should have been a moment of triumph. Instead, a heavy stone of dread plummeted into my stomach.

Ethan never called me like that.

Not me.

Not his Ava.

I tore down the highway toward the estate, my mind replaying that night a decade ago. I was eighteen, a medical student with more debt than sense. He was twenty-two, bleeding out in an alley. I didn't know he was the heir to a criminal empire. I just knew he had eyes the color of a stormy sea and he didn't want to die.

I saved him. He claimed me.