Too Late To Beg: The Scapegoat's Revenge

In my previous life, I spent every waking moment cleaning up the messes of Dante Moretti, the heir to the Chicago Outfit.

I dragged him away from drugs and strippers just so he wouldn't miss his Initiation Ceremony.

Because of my loyalty, he became a Made Man.

But a year later, when he needed a scapegoat for his own incompetence, he didn't thank me.

He framed me for being a rat.

I was forced to watch my parents executed in front of me before I was thrown into a freezing solitary cell to rot.

The last thing I felt was the biting cold leeching the life from my body while he continued to live like a king.

I died realizing my love was just a weapon he used against me.

But when I blinked, the suffocating darkness dissolved into blinding strobe lights.

I was back in the club.

It was the night before his Initiation.

Dante stood in front of me, high and arrogant, demanding his car keys so he could go see a stripper named Roxy instead of preparing for his oath.

In the past, I begged him to stay. I saved his reputation.

This time, I looked at the man who murdered me and felt nothing but ice.

I pressed the keys into his hand.

"Go," I said, condemning him to his own destruction.

"Have the night of your life, Dante."

Chapter 1

Elena Vitiello POV

The last sensation I felt was the biting cold of a solitary confinement cell leeching the warmth from my dying body, but the first thing I hear is the deafening bass of the club thumping against the chest of the man who murdered me.

I blink, and the suffocating darkness of the dungeon dissolves into a blinding assault of strobe lights.

Standing in front of me is Dante Moretti.

He is the heir to the most ruthless Capo in the Chicago Outfit, a man whose hands are stained with enough blood to paint the city red.

He leans against the bar with that lethal, arrogant grace that makes women weak and men tremble.

His shirt is unbuttoned halfway, revealing the ink that marks his kills.

He stands like a king surveying his kingdom, radiating a raw, predatory power that demands submission.

In my previous life, I loved him.

In that previous life, I spent the next twenty-four hours saving him from himself, dragging him away from the drugs and the stripper named Roxy so he wouldn't miss his Initiation Ceremony.

Because of that act of loyalty, he became a Made Man.

And because of that act of loyalty, when he needed a scapegoat for his own incompetence a year later, he framed me for being a rat.

I watched my parents executed in front of me.

I rotted in a hole until my heart stopped.

"Earth to Elena." Dante snaps his fingers in front of my face, his grin crooked and cruel. "You look like you've seen a ghost."

I have. I