Once A Gun Runner...: The Efraim Diveroli Memoir

Elena Rossi’s life shatters when her father’s gambling debt attracts the attention of the mafia. ‎With no money to repay them, Elena is taken to a secret auction where desperate women are sold to powerful men. ‎Just when she thinks her fate couldn’t get worse, the most feared mafia boss in the city makes the highest bid. ‎Dante Moretti. ‎Cold. Ruthless. Untouchable. ‎Now Elena belongs to him. ‎But the deeper she falls into his dangerous world, the more secrets she uncovers. ‎Because Dante didn’t buy her out of desire. ‎He bought her because she reminds him of the one woman who betrayed him. ‎As enemies close in and a mafia war begins, Elena realizes something terrifying. ‎The ruthless man who owns her body might soon own her heart. ‎And in Dante Moretti’s world… ‎Love can be just as deadly as betrayal.

Dante Santoro is a ruthless Mafia lord, feared and revered in equal measure. His empire stretches far and wide, and his control is absolute. But behind his cold, commanding exterior lies a man who will stop at nothing to protect what is his. Ethan John, an undercover agent and former doctor, has been assigned to infiltrate Dante's inner circle. Posing as Dante's personal physician, Ethan’s mission is simple: gather intel and bring down the Mafia kingpin before his criminal empire can expand further. But as the weeks pass, Ethan is torn between duty and desire. The cold, calculating mob boss he was sent to destroy begins to pull at his heart in ways he never anticipated. As passion ignites between them, Ethan finds himself in a perilous game of lies, deception, and betrayal. With the government breathing down his neck and Dante's trust tightening like a noose, Ethan must decide where his true loyalties lie, before it’s too late. Can love bloom in the most dangerous of places? Or will the Mafia lord’s grip be too strong to escape?

The game: Mafia. The rules: Lies are required, deceit is essential, betrayal is highly encouraged. Who wins? The remaining one left at the top. Who loses? The one who falls in love first. Eirene Evander's identity had always been kept a secret, her family made sure of that. Since she could remember, she was trained in the art of illusion and deception. But a tragic event led her to run off and enlist in the Marines as Rein. Now that she’s come home, it’s time to see what the mafia’s up to these days. Will pretending to be a man help with her mission for the military? Will she finally find the truth about her father’s death? Or will it lead to her demise just like her predecessor? Delian Leofric is a calculated, mean-spirited brute. Every person he meets would warn others to avoid even just a glimpse of his shadow. But what they don’t know is that he’s more than that. Now that he’s about to become the mob leader, will he turn things around? Or in the end, will he be swallowed up and forced to do their bidding until he’s replaced by another? A vengeful soldier, a puppet mob king, with all the other players from the underground organization and more. These combinations may just bring tragic deaths, unexpected greatness, or maybe a concoction of both.

Shortly after we said "I do," the Family sent my husband, Dario, down to the Mexican border. He told me it was a meat grinder down there—cartel territory. where guys were zipped into body bags every day. He said he had to go—to expand the territory, for the glory of the Family. He claimed it was too dangerous and that his enemies would paint a target on my back, so he wouldn't take me with him. I believed him. I stayed behind in his old, rot-infested house in New Jersey, taking care of his bitter, spiteful parents. I spent my days and nights in the Family's moldy laundromat, washing bills stained with blood. He told me he sent every dime he made down there to the widow of a brother who took a bullet for him. He asked me to be understanding. I never complained. Day after day, I pressed expensive suits in that humid laundromat, waiting for him to come home. It wasn't until the eighth year that a mobster came back drunk. When I asked about Dario, he froze, then sneered at me through a haze of alcohol. "Dario? Are you kidding? He’s been a King in Manhattan for years. He’s the youngest Underboss of the Corleone family." I stood frozen, the iron in my hand burning a hole right through a shirt. "And he got married seven years ago. Biggest cathedral in New Jersey. Half the mob was there to toast the groom..." He pulled a crumpled photo from his leather jacket. Snuggled up against my husband was a woman in a high-end couture gown—the very same "poor, widowed sister-in-law" he had told me about. The next day, I contacted a fixer who specialized in fake IDs. On the application for a one-way ticket to Europe—a ticket to vanish off the face of the earth—I filled in the fake name I had prepared long ago. He trapped me for seven years with a sham marriage. From now on, I’d be done with this damn loyalty.

My best friend breaks down and accuses me of skimming family shipments, which cost us billions. Without hesitation, my fiance, Don Scarpa Falcone, points a gun at me. The bullet grazes my ear. He sends me to prison himself, then gets engaged to my best friend instead. Before I'm taken away, the family butler begs him, "You raised her yourself. She's your fiancee. You can't just ruin her life like this!" "Break the rules, and pay in blood," he says, polishing his gun. "As for her future, I'll decide that later." Five years later, I walk out of prison. The entire Falcone family is waiting at the gate with him, as if my freedom were a handout. "Looks like you've learned your lesson. It's time to return and get back to work. Don't do anything stupid again," he says. I ignore him and walk straight to the stretch Lincoln behind him. The door opens. Chris Corleone, the king of the Aurelian underworld, raises his glass to me. "Welcome back, partner."

Isabella Millers is an ordinary girl who works as a waitress in a café. However, her life takes a drastic turn when a luxurious sedan owned by a cruel mafia leader in Brooklyn named Marco Vilante crashes into her bicycle on her way home from work. Isabella is forced to be involved in Marco's dangerous life because he falls in love with her and becomes obsessed with her. Pressure and fear haunt Isabella's life ever since. Will she be able to face the consequences of being involved with a cruel and obsessive mafia man?