Haven Antonelli and Carmine DeMarco have been through a lot. Haven was taken in by Carmine’s father, and with his family’s help, she escaped a gruesome fate. However, saving Haven from the dark intentions of a mafia family cost Carmine a steep price: he was forced to swear loyalty to them.
Now, still passionately in love, Carmine and Haven must face the fall-out of Carmine’s forced service, as Haven discovers terrifying secrets about the family that enslaved both her and her mother—and why she matters so much in this intricate web of lies.
An Excerpt--
Carmine sat in his usual chair in
the library, casually strumming his guitar. A sliver of light filtered in from
the large window, illuminating his somber expression in the darkness. She
called his name but he remained still, continuing to pluck at the strings
almost as if he hadn’t heard her. She took a step toward him and was about to
say his name again when he let out a long, deep sigh. “I had a dream.”
“Another nightmare?” she asked,
walking over to him. He glanced up at her as his fingers stilled, the music
stopping, but Haven barely noticed. She couldn’t focus on anything but the
green eyes boring into her. Once so alive with passion, she saw nothing but
deep sadness marring the bright color.
Carmine set the guitar aside and
moved his legs to make room, motioning for her to join him. She climbed into
his lap and he wrapped his arms around her.
“Not a nightmare this time,” he
said. “It was a good dream.”
“What was it about?”
“You,” he said quietly. “You made a
painting—some abstract shit, I don’t know—but it was so good they hung it in a
museum and raved about how talented you were. It was like you were the next
fucking Picasso, tesoro.”
She laughed. “I don’t even know how
to paint, Carmine.”
“You could learn,” he said. “Would
you want to?”
“Maybe, but I don’t know how good
I’d be.”
“Oh, you’d be good,” he said
confidently. “You shouldn’t doubt yourself. You can do anything you set your
mind to.”
“Except for play the piano,” she
said playfully. “Or the guitar.”
He chuckled. “Yeah, for the sake of
everyone’s ears, we ought to leave music to me, but the rest is all you. You
can probably do all of that, you know. Draw, paint, sculpt shit into weird
shapes and tell people it’s something it doesn’t look anything like. That
takes talent.”
She smiled. “And you think I have
that kind of talent?”
“Of course,” he said. “There’s gonna
be no stopping you once you get started.”
“Thank you,” she whispered, a swell
of emotion surging through her at his words. “It means a lot that you believe
in me.”
“I’d be an idiot not to,” he said, kissing the
top of her head.
About the Author:
JM Darhower is the author of countless stories and poems,
most of which only she has ever read. She lives in a tiny town in rural North
Carolina, where she churns out more words than will ever see the light of day.
She has a deep passion for politics and speaking out against human trafficking,
and when she isn't writing (or fangirling about books) she's usually ranting
about those things.
Chronic crimper with a vulgar mouth, she admits to having a
Twitter addiction. You can usually always find her there.
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