Revenge: A Bad Boy Mafia Romance

By J.M Smith

Don Pisano wants him dead.

Luca is the finest hitman in Los Angeles. Rugged. Rough. Bad.

Hell, even the bad guys think he's bad. And now his eyes are on Lily.

The sweetheart architect who’s worked her way up the corporate ladder is whom he craves. She's sweet, caring, and owns a smile to die for but can she handle this bad boy on the run?

Revenge is an action-packed, dirty romance featuring explicit language. It’s only recommended for audiences 18+.

Revenge is a STANDALONE, full-length novel. No cliffhanger. Guaranteed HEA. Includes bonus content

• Language: English
• Publisher: J.M Smith
• Release date: Dec 23, 2016
• ISBN: 9781386277606

Book preview

Chapter 1

Nightfall draped the rugged alley . Rats scavenged for morsels rushing from one end to the other muted only by speeding cars nearby.

THWACK.

I-I-I don’t know where he is! whimpered the bloodied man taking in deep breaths as his adrenaline mounted to new heights.

A waft of nervous perspiration enveloped the constricted space.

The tall, strong-featured man who had grasped onto him let go for a moment. He pushed his hand into the black leather jacket searching for something.

Those penetrating eyes never moved away.

His hand touched on what he required. It was an unused matchbox.

What are you doing? whispered the limp man dragging himself backwards hoping the dead-end behind him would evaporate.

A slight grin flickered across Luca’s chiseled face. His thumb twiddled with the lighter almost teasing the injured man.

I don’t know where he is! the injured man repeated as if the aggressor hadn’t heard him the first time. If I did, wouldn’t I tell you?!

Luca walked over to the man whose eyes had become white in fear.

I heard you the first time. I have a simple rule. I ask once. After that, I don’t give a fuck, the brooding man smirked as he grasped the lighter and lit his match. There are no second chances with me.

Come on! Please! the man begged as he snatched onto Luca’s ripped denim jeans tugging at his shins in a bid to persuade the hot-blooded ex-gangster.

No.

With one fell swoop, Luca lit the match and set the man on fire.

Cries of anguish splashed across the alley as the man’s skin began to burn. It was falling in front of his eyes as Luca stood by to watch.

He made sure the man's body was scorched before leaving.

If there was one thing he’d learned being in the mafia, it was to make sure your target was dead.

Who was the target?

Johnny Romano. He was a 40-year-old sly tax-evading banker who worked for the Pisano Family assisting their money laundering needs. He was the pen wielded to cross their I’s and dot their T’s. It was something Don Pisano often mentioned when speaking of his drug trade across the city of Los Angeles.

Luca marched across and headed to the local café down the street. There were no conspicuous cameras in the street, so he walked without cover and sat down. It had been a long night, and he was still putting the pieces together.

Johnny had been of little assistance.

The sly banker might have weaseled his way through balance sheets and transactions, but he hadn’t been useful to Luca. The value he could have received from the deceased moneyman might not have been there in the first place.

He had started searching for information on Pisano’s right-hand man. Luca never met him, despite having spent years working with the family running drug trades, killing thorns who crossed Don Pisano’s path, and even acting as a bodyguard for the leader himself. Leonardo Pisano was a whiz dealer and Don’s oldest son who had extended his network like a plague across East LA while maintaining a low profile. It was hard to track him down, and Luca needed to find the Pisano heir apparent.

It was only a matter of when not if in the hitman’s eyes.

Luca poured through his memories trying to remember when he might have spotted a clue.

What would you like sir? asked the portly woman wearing a look of dismay. She gripped her notebook and waited with a lethargic gaze running those beady eyes up and down judging Luca’s strong-featured appearance.

Just a coffee, he replied without looking up.

Hmmm, mumbled the waitress shuffling away to her perch behind the counter.

He had spent a good amount of time scouting the area before choosing this little café. It was near the accountant’s towering office building and had the alleyway to do as he pleased.

He realized some of the police sell outs would appear.

Those bastards had been corrupting the city for years. They were bound to respond to a hit job against Pisano.

Luca took out his pint-sized notebook where he had written a set of names. The list kept increasing, but there was one with a large red circle over it.

DON PISANO.

He would kill him, but he had a lot of mess to clean first.

He didn’t give a fuck how he’d do it, but the deed would be done.

One by one.

As the coffee arrived, he remembered the day he’d first seen Lily standing with her cup of coffee. ‘It has to be two teaspoons of cream’ or she’d toss out the entire cup. He’d often notice as she painstakingly measured her servings.

It had something about the coffee needing to be just right.

He quietly poured in the cream measuring the way she did.

The more he remembered her, the more his pain came back. The unrelenting memories of her bloodied shirt, friends shrieking as they ran for their lives, and bullets spraying across as he tried to save them.

It was a massacre. All of Lily’s friends were slaughtered on the street.

Ten dead.

All killed on Don Pisano’s orders because of Luca. He’d failed to complete a drug deal.

Luca had rushed that day searching through bodies of friends who’d been happily enjoying their BBQ on a pleasant L.A. night.

But, where was Lily? She was the one he cared for most.

Why?

There was something special about her.

A man like him with blood on his hands didn’t have time for women unless it was for a quick fuck.

Instead, Luca couldn’t stop being around Lily. Just getting a whiff of that lavender perfume she sprayed from time to time or that smile she’d bring out at the smallest of jokes.

It was the same lavender he’d searched for that ghastly evening, but all he found was a shirt.

That’s when the call came.

Hey, prick. Like the fireworks out there today? I had them prepared for you, the voice chuckled thoroughly amused by what he’d said. It was Martino, a dim-witted soldier who had been recruited by Don Pisano as a way to marshal his troops around town. He wasn’t too good at his job but thought he was a big shot regardless.

Where the fuck is she?! Luca hollered into the phone. If I get my hands on you, I’m going to slit your throat a hundred times you Bastard.

Simmer down chap, Martino replied unnerved for a second at the thought of his throat being slashed. She’s here, all safe and sound for now.

A muffled sound came through the receiver.

Lily? LILY?! Luca shouted.

Nothing. Just more muffled noise.

You want to hear her speak? Come and find us.

Remember one thing Martino. I only ask once.

Luca slammed his phone down enraged.

Ever, since then he’d been searching for her. A few days had passed by, and he was starved for Pisano blood. He was going to slaughter all of them if it was the last thing he did.

The first time he’d seen her was at the coffee shop, but that day at the supermarket still gave him goose bumps.

The fluttering peach summer dress, curvaceous body, and playful smile could send any man to heaven and back.

The moment he saw her, he knew she was different.

He’d just executed the crooked manager and begun to walk out when she’d accidentally dropped a pile of apples. On another day, he’d walked right past, but something made him help her.

He recalled how she’d appeared, flustered running after the apples as they scattered everywhere. All she’d managed to say with that gorgeous smile was thank you before walking away.

He had never cared for women.

He found them repulsive in general. If you wanted sex, just sleep with a damn hooker. Why the hell do you need to hear their shit?

But, she didn’t make him feel that way.

In the past, he would have slept with random hookers. He’d bang two or three a day. The perks of Don Pisano’s reach were in full force when you wanted to gain a little pleasure. Just head over to the Pisano hotels in town, and they’d hook you up.

Yet, after seeing Lily, he couldn’t imagine touching another woman.

She was flawless.

A few days later, it had taken a fortuitous turn of events to get her attention.

A fight broke out in the middle of a supermarket with two low-level thugs going at it and she happened to be in the midst of it all.

He quickly grabbed a bottle of wine and smashed it on one of the thug’s head knocking him out unconscious. The other ran away faster than a mouse spotting danger.

By the time he’d turned around, she was standing there with a hand over her mouth in shock.

Well, at least that made you useful. All of that staring wasn’t doing much, she chuckled while quietly taking the shattered wine bottle out of his hand.

Meanwhile, a set of staffers had run across the aisle in a panicked state with phones out calling 911, as the thug lay sprawled with blood pouring out.

I wasn’t following you, he had replied.

Yeah and I wasn’t doing grocery shopping right now, she said with her eyebrows raised.

Damn, he answered thinking she’d seen right through him.

The next day he went up to her again, motivated to impress, and that’s when she invited him over for lunch. He hadn’t got a word out when she said, want to come to a get-together I’m having with friends?

Uh, sure. I’m cool with that.

Typical Lily.

She didn’t have an angry bone in her body.

All of these memories kept coming back to him.

The memories of her intoxicating Lavender perfume kept pulling him in. Just another whiff he would tell himself. It was his personal cocaine.

It was all going well until Don Pisano found out. The wispy mustache and stout build were distinguishable from anywhere. He’d prance around shouting orders to kill every other second. The man didn’t give a damn that he was killing or why he was doing it.

It was bound to come back onto Luca.

Luca’s date with Lily cost Don Pisano a million-dollar drug deal. It was supposed to have gone ahead, and he forgot.

A simple mistake one would assume considering how long the tall, dark-haired gangster had spent with the family.

But, no it didn’t matter at all.

Don Pisano didn’t care.

He wanted his way every single time. You got in his way, and it was your head on a platter for breakfast.

Sometimes, it seemed like he got off on blood.

The portly Don knew better with Luca. He wanted to get him where it hurt. The brave hitman was never going to let death scare him. He’d seen death in front of his eyes for years.

But, Lily was different. This was his weakness and the Don knew.

He had told his men led by the wily Martino to pick her up.

Little did they know, Luca had other plans. There was a reason he’d been promoted up the ranks. The mafia didn’t promote unless you were the best they had. He was the goddamn best.

A ruthless killer without a pulse.

He’d kill in an instant and overpower the mightiest of opponents. He was the ultimate killing machine without a care in the world.

The Pisanos had made one mistake, and that was not killing him when they had the chance.

Luca snapped back from what had now become recurring daydreams.

His attention moved to the now crowded alleyway where police cruisers had parked filling it with uniformed officers rushing from one side to the other.

The fire had cooked Johnny’s body into a pile of ashes. It was gruesome. The stench spread across the alley as officers walked by keeping their eyes open and noses closed.

Luca didn’t plan on doing anything right now.

It would happen later that night because he now knew who the corrupt ones were.

James Sabbatini and Mark Woods. Two senior officers in the force.

He’d seen them before.

Two more names added to his notebook.

The cunning bastards always seemed like the type to become corrupt.

He took a final sip of his coffee, put a fiver on the table, and left.

Chapter 2

The torched body lay in the middle. It was beginning to drizzle with the clouds settling into a dangerous position above. The forecast had suggested bursts of rain during the night.

For this body, a week’s worth of rain wasn’t going to help get rid of the catastrophic burns.

James Sabbatini hunched down to assess the corpse. He glossed over the discolored eye, fragmented nose, or at least what remained of the man’s charred face. It was a ghastly sight as he wiped his nose sickened by the stench emanating upwards from what was now a fried carcass.

Hit job? he asked his partner. Mark was a towering man with magnifying glasses for eyes and an unhealthy love for donuts. He could rip through a dozen like it was free if he got the chance.

The chocolate-topped donut rested in his hand as he looked down at the body.

Maybe, he responded almost lost into his donut.

Man, what the hell! Grow up and pay attention you idiot, James hollered at his uncooperative partner who’s IQ appeared to drop every day. If it weren’t for Don Pisano’s support, Mark would be rotting away in some low-tier police rank without decent pay.

Fuck off, mumbled Mark as he kept going at his delicious treat.

This is definitely a hit job. The burns say it all. Who the hell would do this? Don Pisano sending hit men out again without letting us know? he said out loud almost talking to himself knowing Mark was incompetent.

Could be, Mark reacted.

CLEAN THIS UP! yelled the short policeman with his muscular build suffocating under the uniform. The younger police officers were busy standing in awe of the sight in front of them.

He got up and gazed their way with a menacing stare.

They hastily ran in with the equipment.

James picked up the phone and gave it a ring.

It was time to ask what was going on. Don Pisano had a bad habit of getting police officers to clean up messes without letting them know about it in advance.

What’s up? said the cracked voice on the other end. It was Martino, a person James loathed. The wisecracking clown was always wasting time and giving out orders like he was the leader.

Do you think I’m a chump? Just piling out bodies here and expecting the garbageman to clean up after you. When the hell was I going to find out about this mess in the alley? he hollered into the phone aggrieved by the cards he’d just been dealt.

What body? the voice replied in a rather reserved manner.

The body that’s all burnt up like it's gone through a freakin’ cremation here in the alley close to Rosa’s Café, he pointed while looking over the closing coffee shop.