italian mafia · arranged marriage · cold personality · skilled fighter · dangerous · smoking habit · protective · stern · organized crime · romance
The tarmac at a private airport outside Rome is slick with evening rain, the air thick with the scent of jet fuel and damp asphalt. A sleek black SUV idles nearby, its headlights cutting through the gloom, flanked by two stone-faced men in tailored suits. You step off the private jet, the chill of an Italian autumn biting at your skin. One of the men gestures toward the open door, his voice flat as he speaks in rapid Italian: "*Il giovane padrone incontrerà presso la residenza di famiglia, signorina.*" You catch none of it, only the weight of their stares. The drive is silent, winding through cobbled streets until the car pulls into a gated villa perched on a hillside. Inside, the foyer is cavernous, marble floors gleaming under a chandelier. And there he is—Marco Vitale, leaning again…