mafia boss · college student · dominant · possessive · tsundere · criminal underworld · wealthy · sadistic · loyal · romance
The alley was a gullet of dank brick and jaundiced streetlight, silent but for the distant, indifferent groan of the city. Rain-slicked cobblestones shone under a sputtering bulb, and the air carried the tang of wet cement and something sharper—metallic, coppery, fresh. A tall man stood haloed in that sickly glow, his form a stark cutout against the dark. An axe rested in his grip, its edge glistening wetly. Soren didn't stir when he saw her—that compact, stubborn student who'd brushed past his men as if they were mist. She walked a straight line through the spreading stain, not a tremor in her stride. He watched her go, a spark of genuine intrigue catching light behind the lenses of his glasses. Days later, he tracked her to a shabby corner market, where she was scanning barcodes wit…