We all had direct access to the account, all seven making regular contributions, but I had to admit I hadn’t paid any attention to the amount in months.

  I’d had far too much on my mind. While the seven of us were experiencing the sanctity of peace in our operations, the nagging would always be in the back of my mind.

  Another enemy would engage, determined to overthrow one or another. We’d have each other’s backs.

  No matter the difficult task.

  When he held up his phone, shifting it from one to the other, every man whistled.

  “Not bad,” Diego said first.

  I was shocked by the amount, impressed with the earnings. Constantine was a consummate businessman.

  “I think that deserves another toast,” Dante offered. “To the lords of our legacy.”

  “To the Lords of Corruption. May they learn from our mistakes, accept those they make, and hope that they learn what’s most important.” As I offered the toast, I could tell every man was trying to decide what the one most important thing was.

  Then without hesitation, everyone but Diego searched the crowd for the women they’d fallen in love with.

  I was no exception.

  “You’ll find her,” I told Diego, trying to keep from grinning.

  “Are you kidding me? No one could tolerate my brother,” Dante huffed.

  “Fuck all of you,” Diego threw back.

  “No cursing,” Maxim said in his gruff tone.

  As I noticed my lovely wife, I backed away. “You’ll have to excuse me.”

  “Yep. She has him wrapped.” Constantine nodded, lifting his glass out of respect.

  As I walked closer, she took the time to ease Griffin into his grandfather’s lap before walking toward me. Her face beamed, her eyes lighting up with fire.

  She slowed her swagger as she closed the distance, placing her hand on my chest. “Have you been having fun with your Brotherhood?”

  “Planning nefarious activities.”

  “You better not be.”

  I pulled her onto her tiptoes, pressing my lips against hers. She tasted like sunshine and cherries, two of my favorite things.

  “Careful there, big boy. We have guests.”

  “Technically Elena has guests. Come with me. I have a little surprise for you.”

  “A surprise, huh?” She gazed at me skeptically. “What is it?”

  “Good things come to those who have patience.”

  “Coming from a man with none.” She took my hand, squeezing my fingers.

  As I headed away from the party, I sensed a sadness in her that had never left. We’d chosen the location of the christening party together so she could visit her father’s grave. While it had provided some peace, there was one more thing she needed to do.

  At least in my mind.

  I led her to the top of a rolling hill, the view of the mountains in the background breathtaking.

  “I love this spot,” Whitney said quietly as she leaned against me. “I’m so glad the winery is operational.”

  “My sister is having a banner year.”

  “When’s the wedding?”

  All I could do was laugh. “Whenever Elena decides.”

  “Maybe you are coming into the new century.”

  Her laughter almost sent a shudder of need into my system. “Are you ready?”

  “Should I close my eyes?”

  “Absolutely,” I commanded.

  I waited, checking to make certain she had before tugging the small bottle from my pocket, twisting off the cap. “Okay, now blow.”

  “Blow?”

  “Do as you’re told.”

  “You’re so mean.”

  I grinned as she finally followed my order. “Open your eyes.”

  When she did, her exclamation was immediate, squealing as if she was a kid seeing bubbles floating in the air for the first time. She spun around, almost driving the colorful bottle from my hand. “You remembered.”

  “Of course I remembered. There’s nothing I’ll ever forget about you. Take a look around you, baby. Everyone is sending a message to your father.”

  As the guests crowded around, all with a personal bottle, bubbles floated toward the heavens.

  I wasn’t a religious man. I had no right to ask for salvation or even consideration for anything in my life, but on this day as thousands of bubbles from a cheap child’s toy shimmered in the sunlight, I prayed the next generation would bring peace and hope.

  And love.

  Without family, life wouldn’t be worth living.

  The End

  AFTERWORD

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  BOOKS OF THE KINGS OF CORRUPTION SERIES

  King of Wrath

  After a car wreck on an icy winter morning, I had no idea the man who saved my life would turn out to be the heir to a powerful mafia family… let alone that I’d be forced into marrying him.

  When this mysterious stranger sought to seduce me, I should have ignored the dark passion he ignited. Instead, I begged him to claim me as he stripped me bare and whipped me with his belt.

  He was as savage as I was innocent, but it was only after he made me his that I learned the truth.

  He’s the head of the New York Cosa Nostra, and I belong to him now…

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  King of Cruelty

  Constantine Thorn has been after me since I saw him kill a man nine years ago, and when he finally caught me he made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. Marry him and he will protect me.

  Only then did I learn that the man who made me his bride was the same monster I’d feared.

  He’s a brutal, heartless mafia boss and I wanted to hate the bastard, but with every stinging lash of his belt and every moment of helplessly intense passion, I fell deeper into the dark abyss.

  He’s the king of cruelty, and now I’m his queen.

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  King of Pain

  Diego Santos may be wealthy, powerful, and sinfully gorgeous, but his slick veneer doesn’t fool me. I know his true nature, and I had planned to end this arranged marriage before it even began.

  But it wasn’t Diego waiting for me at the altar.

  By all appearances the man who laid claim to me was the mafia heir to whom I’d been promised, but I sensed an entirely different personality, one so electrifying I was swept up by his passion.

  A part of me still wanted to escape, but then he took me in his arms and over his knee, laying my deepest, darkest needs bare and then fulfilling them in the most shameful ways imaginable.

  Now I’m not just his bride. I’m his completely.

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  King of Depravity

  When Brogan Callahan swept me off my feet, I didn’t know he was heir to a powerful Irish mafia family. I didn’t find that out until after he’d taken me in his arms… and over his knee.

  By the time I learned the truth, I was already his.

  I went on the run to escape my father’s plans to marry me off, but it turns out the ruthless mob boss he had in mind is the same sinfully sexy bastard who just stripped me bare and claimed me savagely.

  He demands my absolute obedience, and yet with each brutal kiss and stinging lash of his belt I feel myself falling ever deeper into the dark abyss of shameful need he’s created within me.

  At first I wondered if there were bounds to his depravity. Now I hope there aren’t…

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  King of Savagery

  I knew Maxim Nikitin was a man to be reckoned with when I went undercover to help the FBI bring him down, but nothing could have prepared me for his raw power… or his icy blue eyes.

  He caught me, and now he’s determined not just to punish me, but to tame me completely.

  Every kiss is brutal, every touch possessive, every fiery lash of his belt more intense than the last, yet with every cry of pain and every scream of climax the truth becomes more obvious.

  He doesn’t need to break me. I belong to him already.

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  BOOKS OF THE SINNERS AND SAINTS SERIES

  Beautiful Villain

  When I knocked on Kirill Sabatin’s door, I didn’t know he was the Kozlov Bratva’s most feared enforcer. I didn’t expect him to be the most terrifyingly sexy man I’ve ever laid eyes on either…

  I told him off for making so much noise in the middle of the night, but if the crack of his palm against my bare bottom didn’t wake everyone in the building my screams of climax certainly did.

  I shouldn’t have let him spank me, let alone seduce me. He’s a dangerous man and I could easily end up in way over my head. But the moment I set eyes on those rippling, sweat-slicked muscles I knew I needed that beautiful villain to take me long and hard and savagely right then and there.

  And he did.

  Now I just have to hope him claiming me doesn’t start a mob war…

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  Beautiful Sinner

  When I first screamed his name in shameful surrender, Sevastian Kozlov was the enemy, the heir of a rival family who had just finished spanking me into submission after I dared to defy him.

  Though he’d already claimed my body by the time he claimed me as his bride, no matter how desperately I long for his touch I vowed this beautiful sinner would never conquer my heart.

  But it wasn’t up to me…

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  Beautiful Seduction

  In my late-night hunt for the perfect pastry, I never expected to be the victim of a brutal attack… or for a brooding, blue-eyed stranger to become my savior, tending to my wounds while easing my fears. The electricity exploded between us, turning into a night of incredible passion.

  Only later did I learn that Valentin Vincheti is the heir to the New York Italian mafia empire.

  Then he came to take me, and this time he wasn’t gentle. I shouldn’t have surrendered, but with each savage kiss and stinging stroke of his belt his beautiful seduction became more difficult to resist. But when one of his enemies sets his sights on me, will my secrets put our lives at risk?

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  Beautiful Obsession

  After I was left at the altar, I turned what was meant to be the reception into an epic party. But when a handsome stranger asked me to dance, I wasn’t prepared for the passion he ignited.

  He told me he was a very bad man, but that only made my heart race faster as I lay bare and bound, my dress discarded and my bottom sore from a spanking, waiting for him to ravage me.

  It was supposed to be just one night. No strings. Nothing to entangle me in his dangerous world.

  But that was before I became his beautiful obsession…

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  Beautiful Devil

  Kostya Baranov is an infamous assassin, a man capable of incredible savagery, but when I witnessed a mafia hit he didn’t silence me with a bullet. He decided to make me his instead.

  Taken prisoner and forced to obey or feel the sting of his belt, shameful lust for my captor soon wars with fury at what he has done to me… and what he keeps doing to me with every touch.

  But though he may be a beautiful devil, it is my own family’s secret which may damn us both.

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  BOOKS OF THE BENEDETTI EMPIRE SERIES

  Cruel Prince

  Catherine’s father conspired to have my father killed, and that debt to the Benedetti family must be settled. Just as he took something from me, I will take something from him.

  His daughter.

  She will be mine to punish and ravage, but when she suffers it will not be for his sins.

  It will be for my pleasure.

  She will beg, but it will be for me to claim her in the most shameful ways imaginable.

  She will scream, but it will be because she doesn’t think she can bear another climax.

  But when she surrenders at last, it will not be to her captor.

  It will be to her husband.

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  Ruthless Prince

  Alexandra is a senator’s daughter, used to mingling in the company of the rich and powerful, but tonight she will learn that there are men who play by different rules.

  Men like me.

  I could romance her. I could seduce her and then carry her gently to my bed.

  But that can wait. Tonight I’m going to wring one ruthless climax after another from her quivering body with her bottom burning from my belt and her throat sore from screaming.

  She will know she is mine before she even knows she is my bride.

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  Savage Prince

  Gillian’s father may be a powerful Irish mob boss, but he owes a blood debt to my family, and when I came to collect I didn’t ask permission before taking his daughter as payment.

  It was not up to him… or to her.

  I will make her my bride, but I am not the kind of man who will wait until our wedding night to bare her and claim what belongs to me. She will walk down the aisle wet, well-used, and sore.

  Her dress will hide the marks from my belt that taught her the consequences of disobeying her husband, but nothing will hide her blushes as her arousal drips down her thighs with each step.

  By the time she says her vows she will already be mine.

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  BOOKS OF THE MERCILESS KINGS SERIES

  King’s Captive

  Emily Porter saw me kill a man who betrayed my family and she helped put me behind bars. But someone with my connections doesn’t stay in prison long, and she is about to learn the hard way that there is a price to pay for crossing the boss of the King dynasty. A very, very painful price…

  She’s going to cry for me as I blister that beautiful bottom, then she’s going to scream for me as I ravage her over and over again, taking her in the most shameful ways she can imagine. But leaving her well-punished and well-used is just the beginning of what I have in store for Emily.

  I’m going to make her my bride, and then I’m going to make her mine completely.

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  King’s Hostage

  When my life was threatened, Michael King didn’t just take matters into his own hands.

  He took me.

  When he carried me off it was partly to protect me, but mostly it was because he wanted me.

  I didn’t choose to go with him, but it wasn’t up to me. That’s why I’m naked, wet, and sore in an opulent Swiss chalet with my bottom still burning from the belt of the infuriatingly sexy mafia boss who brought me here, punished me when I fought him, and then savagely made me his.

  We’ll return when things are safe in New Orleans, but I won’t be going back to my old home.

  I belong to him now, and he plans to keep me.

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  King’s Possession

  Her father had to be taught what happens when you cross a King, but that isn’t why Genevieve Rossi is sore, well-used, and waiting for me to claim her in the only way I haven’t already.

  She’s sore because she thought she could embarrass me in public without being punished.

  She’s well-used because after I spanked her I wanted more, and I take what I want.

  She’s waiting for me in my bed because she’s my bride, and tonight is our wedding night.

  I’m not going to be gentle with her, but when she wakes up tomorrow morning wet and blushing her cheeks won’t be crimson because of the shameful things I did to her naked, quivering body.

  It will be because she begged for all of them.

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  King’s Toy

  Vincenzo King thought I knew something about a man who betrayed him, but that isn’t why I’m on my way to New Orleans well-used and sore with my backside still burning from his belt.

  When he bared and punished me maybe it was just business, but what came after was not.

  It was savage, it was shameful, and it was very, very personal.

  I’m his toy now, and not the kind you keep in its box on the shelf.

  He’s going to play rough with me.

  He’s going to get me all wet and dirty.

  Then he’s going to do it all again tomorrow.

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  King’s Demands

  Julieta Morales hoped to escape an unwanted marriage, but the moment she got into my car her fate was sealed. She will have a husband, but it won’t be the cartel boss her father chose for her.

  It will be me.

  But I’m not the kind of man who takes his bride gently amid rose petals on her wedding night. She’ll learn to satisfy her King’s demands with her bottom burning and her hair held in my fist.

  She’ll promise obedience when she speaks her vows, but she’ll be mastered long before then.

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  King’s Temptation

  I didn’t think I needed Dimitri Kristoff’s protection, but it wasn’t up to me. With a kingpin from a rival family coming after me, he took charge, took off his belt, and then took what he wanted.