The standalone prequel to the Truculence series and also part of The Fidelity World. Every king needs a queen… My job was to find a wife, one malleable and well-trained, to protect my empire and keep the rules of La Cosa Nostra from ruining what I built and stealing my chance to destroy those who hurt my family. Infidelity had failed me; after two agreements, I had nothing to show for it. Angry and pushed to my limit, I cruised for a body to accept my sort of release. She was knock-kneed, sickly, and dirty, but her eyes cut through me. Her words were foul and her nails brittle, but she understood my needs better than I did. And when I had a chance to end her, she rose from the ashes like a phoenix, and I could do nothing but let her live. I needed to give her the world, one bloody body at a time. She sold herself to save her son, and I bought them both to save myself.