Ice Queen : Echoes of the Underworld (Echoes from the Underworld) Read online

  Ice Queen

  Maggie Kay

  Ice Queen. Echoes of the Underworld #2

  Maggie Kay

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or used in any manner without written permission of the copyright owner except for the use of quotations in a book review.

  Copyright © 2020 by Maggie Kay

  All Rights Reserved

  First paperback edition 2020

  E-book AISN -B08LZHNCLT

  Edited by Pam Gonzales

  Proofread by Melanie Coleman

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  [email protected]

  Contents

  Disclaimer

  The Valsetti Family

  The Kastrati Family

  1. Eden

  2. Alessio

  3. Eden

  4. Alessio

  5. Eden

  6. Eden

  7. Alessio

  8. Eden

  9. Alessio

  10. Eden

  11. Eden

  12. Alessio

  13. Eden

  14. Alessio

  15. Eden

  16. Alessio

  17. Eden

  18. Alessio

  19. Eden

  20. Eden

  21. Alessio

  22. Eden

  23. Eden

  24. Alessio

  25. Eden

  26. Alessio

  27. Eden

  28. Alessio

  29. Eden

  30. Alessio

  31. Eden

  32. Eden

  33. Alessio

  34. Eden

  35. Eden

  36. Alessio

  37. Alessio

  38. Eden

  39. Alessio

  40. Eden

  41. Alessio

  42. Eden

  12 Months Later

  Epilogue

  Glossary of Terms

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Maggie Kay Books

  DISCLAIMER

  Warning this book contains violence, graphic language, sensitive subject manner and sexual content which is intended for mature audiences 18 years and over.

  The Valsetti Family

  Alessio Valsetti – Next in line to take over the Italian syndicate

  Vincent Valsetti – Alessio’s father. Head of the Italian Syndicate

  Yolanda Valsetti – Alessio’s deceased mother

  Nicolai Valsetti – Head of the American Syndicate.

  Luca Valsetti – Nicolai’s brother. Head of the Valsetti family security in America.

  Giana Valsetti – Alessio’s Oldest sister & married to Roberto Mancini.

  Roberto Mancini - Alessio’s brother-in-law & Vincent’s right hand man.

  Francesca Valsetti - Alessio’s sister- married to Emmanuel Russo.

  Emmanuel Russo – Alessio’s brother-in-law and owner of wine empire.

  Amara Valsetti - Alessio’s unmarried younger sister.

  The Kastrati Family

  Eden Kastrati - Sole heir to the Kastrati fortune

  Mateo Kastrati - Eden’s cousin

  Dorian Kastrati– Eden’s deceased father (killed by Luca Valsetti)

  Juna Kastrati - Eden’s deceased brother (killed by Luca Valsetti)

  Kastrati - Eden’s deceased mother (suicide)

  Antonio Kastrati – Eden’s uncle

  Sofia Kastrati – Eden’s cousin and Nicolai Valsetti’s wife.

  I don’t believe in fairytales.

  Monsters and villains rule my world.

  They torment, they ruin, they steal your very soul.

  I wear this cold crown to protect me.

  It keeps the darkness at bay.

  I don’t believe in fairytales.

  Love is not in my destiny.

  One

  Eden

  Loneliness is a cruel, ugly thing. It wraps its cold tendrils around you, pulling you into its deep, dark, depths. We all want someone. We all need someone. Even me.

  Growing up as the daughter of Dorian Kastrati, one of the most powerful mob members in New York, I was surrounded by men in order to protect me, but I have always been alone. None of them ever truly knew me. Hell, my own father didn’t know me. Even though he said he loved me every night for nineteen years, I never really felt his love. I think he said it more out of habit than anything.

  Dad was always too busy with his business to pay regular attention to me. Then when he took notice, he constantly corrected my manners or was unapproving of my outfit. There was always something I was not doing to his standards.

  My mother died when I was eight. Dad said she was just so tired and unwittingly took too many painkillers. It was not until I was older that I understood what it was. Suicide. I don’t blame her for wanting to leave this life behind; I don’t blame her for wanting an out. I do blame her for leaving me, however. It is hard to see it any other way, really. I know she was very depressed, and that can take over a person, but she left me behind. She left me alone. I feel angry at her for abandoning me. I have had to deal with everything all by myself.

  I don’t remember too much about her anymore. The years have filled with fresh memories and faces, blurring out the old over time. At the end of the day, she has just become another person who my father has killed. He may not have murdered her in cold blood like his enemies, but he killed her just the same. If he treated her anything like he treated me, he most likely drove her deeper and deeper, until she just couldn’t deal with it anymore. And for that, I could never stay angry with her. She deserves her peace.

  My mom was not born into the Mafia as I was. She was a dancer at a club that my paternal grandfather owned. My father swept her off her feet, took her from rags to riches, and wooed his way into her heart before she could even see it coming. It would have been hard for her to accept this life. I imagine by the time she saw her marriage for what it was, it was too late. I was born in the underworld, and I grew up knowing this life was never meant to be my own. I was taught to be duteous, quiet, and yielding. God forbid I shame my family’s precious name and reputation by having my own opinions or speaking out of turn. My father never allowed me to pursue a career or gain a college education. My purpose was to grow up to be the perfect wife, an obedient accessory on a suitable man’s arm.

  My prison has no bars, yet I am invisibly cloaked with them wherever I go. Every aspect of my life has been controlled by my father, and then in his death, my brother, Juna. Now both men lie next to one another in the earth, plaques displaying their end dates, and their control buried in the dirt beneath them. I have this enormous amount of freedom now, and I don’t know what the hell to do with it. I am trapped by my own inhibitions, controlled by my own fear.

  There has been a war between my family, the Kastrati’s, and the Valsetti family for ten years. New York and New Jersey’s kings of the underworld fought an endless battle of tit for tat, blood for blood, and life for a life. My brother Juna recently kidnapped one of the Valsetti brothers, Luca, in retaliation for murdering my father. I betrayed him, handed him over to the enemy in exchange for my cousin and best f
riend, Sofia.

  It was both the hardest and easiest decision of my life. His life for hers. Sofia and I grew up together, we both lost our mothers in close proximity, making it solidify our already strong bond. Sofia knows me better than I know myself. There has never been any bad blood between us. She is pure, strong, and everything I aspire to be. My brother Juna, on the other hand, was everything she is not. He was selfish, controlling, greedy, and deceitful, a murderer, a criminal, and drug trafficker. Juna may have been my only brother, but he left me with no choice.

  Now I live amongst our enemies. I have nowhere else to go. All of my family’s money was left to my Uncle Antonio, to hold onto until I am married, and then it would go to my husband and not me. It’s so typical of Juna to do such a thing. He even planned his control over me in his death. I was not surprised at the reading of the will to hear I’d received nothing I could use to have a life of my own choosing. I am really lucky that Sofia has kindly taken me in and is allowing me to stay with her and her husband Nicolai, so that I don’t have to stay in an empty house ruled by my uncle.

  The problem with that is, Nicolai is a Valsetti, and Luca’s brother. I don’t know how Sofia does it? How she sees past it all. Then again, it was not her father or brother who was murdered by a Valsetti. It was mine. Despite him being our family’s biggest enemy, she is so in love with Nicolai. Even though he held her for ransom to get his brother back, she still saw good in him. She was still able to see past his darkness and love him regardless of it. I could never do the same. As far as I am concerned, all of the Valsetti men are stained with my family’s blood. Every single one.

  The Valsetti members are wary of me. They do not trust me. I know what they say about me. If I betrayed my own family, what is stopping me from crossing them? I don’t belong here. I don’t want to be here. Seeing the very man who murdered not only my father, but also my brother, every single day is killing me. I know my dad killed Luca and Nicolai’s father, and Juna would have killed Luca himself, time permitted, but the facts don’t make it any easier to swallow. I feel everyone’s eyes on me wherever I go. Feel their judgment, smell their distaste. I have been labeled a rat for betraying my brother. Despite the remaining men in the Kastrati syndicate making a peace pact with the Valsetti’s because of Nicolai and Sofia’s marriage, I am no longer accepted as their own. I am an orphaned outcast.

  Sofia’s father, Uncle Antonio, offered to take me in, considering he has been left in care of all my inheritance. But he would just marry me off to the highest bidder the first chance he got. He too, can’t bear to look in the eyes of a betrayer.

  As I look from my balcony window, the cool gentle breeze does nothing to simmer the anger I feel inside me. Everybody judges me for the decision to save Sofia over my brother, but they would have judged me regardless. If I had chosen Juna, then I would still have betrayed my family by getting Sofia killed. I was damned either way.

  Juna was a ruthless businessman and criminal, just as my father had coached him to be. He may have been my blood, but Sofia deserved her life over his. Simple as that. In the end, that is what it came down to. Who deserved to live more?

  Now I have to live with the guilt of my brother’s death on my conscience every single minute of every single painful day. Closing my eyes, I allow the tears to fall from my tired and weary eyes. In the cloak of night and in the confines of my room, I am finally free to let my emotions out. I can’t show anyone the real me. No one wants to see anyway. They think they know me already. A Kastrati stray, a traitor, an enemy.

  I put on a mask of bravery whenever I am around anyone. I bury my guilt, fear, and weakness deep down where no one can see it. I pretend their words, their stares, their whispers, do not bother me. I hold my head up high, straighten my spine, and swallow my resolve. I have become ice cold. It’s easier that way to have people believe I am as cold and ruthless as my father. That way, I am not challenged, I am not spoken to. I am left alone. That way, no one can hurt me.

  Two

  Alessio

  As I watch my cousin and his new wife drive away to begin their honeymoon, I inwardly cringe. Marriage. Erk. The very thought of it gives me chills. I am twenty-seven, way too young to take a bride. Yet, that’s precisely what my father back in Italy expects me to do.

  I should stand up to him, I am a grown man, for fuck’s sake. I should tell him I will find a bride when I am good and ready, and believe me when I say, I am NOT ready. However, my father is a tough and determined man, despite his cleaner business dealings in Italy, he is still the head of my family, and still in charge of whether I am included in that wealth or excluded permanently. That is what scares me.

  I am his only son; I have three sisters. Three! That leaves me the sole beneficiary of his empire. Two of my sisters are already married, and so, if I don’t show my father I am settling down from my ‘party boy’ ways and find a wife, he will give the business over to my brother-in-law Roberto. Over my dead body.

  My initial thoughts were to just find a beautiful woman who was willing to marry me just for namesake, which was much harder than I thought it would be. Papa saw straight through it. I came to America originally to help my cousin Nicolai find his younger brother Luca, whom I am very close to. But now that Luca is back, I find myself using any excuse to stay. Delaying the inevitable on my return back home.

  I’ve told Nicolai I will watch over things, help out Luca with the business, whilst he is away on his honeymoon. So, here I am. Unfortunately, it will only buy me a few extra weeks, and then I will have to go home, find a suitable wife, and be fucking miserable.

  Cracking my knuckles, I turn to head inside, and something, or rather someone, catches my eye. Miss Ice Queen is standing on her balcony looking down at me. Eden does not inherit the same dark Albanian features as her cousin. Although they share the same heritage, she is fair, like her mother was. Long blonde hair falls down her shoulders, the bottom springs into golden waves, and she has piercing blue eyes that stare into your very soul. Her perfect petite waist gives way to beautiful round hips and sun-kissed legs that go on for days. She is hot as hell. Hell being the operative word, because she is straight from the depths of it. There is an ice chip on that woman’s shoulder the size of Antarctica. Eden’s beauty is only skin deep. She is hiding behind some serious baggage, and I will be sure to stay well the fuck away from her while I am here. Not just because she has hard work written all over her, and not because I know I could crack that impenetrable shell she thinks she is wearing. No, I will stay away from her because I promised Nicolai, I wouldn’t entertain her in my bed. His wife made him say something to me, I just know it. I laugh to myself. Nicolai is so pussy whipped that he can’t say no to her. And that is why I don’t EVER want to get married.

  Nicolai and Luca are like the brothers I never had; we were so close growing up. When the war erupted between the Kastrati family and ours, my father fled to Italy like a coward. I was just a kid at the time so had no choice but to follow. I know this war was not mine to fight, but the very minute I heard Luca had been kidnapped, there was no question where I belonged.

  I am so grateful we have Luca back. I honestly thought for a moment there, he’d only be returning in a body bag. Eden really pulled through for us. Even though she is a Kastrati, I will forever be thankful to her for choosing Sofia over her own brother. I could not imagine what courage that took. I know I would never make the same choice if it had been mine to make.

  Glaring up at her, I give her a cheeky smile and wave. “It’s just you and me now, bambina.” I wink. She stares silently at me for a few seconds before shaking her head as though I disgust her and then disappears inside.

  I laugh. I may have promised Nicolai that I will not sleep with her, but I never said anything about tormenting her and having some fun.

  Three

  Eden

  As I lay on my bed, I can hear Alessio Valsetti, AKA playboy, male whore, chauvinistic pig, laughing out in the pool area. That man gets und
er my skin. He walks around thinking he is king shit and God’s gift to women. He makes me sick.

  Why is he even here? I have a feeling Nicolai has asked him to watch me like I am a child that needs babysitting. Either that, or he is here to protect me from Luca, who despite me saving his life continues to look at me with deathly eyes.

  Sofia and Nicolai have gone to Venice for their honeymoon; they will be back in a few weeks. I know these will be the longest couple of weeks of my life. At least when Sofia is around, I have someone who cares for me. She is literally the only person who does not look at me with contempt. Even though Nicolai has accepted me into his home, I sense his caution. It’s thick in the air between us. He only trusts me because his wife does.