The air inside the Hawthorne Grand suite tasted like cold peppermint and leather. Outside the floor-to-ceiling windows, Lake Michigan was a slab of gray slate, reflecting a winter sky that looked bruised and low.

The Mediterranean sun was warm against my skin.

I stood on the terrace of a private villa cliffside in Amalfi, looking out at the endless expanse of deep blue water. Below, small white boats cut through the waves, leaving trails of foam behind them.

Inside the villa, the estate was quiet. Eleanor, Lydia, and Arthur were currently serving federal prison sentences in Illinois. The Gold Coast townhouse had been liquidated, my father's six-million-dollar insurance estate had been fully restored to my private account, and my event planning business had expanded into a international luxury firm.

A pair of strong arms wrapped around my waist from behind.

Dante pulled me close, resting his chin on my shoulder, his warm breath tickling my neck.

"What are you thinking about, mia cara?" he asked softly.

I leaned back against his chest, smiling. "I was thinking about the day I walked into the Brass Nickel. How lucky I was that you happened to be sitting in that back booth."

Dante didn't answer right away. He kissed the side of my neck, then turned me around gently in his arms so I was looking into his dark, magnetic eyes.

"Nora," he said quietly, a faint, mysterious smile playing on his lips. "Do you really believe in luck?"

I frowned slightly. "What do you mean?"

Dante reached into his pocket and pulled out an old, faded paper credit card receipt.

It was from my event planning office, dated two weeks before I caught Arthur and Lydia.

"The night you walked into my bar," Dante whispered, his thumb softly wiping a stray tear of shock from my eye, "you thought you chose that place by accident. But the taxi driver who took you there? He’s worked for my family for twelve years."

My breath caught in my throat. My heart gave a sudden, hard thud.

"What?" I breathed.

"I’ve been watching you for six months before that night, Nora," Dante confessed, his dark eyes burning with an intense, intoxicating fire. "I saw how hard you worked. I saw how your mother and fiancé bled you dry. I saw the brilliant, fierce, unbreakable woman hiding beneath that quiet event planner."

He leaned down, his lips brushing against mine.

"I set the trap for Arthur and Lydia. I leaked the offshore account numbers to your mother's lawyer. I made sure you would catch them on that exact Thursday afternoon."

I stared at him, my mind spinning as the full scope of his genius unfolded before me.

"You... you planned everything?" I whispered, stunned. "From the very beginning?"

"Not everything," Dante smiled, wrapping his arms around me tighter, pulling me into a kiss that made the world melt away. "I didn't plan on falling in love with you."

I looked into the eyes of the most dangerous man in Chicago—the man who had destroyed my enemies, saved my life, and handed me the empire I deserved.