THE PLUS-SIZE MAID WAS HUMILIATED FOR MAKING THE MAFIA BOSS LAUGH—THEN HE PUT HIS RING ON HER FINGER, CALLED HER HIS FUTURE WIFE, AND MADE THE WHOLE CITY REGRET TOUCHING HER

11:30 PM. The Southern Bellgrave Rail Yard.

A driving rain hammered against the rust-red boxcars, obscuring the tracks in a wall of grey mist.

Ten Moretti syndicate enforcers stood near a high-capacity freight train, unloading crates of black-market automatic weapons into covered transport trucks.

At the head of the operation stood Rico Moretti—the arrogant, hot-headed younger brother of the New York Don.

"Hurry up!" Rico barked, pulling his heavy collar up against the rain. "Castellano is too busy playing house with his fat little maid to notice what we're doing!"

"Is that so, Rico?"

A deep, terrifying voice echoed out of the stormy darkness.

The high-powered floodlights of six armored Moretti-style SUVs snapped on all at once, blinding the Moretti enforcers, trapping them in a ring of brilliant white light.

Dominic Castellano stepped out from the lead vehicle, holding a heavy shotgun in his right hand. Beside him, stepping out into the rain with complete calm, was Marin, dressed in a sleek black leather coat, holding a heavy umbrella over them both.

Rico Moretti gasped, his hand twitching toward his waist—

SNAP.

Dominic raised his shotgun with one hand and fired a non-lethal slug straight into Rico's right knee.

BLAM!

Rico screamed in agony, falling face-first into the mud, clutching his shattered leg as his men instantly dropped their weapons, raising their hands in total surrender to the surrounding Castellano enforcers.

Dominic walked slowly through the mud, stopping right beside the groaning Moretti commander. He placed his heavy combat boot squarely on Rico's chest, pressing down until the man could barely breathe.

"You spoke about my fiancée," Dominic said, his voice dropping into a register of pure, cold death.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry, Castellano!" Rico wept, coughing up rain and mud. "It was just talk! Just talk!"

Dominic looked over his shoulder at Marin, who stood calmly beside the vehicle, her dark eyes cool and unyielding under the black umbrella.

"Marin," Dominic called out. "How should we handle a man who insults the future Donna of Bellgrave?"

Marin walked over, her heels clicking softly on the gravel, stopping beside Dominic. She looked down at Rico with a look of supreme, quiet authority.

"Send him back to New York in a cargo box, Dominic," Marin said smoothly. "With a message to his brother: if they ever cross into Bellgrave again, we won't send them back in one piece."