The Ultimate Don

Italy, Venice Lagoon, Sunsand Isle.

Coast guard and air patrol units from a joint EU operation had surrounded Sunsand Isle. Colonel Pedro, commanding the mission, stood on the warship deck watching the island through binoculars.

Within this tight perimeter,

private jets from the sky and private yachts from the sea were converging from all directions, breaking through the security cordon to land on Sunsand Isle. Every name on the arriving guest list put Pedro on high alert.

The Abyss Circle controlled 85 to 90 percent of Europe's cocaine market and was one of the largest drug trafficking networks in the world, with hundreds of families in its service.

The Colombo family, Italy's oldest Mafia clan. It is also the most powerful family in Abyss Circle

The Gambino family. Even members of various royal families.

And all it took to bring together these organizations that ruled the European underworld was a wedding.

"Rosalia Colombo, head of the Colombo family and the latest generation's Mafia Queen. Never thought a woman that terrifying would actually get married." Pedro muttered to himself.

His adjutant smiled. "Who's the lucky man who gets to marry the Mafia Queen? I heard her power rivals some royal families."

Pedro looked at the groom's name in the file.

"Nathaniel."

"Background: none. History: none."

Whether it was an airtight cover or a complete fabrication, the EU's most powerful intelligence agencies had spent years and turned up nothing on him. The only known fact was that ten years ago, a smuggling vessel had shipwrecked on an Italian beach, and he was the sole survivor.

Every agent who tried to dig into his past either went mad or disappeared.

"Dark Ghost" was the only codename the EU intelligence community had for Nathaniel.

"Dark Ghost and the Mafia Queen. Quite the pair. If those two could just settle down and live a quiet life, Europe would finally get some peace." Pedro let himself dream for a moment.

Then, without warning, explosions erupted on the island. Flames shot into the sky.

Thick black smoke rolled outward.

Mafia members came pouring out in a panic.

"What's happening?" Pedro was stunned.

His deputy quickly got word, his eyes going wide. "Sir, that Nathaniel went on a killing spree at the wedding. He's slaughtered a whole group of Mafia bosses!"

"What?" Pedro stared at Sunsand Isle in disbelief.

His whole body was shaking.

Those were the most feared criminal powers on the entire continent.

"Seal it off now! Arrest everyone! Not even an ant gets out!" Pedro snapped back to his senses and shouted the order. There was only one thought in his mind: if the killer wasn't caught, Europe was finished.

Sunsand Isle. The wedding venue.

Nathaniel picked up a handgun.

Barry Myers, current head of the Abyss Circle's Myers family, lay dying and stared up at him in disbelief. "Why?"

"Poor Barry. You've really gotten old." Nathaniel said with a sigh.

"If you remembered the shipwreck ten years ago, you never would have come to the survivor's wedding." Nathaniel pressed the gun to Barry's forehead, speaking slowly, one word at a time. "I put in a lot of work courting Rosalia just to get all you big shots in one place."

Ten years ago, a smuggling vessel had capsized at sea with no survivors. The police ruled it an accident. But Nathaniel knew the truth.

One of the passengers had accidentally witnessed an Abyss Circle drug deal at sea. To silence him, everyone on board was massacred. The Abyss Circle then staged the scene to look like the ship had struck a reef, bribed the police to close the case, and just like that, a hundred lives were erased as if they had never mattered.

Among them, Nathaniel's parents and his sister.

He had survived only by chance, hidden in a gap between storage compartments deep in the hull. From that moment on, Nathaniel swore he would destroy the entire European Mafia.

"You—" Barry trembled with rage.

Bang.

A bullet tore through his skull, cutting off whatever he had left to say.

"So I was just part of your plan?" A cold, clear voice came from behind him.

Rosalia, the bride, was staring at him with pure hatred in her eyes.

Every Mafia boss worth naming lay dead or dying around them. Across the entire European continent, only one remained.

Rosalia.

The Mafia Queen.

Even now, this flawless woman was ice cold.

Nathaniel met her gaze without expression.

Then Rosalia said something that stopped him cold. "The wedding can still go on."

Her eyes shifted toward the international officers landing on the island.

Nathaniel understood immediately.

Kill the witnesses. Pin it on Interpol.

"Truly worthy of the Mafia Queen." Nathaniel smiled. "Do something good for once, sweetheart. I have to go."

"Go?" Rosalia's voice dropped. "Go where?"

"You've made enemies of the entire European underworld. You really think there's anywhere left for you?"

Bang.

A shot rang out.

The bullet grazed Rosalia's cheek.

A Mafia member standing behind her dropped to the ground.

By the time Rosalia turned back around,

Nathaniel was gone.

"Nathaniel. My husband. God has witnessed our wedding vows. You can't run from this."

A wild smile spread across Rosalia's lips.

……

Several months later.

Across the ocean, New York was bathed in warm sunlight.

An aircraft carrier came into port for routine maintenance.

A crowd of sailors poured off the ship, soaking up their free time.

Nathaniel moved among them, blending in perfectly.

Once the group began to scatter, Nathaniel quietly slipped away.

He stopped deep in an alley and glanced left and right.

No one.

Then he started taking off his clothes.

First the jacket, then the T-shirt underneath. He did it with total ease, like a man changing in his own bedroom after work, not standing in a Brooklyn back alley where anyone could walk in at any moment.

He folded the uniform neatly and tucked it into a black backpack he had stashed behind a trash can.

He pulled out a dark grey Henley shirt and was about to pull it on.

A short, sharp gasp broke the silence.

Nathaniel went still.

He turned and saw a girl who had stumbled into the alley in a panic.

She looked to be in her early twenties, dark brown curly hair loosely tied back, wearing a hoodie and ripped jeans. Her features weren't striking, but there was a clean, unguarded kind of beauty about her.

Right now her face was turning red at a visible rate.

From her neck all the way to the tips of her ears.

She clearly had not expected to walk into an alley and find a man doing a midday striptease.

"Pervert." She was about to say it, but then her eyes went blank.

Nathaniel's jeans were still unbuttoned. In the sunlight, the lines of his abs were as sharp as an anatomy diagram.

Not an ounce of extra fat on him, not a single exaggerated muscle, just perfect, like a Michelangelo sculpture.

The girl swallowed. If an ugly man was changing in public, that was definitely a pervert. But if the man looked like this, well, you might as well take a good look.

"If you're going to stare, you owe me money." Nathaniel smiled slightly and pulled the shirt on.

Right as he said it, a group of men in suits flooded into the alley.

"Ms. Adams, we finally caught up with you!"

"Please, just stop running!"

The suited men were out of breath and practically begging.

"Great." The girl suddenly remembered her situation and bolted for the other end of the alley.

That end was already blocked.

She was trapped.

Nathaniel's brow lifted slightly, and without a word he stepped back, shielding her behind him.

The girl noticed. Something in her settled, and the panic eased a little.

"Ms. Adams, there's nowhere to run."

"Ms. Adams, just come with us."

"I told you, I'm not marrying that man."

"This is Mr. Adams' decision."

The girl bit her lip, glanced at Nathaniel, then suddenly grabbed his arm. "I have a boyfriend now."

"Miss, are you—" Nathaniel started.

The girl looked up at him with wide, pleading eyes. "Just play along for a minute. Please."

"That'll cost you."