About Ruthless:
Two years out of college, Angelica Bondesan spends her time working as a barista, keeping in touch with her prodigal brother, and trying to figure out how to bridge the gap with her father, a wealthy real estate developer.
But all of that changes the night she’s kidnapped. Thrown into a windowless room, Angelica is positive there’s been some kind of mistake —until she meets Nico Vitale.
Gorgeous and frightening, Nico became the boss of New York City’s Vitale crime family after the execution style murder of his parents two years earlier. Since then he’s turned the old-school mob into a sleek, modern army of ruthless men who understand that physical violence —while always an option —isn’t the only way to get what you want.
Now Angel is forced to face the truth;
Her father is not the man she believed him to be.
Nico Vitale is dangerous, possibly lethal.
She is falling in love with Nico Vitale.
Blurbs
"From page one you're hooked and sucked into this corrupt thrilling world. A masterful romance of deep dark suspense, complicated emotions, and exciting action." - New York Times bestseller, M.J. Rose
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Excerpt
They continued on
the path in silence at first. She was acutely aware of him next to her, his
presence so commanding she had to fight not to lean against him. She kept her
eyes forward, reminding herself with every step that she didn’t
care about Nico. Wanting him was something different.
Biology.
Chemistry. Whatever.
But it didn’t
mean anything, and she needed to focus on getting out of the situation alive.
That meant finding out all she could about what Nico wanted with her father,
about whether he was still alive and what would happen to her if he didn’t
come forward.
“You
really didn’t know,”
he
finally said.
“No,
I really didn’t.”
She
felt ashamed saying it aloud. Her ignorance placed her squarely within a group
of her peers that she had no desire to be part of; rich kids who never gave a
thought to what their parents did for a living as long as the money kept
flowing their way. It’s not the way she’d
seen herself.
“I
trust you understand why it became necessary to tell you.”
He
didn’t
look at her as her spoke.
“Not
really. It doesn’t change anything.
I have no idea where my father might be hiding. Clearly I don’t
know much about him at all.” She
sighed. “But
that doesn’t mean I wish you hadn’t
told me.”
“Yes,”
he
said. “I
suppose it’s good you know, although I wish there
had been another way for you to find out.”
“That
would have been nice,” she
said bitterly.
“Does
your brother know?” he
asked as they rounded a bend in the walkway.
A circle of
hedges ringed in stone lay beyond the pathway. The lawn in the center of the
circle had turned brown, the long grass brittle and yellow with the impending
winter.
“I
don’t
know. He’s
never said anything.” She
looked up at him and forced herself to ask the next question. “Are
you going to hurt him?”
“I
don’t
think that would be very productive.”
For the
first time she thought she caught shadows under his eyes. It didn’t
make her happy like she would have expected. Instead she wondered if the
situation was taking as much a toll on him as it was on her. Whatever he wanted
from her father, he must want it badly to hold her hostage. The realization
brought to mind another question.
“Isn’t
this against the rules?”
He looked
down at her, and she felt the same jolt of chemistry flow between them that had
been present in his apartment. “What rules?”
“I
don’t
know…
the
mob rules?” She laughed a
little, even though there was nothing funny about the situation. “Isn’t
there some kind of rule against messing with members of someone’s
family?”
For a split
second, pain flashed across his usually calm features, and she saw such naked
loneliness in his eyes that she wanted to cry. It was gone a moment later.
He looked
away. “There
used to be.”
“Not
anymore?”
she
prodded.
“Not
anymore.”
He
said it softly, and she had the sudden desire to reach out, lay her hand
against his cheek.
They came
to a wood sign that read SHAKESPEARE GARDEN. Nico stopped, tipping his head at
the brick walkway that led to the hidden space.
“Shall
we?”
She nodded,
and they stepped onto the path. It wound away from the main walkway, leading
them into a sheltered garden filled with dead or dying shrubs and flowers. She
tried to see it as it must look in the spring and summer, when everything was
blooming and fragrant. She’d never been here,
and she promised herself that if she got out of this alive, she would take more
time to appreciate all the magical things that existed in plain sight but which
she’d
never bothered to explore.
He stopped
walking and plucked something from a nearby bush. When he held it up, she saw
that it was a tiny pink flower. A miracle blooming amid the seasonal death and
destruction in the rest of the garden.
“I
don’t
think you’re supposed to pick those,”
she
said.
He tucked a
piece of hair behind her ear and placed the flower there. “I
do a lot of things I’m not supposed to
do,”
he
said, his voice gruff.
Michelle St. James Bio:
Michelle St. James aka Michelle Zink is the author of seven published books and six novellas. Her first series, Prophecy of the Sisters (YA), was one of Booklist's Top Ten Debut novels. Her work has also been an Indie Next selection and has appeared on prestigious lists such as the Lonestar List, New York Public Library's Stuff for the Teen Age, and Chicago Public Library's Best of the Best. Her character, Alice, won the Teen Read Awards for Best Villain against Harry Potter's Lord Voldemort.Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads | Instagram | Website
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