Black Heart: Echoes of the Underworld Series, #1

By Maggie Kay

 

My name is Nicolai Valsetti, people call me Black Heart.

My father has been murdered making me the next king of New Jersey. I was taught to live by three mottos…pride, power, and protection.

With my father dead, and my brother kidnapped, all I feel is pain, all I want is possession.

I will get my revenge.

The daughter of my rival and biggest enemy has literally fallen into my lap. She was never meant to be part of the plan, but Sophia Kastrati turns out to be the perfect pawn in a very dangerous game of vengeance.

The only problem is, she is as beautiful as she is brave, and has captured my full attention.

What started as a war out for blood may very well end in one fighting for her heart.

 

Echoes of the Underworld Series Book 1

• Language: English
• Publisher: Maggie Kay
• Release date: May 28, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393572466

Book preview

Prologue

NICOLAI

It’s hard to believe I hold the remains of what was the most powerful man in New Jersey in the palm of my hand. The cold porcelain urn, my reminder that no matter how rich, influential, or predominant you may be, life ends regardless.

My father, Stephan Valsetti, the underworld king of New Jersey, is the latest fatality in a never-ending war of hate, greed, and revenge between my family and the Kastrati clan.

 Albanian underboss, Dorian Kastrati and his brother Antonio, murdered my father in cold blood a few days ago, but I guess you could say he deserved it, he and all the others who have fallen in this brutal battle in the name of vengeance. Soon it will be me, my brother Luca, or perhaps if we live long enough, our children, who will share the same fate as those in our family before us. 

The war between the Valsetti and Kastrati families started ten years ago. We were allies once, which is hard to believe now as I stand here holding my father’s ashes. My grandfather, Vincent, and Dorian’s father were business partners until something went wrong, and it ended in Antonio’s wife being killed. Antonio retaliated, killing my grandfather and now my father. It’s a tit for tat war, with no end in sight. 

I am now the new king of New Jersey, I will have my vengeance and there is only one thing I am certain of, it will cost me my life.

One

Two Years Later

Nicolai

Boom… Boom… The echo from the blast rings sharply in my ears. Broken bricks crumble to the floor, leaving an exposed, blackened hole in the wall.

Move in now, I order, covering my nose and mouth with my hand to filter some of the dust from the blast. Three of my men enter through the gap in the wall, and a few seconds later, yell, Clear! Tony, my trusted right hand, and I follow in behind them. I blink rapidly, trying to clear some of the smoke dust from my eyes, and focus.

 Caine, Price, you stay here and cover the wall, I command. The rest of you, come with me. Gesturing down the corridor.

Roger. Mike nods.

Let’s make it clean men, get in, get Luca, and get the fuck out alive! They all nod in unison as we start to head down the dark hallway. If the blueprints I acquired are correct, this hall should lead us directly to an ascending wall where the basement is located. Martin Rodriguez tipped us off on the location, he’d overheard through a few of his underworld associates that my brother, Luca, was being held here by the Kastrati outfit.

Dorian Kastrati killed my father, so we killed him. It’s been ten years in the making, but Luca and I finally had our vengeance. I believe his brother, Antonio, has kidnapped Luca in retaliation for Dorian’s recent assassination. We had to act quickly on the tip-off, so blasting our way through the New York sewer system into the basement is the only way to get in without being detected and detained on entry.

It has been three long days since my younger and only brother has disappeared. Seventy-two hours he’s been missing, that’s 4320 minutes that my world has been turned upside down, and I’m not fucking happy! I will find every man who had anything to do with taking Luca, and when I do, I will show no mercy on them, and their entire goddamn families will pay.

Luca has been dealing with all the weapon pickups now for three years. The weapons side of the business is dangerous, but everything we do is dangerous. Besides, Luca is tough, he’s had it handled. Until now.

It should have been a simple pick up, we have dealt with the Rodriguez family for years, it makes no sense that they would turn on us now. Rodriguez is adamant the deal went off without a hitch, the money is in the bank, we have the weapons in hand, it all looks legit. So, when Rodriguez gave us a tip-off that it was the Kastrati who took Luca, it made perfect sense.

With our guns cocked, we approach a blind corner, the silence is unnerving, they would have had to of heard that blast, hell, it shook the fucking foundations. Why aren’t their men shooting at us right now? 

This can mean one of three things:

 One, Rodriguez screwed us over, and we’ve walked into a trap;

Two, Luca is not here;

Three, we are about to be sprayed with bullets, by whoever is hiding around the corner.

We squat against the wall, and quietly wait for a sign, a sound, anything that will give an indication of what is around there. I hear heavy breathing and look to Tony with creased eyes, a moment of recognition flashes in his eyes before a bullet bites into the brickwork behind me with an explosion of dust. We all flatten ourselves against the wall as much as our large frames allow us to. The firing stops for a moment. How many do you think? I whisper to Tony, who makes no attempt to inspect his arm where blood now stains his shirt.

Two, at least, I heard two guns fired, a Glock and an MP5. He follows my eyes that are inspecting his injury, shrugging, he rips the material aside. They have a terrible aim too. He wipes the wound and reveals a scrape where a bullet has grazed him. Fuckers missed me. He chuckles, his smug grin telling me how much of a crazy bastard he is. Tony is an expert in weapons, he served in the military for ten years, until he was injured on duty, his prosthetic foot is his daily reminder of the IED he encountered on an operation. He has been working for me now for five years and is as loyal as they come. I consider him part of my family, he is a good and honest friend, and one of the few people I trust.

Put your masks on, he whispers to us as he grabs a knockout grenade from his belt pouch and holds it up to us. We all pull down our masks as he pulls the pin from the canister, then bends down rolling it along the ground. Three, two, one, he signals with his hand, and then the smoke begins to bellow out from the device. Coughs erupt from the distance, followed by yelling voices.

 Wait. Tony holds up his hands to us. Hold for my signal. Seconds tick by, and it feels like minutes. The adrenaline courses through my veins as sweat forms on my forehead. I am so anxious to get my brother back. He better be here, and he better be alive! 

Now, Tony says quietly. We all start heading around the corner, the smoke is still thick in the air, it’s quiet, the yelling has stopped and there appears to be no one around. Surely, they have not run like cowards? 

 Clear! Tony yells from inside the room. Frank and I enter looking around nervously at our surroundings. Big barrels line the back wall, there is a doorway to the left and a flight of stairs to the right. As the smoke settles further to the floor, I make out a television on top of a bar fridge and a small table and chairs in the center of the room. Playing cards litter the table alongside a full ashtray and some empty bottles of beer. The doorway to the staircase has a caged door that has been recklessly left opened.

They’ve bailed, Franko comments as he slips off his mask. There is no one here. He shakes his head half-amused, half baffled.

We all follow suit removing our masks. What’s in there? Tony points to the door on the right.

It’s an empty room, except for a cot bed and a bucket, Frank replies.

Smells like a dead horse in there too. Mike scowls coming out of the room with his hand over his nose. Look familiar, boss? He holds up a dirty bloodied shirt. Luca’s shirt. It was the same blue and white pinstripe shirt he had been wearing the day he disappeared.

Gunfire from the top of the stairs interrupts my thoughts. Kicking the metal table onto its side, I use it as a shield. Clang. Clang. Bullets ricochet off of it. Franko and Tony run for cover into the room where Mike now lies dead in the doorway, a bullet hole straight through his head. Blood pools on the concrete floor around his lifeless frame. 

More gunshots fire, but this time, it’s from my men. Caine and Price have made their way from around the corner and join the fight. Tony fires shots from the doorway, a body tumbles from the stairs with a loud thud. Another round of shots is fired when I try to peer out from the side of the table.

Tony signals to the mask on top of my head as he holds up another smoke grenade. I pull the mask over my face and take one last look at my dead friend on the floor. Mike’s family will be well compensated. He was a good man.

Our footsteps echo loudly as we climb the stairs. The door at the top is locked, but we don’t even get the chance to try to pry it open before an explosion erupts, and it blows away from the hinges, the force pushing us back down the stairs and onto one another like rag dolls. Franko caught the brunt of the blow to his face and torso, a blackened bloodied mess, somehow, he still manages to stand. What the fuck was that? he yells at no one in particular, I swear that man has more lives than a cat. With balls of steel, Franko would have to be one of the toughest of my men, but he has just as much fear as he has brains. None.

The ringing in my ears is near debilitating, I just barely make out what Franko says.

What? Price asks, holding his ears and squinting as though he is in pain. I look him over head to toe, but see no obvious injuries apart from a few scratches. Smoke starts to billow through the doorway at the top of what's left of the stairs.

We have to get out of here, I mouth to the men, assuming they too have restricted hearing, right the fuck now! Climbing our way up the mangled stairway, we make our way through the door. Flames have started to lick the surrounding walls, we have to step around one, two, three dead bodies on the floor to make it past the fire and through to the next room which is practically a blackened hole. It is obvious that this is the room the blast initiated from when we were at the stairwell earlier.

What the fuck happened? I yell to Tony; he shrugs and shakes his head.

I think one of them must have accidentally dropped a grenade or shot one, I don’t know. But what I do know is, Luca is not here, and we need to get the hell out of this place before the police get here, or we too get blown up. He points to a shredded piece of flesh hanging on the side of a charred piece of furniture.

Flames of my own ignite inside me at the thought of Luca’s bloodied shirt, he had been here at some stage. What were the men guarding, if not him?  I can only assume that he had been moved when they knew the location had been compromised. That has to be it, as I refuse to entertain the thoughts that any of this torn flesh once belonged to Luca.

My brother is not dead, he can’t be. 

Boss? Franko’s voice rings in my ears. Boss! Come on, we need to disappear. Now!

I snap out of my thoughts and follow the men through a hallway and toward the exit. A faint coughing sound stops me in my tracks. I look around the smoke-filled air and spot a door. I hear the coughing again, it’s definitely a female. Following the direction of the muffled sound, it brings me to the closed door. Nudging the handle, it doesn’t budge, it’s locked. Using the handle of my ARI5, I knock the lock off the door. How the hell I did that, I will never know, adrenaline and fear perhaps gave me firm determination, but I don’t have time to question it when the door opens and a girl falls into me. Smoke pours out of the room as she coughs and coughs.

BOOM. Another explosion goes off from somewhere in the building, a smaller one this time, but an explosion, nonetheless.

We need to go, boss, Tony pleas as he looks down at the girl coughing uncontrollably in my arms. What are you going to do with her?

Bending slightly, I scoop my forearm under her knees and lift her up into my arms. She curls into me coughing and spluttering, heaving in gulps of air.

BOOM. More smoke and flames erupt around us as we run through the thick of it toward what can only assume is the way out. Tony slams open a door and fresh air invades us. We are outside. Thank Fuck.

Sirens wailing in the distance make me all too aware that as much as we all want to catch our breaths, we need to keep moving.

It’s the back of the building, so we are able to escape through a few alleyways and into our awaiting vehicles undetected. The girl in my arms is still coughing as I slide her small frame into the back of a car and climb in after her. She looks up at me for the first time and inhales a sharp breath. Does she know who I am?

She pulls away, practically crawling up the inside of the car. Terrified, she gulps at the air and coughs uncontrollably.

Water! I yell at Franko. Get me some water!

Franko throws me a bottle from the front seat, and I unscrew the lid, passing it to the girl. She flinches away as though I may strike her.

Hey, I hold my hands up, I’m not going to hurt you. I just saved you, remember. If I wanted to harm you, I’d have just left you in there to die, I say calmly, but the woman looks at me, eyes wide and wild. Her eyes are like two emerald gems, and her black sooted stained skin outlines them, making them luminous green, and breathtakingly stunning. Her resolve gives way to her relentless coughing as she takes the water from me. Our hands brush with the slightest of touch, but it sets my entire being on fire. 

What was that?

Heat and desire fill me from that one small contact. Unlike anything I have ever felt before. Who is this woman? I call her a woman now because even though against me she is so small, but looking at her properly, she is no girl. Her small frame has curves, and the swell of her breasts pop out from the black singlet top she is wearing.

 It’s not just her identity in question, it is also a matter of why and how she had come to be locked in a room in that house, guarded by the Del Pino’s? I say Del Pino’s because that was not a Kastrati holding house as we had first presumed. All the dead men inside all had Del Pino’s patches on. Why would a Spanish motorcycle gang have Luca? We have no quarrels with them. It makes no sense. I feel as though we have been deliberately set up, but by who? Rodriguez wouldn’t dare mess with my family, he knows he’d be signing his own death certificate. None of this adds up.

So, not only has this mission to retrieve Luca been unsuccessful, I now have a strange woman in my car and somehow will have to make peace with the Del Pino’s. The last thing I need right now is to start a new war.

What do you want with me? Just let me out, I won't say a word to anyone! the woman cries, breaking my thoughts.

Wow, sweetheart, that’s original. Do you know how many times I’ve heard that one? I chuckle, causing her to scrunch up her face in frustration. "What’s your name, Tesora?"

Like I’d tell you. She wheezes, coughing between words. Fuck, she is beautiful. Her eyes mesmerize me, I can’t shake the feeling I have seen her somewhere before. No, I shake the thoughts away. I’d surely remember. Those eyes are unforgettable.

"Hmm, cheeky little thing. Are you going to be a problem, Tesora? I don’t like problems," I say through my teeth as I slide across the seat closer to her.

Then let me go.

I chuckle, wrapping my hand around her throat, feeling the warmth of her pulse, and pull her face inches from mine. Tell me who you are, and I may consider it.

I don’t trust you. She coughs again, so I let go of her throat. Immediately she falls back onto the seat; her exhausted body is starting to betray her. When attempting to sit back up, her body slumps to the side instead.

Well, that makes two of us. I cock my head considering her. So, until I know who you are you belong to me. She seems to ponder on my words for a moment before she coughs again, trying to clear her throat to speak, she points to the empty bottle of water.

Franko, more water, I order. A second later, he throws the bottle over the seat. Catching it, I twist off the cap and go to hand it to the girl, but she’s now passed out.

For fuck's sake!

 Her heavy breaths tell me she is alive at least. I pick up her wrist and check for a pulse, it’s steady. She will be fine after some rest. I use the time to study her further, she is young, maybe early twenties, with dark brown hair tied into a messy bun at the top of her head. I pull at the tag on her shirt noting it says Dolce & Gabbana, then inspect her perfectly manicured nails. Hmm, she comes from money. Who is this woman?

How long before we are back in New Jersey, Franko?

About an hour, boss.

I look back at the sleeping beauty on the seat and check her pulse again. Better call Dr. Peters over to the house, I advise and nod my head in the direction of Tony’s vehicle in front of ours. Tony will need his arm looked at, and Miss Donna misteriosa, here on the backseat may need some medical attention.

  I pull out my phone.

Rodriguez, Luca was not at the location. I want answers. Where the fuck is Luca?

Two

Sofia

The Dodge I am in pulls up to an old brownstone building. From the outside it still has its original charms, but a fresh coat of paint makes it look brand new. It’s late afternoon, the glare of sunset through the rear vision mirror blinds me momentarily. I can’t make out a street sign or house number, not that it matters, I am screwed either way. Nicolai Valsetti has kidnapped me. People call him black heart because he is cold, ruthless and cruel. I am about to see how black his heart truly is.

I recognized him the moment my eyes met his. The deep, dark, chocolate brown eyes are unmistakable. Those are the eyes of a killer, my family's killer.

I knew this day would come eventually; it has been written in my destiny from the moment I was born. I am Sofia Kastrati, daughter to an Albanian underboss, my father is known as New York’s king of cocaine. In my short twenty years, despite my father's best efforts, I have seen more death, more destruction, and more danger than most see in ten lifetimes, but that is just the world I have grown up in.

Out, one of Nicolai’s minions orders as he opens the car door and drags me through it.

Why bother asking, if you are just going to manhandle me anyway? I grind through my teeth as he pulls me up the entrance stairs. Although I try to pry my arm out of his grip, it’s useless, he is three times my weight. I am even pathetic enough to kick him in the shins, in an attempt to escape. Even though I know it’s pointless, it’s not in my blood to surrender. 

"Your insolence is not cute, Tesora, so save it," Nicolai says, bringing my attention to the bastard standing in the doorway.

"My name is not Tesora," I bite as I'm pushed through the door by a firm hand, the door closes with a loud thud, making the reality of my situation sink deep and rattle my bones.

He laughs, and his minions join in. "Tesora means sweetheart in Italian, he muses. Perhaps though, I should call you guaio, because something tells me you’re going to be nothing but trouble. He lets out a frustrated sigh. Humor me then, what is your name?"

I start to speak, but all that comes out is a gargled cough that turns into another and another. The smoke still burns my lungs; I feel faint trying to catch my breath. It tickles and teases my esophagus. Trying to swallow feels like razor blades cutting my throat. I bring my hands up to it as though they would soothe it, stupid really because it does nothing, but my first instinct is to try to rub it away.

"Franko, take her upstairs to the bedroom next to mine, and I will send the doctor when he arrives. Let her rest, but keep watch at

Reviews for Black Heart

[K. · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Skimmed a lot.
Cannot stomach the MMC.
Would have been better if he died in the end.
Also, FMC lusted after and fell for him after his horrible treatment of her!
Hate both of them.