Ice Queen: Echoes of the Underworld Series

By Maggie Kay

I am Eden Kastrati. The only female family member left in the Kastrati outfit. I had a choice. Betray my brother, or save my cousin, who is also my best friend.  I made that decision with my heart, and now it haunts me every single day. Even though I don't regret my choice, it has left me feeling like an outcast and empty inside. Some say what I did was brave. Others say I am a rat. They call me the Ice Queen, cold and detached, but it is better that way. I will never have to feel anything for anyone ever again. 

 

Alessio Valsetti, known as the playboy of the Valsetti family, thinks he can change all that with his witty charm and devilishly good looks. He is so arrogant and foolish to believe he can make me feel again. Does he forget that his family killed mine? I can't believe I am even contemplating his offer? But what other choice do I have? Staying would mean signing my own death certificate, or marrying the highest bidder.

So, do I agree to marry the devil I know? Or, gamble everything on the devil I don't?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Maggie Kay
• Release date: Nov 5, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201350642

Book preview

One

Eden

Loneliness is a cruel, ugly thing. It wraps its cold tendrils around you, pulling you into its deep, dark, depths. We all want someone. We all need someone. Even me.

Growing up as the daughter of Dorian Kastrati, one of the most powerful mob members in New York, I was surrounded by men in order to protect me, but I have always been alone. None of them ever truly knew me. Hell, my own father didn’t know me. Even though he said he loved me every night for nineteen years, I never really felt his love. I think he said it more out of habit than anything.

Dad was always too busy with his business to pay regular attention to me. Then when he took notice, he constantly corrected my manners or was unapproving of my outfit. There was always something I was not doing to his standards.

My mother died when I was eight. Dad said she was just so tired and unwittingly took too many painkillers. It was not until I was older that I understood what it was. Suicide. I don’t blame her for wanting to leave this life behind; I don’t blame her for wanting an out. I do blame her for leaving me, however. It is hard to see it any other way, really. I know she was very depressed, and that can take over a person, but she left me behind. She left me alone. I feel angry at her for abandoning me. I have had to deal with everything all by myself.

I don’t remember too much about her anymore. The years have filled with fresh memories and faces, blurring out the old over time. At the end of the day, she has just become another person who my father has killed. He may not have murdered her in cold blood like his enemies, but he killed her just the same. If he treated her anything like he treated me, he most likely drove her deeper and deeper, until she just couldn’t deal with it anymore. And for that, I could never stay angry with her. She deserves her peace.

My mom was not born into the Mafia as I was. She was a dancer at a club that my paternal grandfather owned. My father swept her off her feet, took her from rags to riches, and wooed his way into her heart before she could even see it coming. It would have been hard for her to accept this life. I imagine by the time she saw her marriage for what it was, it was too late. I was born in the underworld, and I grew up knowing this life was never meant to be my own. I was taught to be duteous, quiet, and yielding. God forbid I shame my family’s precious name and reputation by having my own opinions or speaking out of turn. My father never allowed me to pursue a career or gain a college education. My purpose was to grow up to be the perfect wife, an obedient accessory on a suitable man’s arm.

My prison has no bars, yet I am invisibly cloaked with them wherever I go. Every aspect of my life has been controlled by my father, and then in his death, my brother, Juna. Now both men lie next to one another in the earth, plaques displaying their end dates, and their control buried in the dirt beneath them. I have this enormous amount of freedom now, and I don’t know what the hell to do with it. I am trapped by my own inhibitions, controlled by my own fear.

There has been a war between my family, the Kastrati’s, and the Valsetti family for ten years. New York and New Jersey’s kings of the underworld fought an endless battle of tit for tat, blood for blood, and life for a life. My brother Juna recently kidnapped one of the Valsetti brothers, Luca, in retaliation for murdering my father. I betrayed him, handed him over to the enemy in exchange for my cousin and best friend, Sofia.

It was both the hardest and easiest decision of my life. His life for hers. Sofia and I grew up together, we both lost our mothers in close proximity, making it solidify our already strong bond. Sofia knows me better than I know myself. There has never been any bad blood between us. She is pure, strong, and everything I aspire to be. My brother Juna, on the other hand, was everything she is not. He was selfish, controlling, greedy, and deceitful, a murderer, a criminal, and drug trafficker. Juna may have been my only brother, but he left me with no choice.

Now I live amongst our enemies. I have nowhere else to go. All of my family’s money was left to my Uncle Antonio, to hold onto until I am married, and then it would go to my husband and not me. It’s so typical of Juna to do such a thing. He even planned his control over me in his death. I was not surprised at the reading of the will to hear I’d received nothing I could use to have a life of my own choosing. I am really lucky that Sofia has kindly taken me in and is allowing me to stay with her and her husband Nicolai, so that I don’t have to stay in an empty house ruled by my uncle.

The problem with that is, Nicolai is a Valsetti, and Luca’s brother. I don’t know how Sofia does it? How she sees past it all. Then again, it was not her father or brother who was murdered by a Valsetti. It was mine. Despite him being our family’s biggest enemy, she is so in love with Nicolai. Even though he held her for ransom to get his brother back, she still saw good in him. She was still able to see past his darkness and love him regardless of it. I could never do the same. As far as I am concerned, all of the Valsetti men are stained with my family’s blood. Every single one.

The Valsetti members are wary of me. They do not trust me. I know what they say about me. If I betrayed my own family, what is stopping me from crossing them? I don’t belong here. I don’t want to be here. Seeing the very man who murdered not only my father, but also my brother, every single day is killing me. I know my dad killed Luca and Nicolai’s father, and Juna would have killed Luca himself, time permitted, but the facts don’t make it any easier to swallow. I feel everyone’s eyes on me wherever I go. Feel their judgment, smell their distaste. I have been labeled a rat for betraying my brother. Despite the remaining men in the Kastrati syndicate making a peace pact with the Valsetti’s because of Nicolai and Sofia’s marriage, I am no longer accepted as their own. I am an orphaned outcast.

Sofia’s father, Uncle Antonio, offered to take me in, considering he has been left in care of all my inheritance. But he would just marry me off to the highest bidder the first chance he got. He too, can’t bear to look in the eyes of a betrayer.

As I look from my balcony window, the cool gentle breeze does nothing to simmer the anger I feel inside me. Everybody judges me for the decision to save Sofia over my brother, but they would have judged me regardless. If I had chosen Juna, then I would still have betrayed my family by getting Sofia killed. I was damned either way.

Juna was a ruthless businessman and criminal, just as my father had coached him to be. He may have been my blood, but Sofia deserved her life over his. Simple as that. In the end, that is what it came down to. Who deserved to live more?

Now I have to live with the guilt of my brother’s death on my conscience every single minute of every single painful day. Closing my eyes, I allow the tears to fall from my tired and weary eyes. In the cloak of night and in the confines of my room, I am finally free to let my emotions out. I can’t show anyone the real me. No one wants to see anyway. They think they know me already. A Kastrati stray, a traitor, an enemy.

I put on a mask of bravery whenever I am around anyone. I bury my guilt, fear, and weakness deep down where no one can see it. I pretend their words, their stares, their whispers, do not bother me. I hold my head up high, straighten my spine, and swallow my resolve. I have become ice cold. It’s easier that way to have people believe I am as cold and ruthless as my father. That way, I am not challenged, I am not spoken to. I am left alone. That way, no one can hurt me.

Two

Alessio

As I watch my cousin and his new wife drive away to begin their honeymoon, I inwardly cringe. Marriage. Erk. The very thought of it gives me chills. I am twenty-seven, way too young to take a bride. Yet, that’s precisely what my father back in Italy expects me to do.

I should stand up to him, I am a grown man, for fuck’s sake. I should tell him I will find a bride when I am good and ready, and believe me when I say, I am NOT ready. However, my father is a tough and determined man, despite his cleaner business dealings in Italy, he is still the head of my family, and still in charge of whether I am included in that wealth or excluded permanently. That is what scares me.

I am his only son; I have three sisters. Three! That leaves me the sole beneficiary of his empire. Two of my sisters are already married, and so, if I don’t show my father I am settling down from my ‘party boy’ ways and find a wife, he will give the business over to my brother-in-law Roberto. Over my dead body.

My initial thoughts were to just find a beautiful woman who was willing to marry me just for namesake, which was much harder than I thought it would be. Papa saw straight through it. I came to America originally to help my cousin Nicolai find his younger brother Luca, whom I am very close to. But now that Luca is back, I find myself using any excuse to stay. Delaying the inevitable on my return back home.

I’ve told Nicolai I will watch over things, help out Luca with the business, whilst he is away on his honeymoon. So, here I am. Unfortunately, it will only buy me a few extra weeks, and then I will have to go home, find a suitable wife, and be fucking miserable.

Cracking my knuckles, I turn to head inside, and something, or rather someone, catches my eye. Miss Ice Queen is standing on her balcony looking down at me. Eden does not inherit the same dark Albanian features as her cousin. Although they share the same heritage, she is fair, like her mother was. Long blonde hair falls down her shoulders, the bottom springs into golden waves, and she has piercing blue eyes that stare into your very soul. Her perfect petite waist gives way to beautiful round hips and sun-kissed legs that go on for days. She is hot as hell. Hell being the operative word, because she is straight from the depths of it. There is an ice chip on that woman’s shoulder the size of Antarctica. Eden’s beauty is only skin deep. She is hiding behind some serious baggage, and I will be sure to stay well the fuck away from her while I am here. Not just because she has hard work written all over her, and not because I know I could crack that impenetrable shell she thinks she is wearing. No, I will stay away from her because I promised Nicolai, I wouldn’t entertain her in my bed. His wife made him say something to me, I just know it. I laugh to myself. Nicolai is so pussy whipped that he can’t say no to her. And that is why I don’t EVER want to get married.

Nicolai and Luca are like the brothers I never had; we were so close growing up. When the war erupted between the Kastrati family and ours, my father fled to Italy like a coward. I was just a kid at the time so had no choice but to follow. I know this war was not mine to fight, but the very minute I heard Luca had been kidnapped, there was no question where I belonged.

I am so grateful we have Luca back. I honestly thought for a moment there, he’d only be returning in a body bag. Eden really pulled through for us. Even though she is a Kastrati, I will forever be thankful to her for choosing Sofia over her own brother. I could not imagine what courage that took. I know I would never make the same choice if it had been mine to make.

Glaring up at her, I give her a cheeky smile and wave. "It’s just you and me now, bambina." I wink. She stares silently at me for a few seconds before shaking her head as though I disgust her and then disappears inside.

I laugh. I may have promised Nicolai that I will not sleep with her, but I never said anything about tormenting her and having some fun.

Three

Eden

As I lay on my bed, I can hear Alessio Valsetti, AKA playboy, male whore, chauvinistic pig, laughing out in the pool area. That man gets under my skin. He walks around thinking he is king shit and God’s gift to women. He makes me sick.

Why is he even here? I have a feeling Nicolai has asked him to watch me like I am a child that needs babysitting. Either that, or he is here to protect me from Luca, who despite me saving his life continues to look at me with deathly eyes.

Sofia and Nicolai have gone to Venice for their honeymoon; they will be back in a few weeks. I know these will be the longest couple of weeks of my life. At least when Sofia is around, I have someone who cares for me. She is literally the only person who does not look at me with contempt. Even though Nicolai has accepted me into his home, I sense his caution. It’s thick in the air between us. He only trusts me because his wife does.

The way he looks at Sofia is like a fairy tale. She is his everything, and he is hers. What must it be like to be loved by someone, and to love them back so completely that it consumes the air around you?

Sitting back on my pillow, I let out a long sigh. I gave up on the thought of love a long time ago. I knew my husband would not be one of my choosing. I understood that I would always be a voiceless, choiceless, wife. It wasn’t until I saw Sofia and Nicolai together that I even dreamt of something more. I thought love and fairy tales were only in the movies and romance novels, not a real beautiful thing. Now I see what they have, and I want that too.

I laugh to myself. I am being ridiculous. No one would want me anymore. I am a traitor, a cold and heartless woman who delivered the weapon that killed her brother. I have no home. The only thing slightly tempting about me is my inheritance, my groom's prize for taking on such shame. I don’t know that any amount of money would compensate for that, nor any man stupid enough. It is my only solution though. I have to find a man who would rather his pockets be fuller than his pride. When Sofia returns, I will ask her to help me. She will understand.

A small knock at my door startles me, and I sit upright and place the book I am reading down. Who is it? I ask.

Laurence, mam. I am the masseuse, a deep voice answers. I am here for the massage you ordered. Scrunching my face up, I walk over to the door and open it. I didn’t order a massage, I tell him.

My jaw drops to the floor the moment my door is fully open. Laurence is no man. He’s a demigod. Olive skin, muscular toned arms, eyes that look like glass reflecting back at the ocean. Lord have mercy, he’s sex personified. Shirtless, wearing only loose cotton lounge pants that sit low on his hips, and his chiseled muscles carve a perfect pattern of masculinity across his torso. Clearing his throat, Laurence brings my attention back to his face. My cheeks burn with embarrassment. Hell, I may as well wipe the drool from my mouth. I am so obvious.

I didn’t order a massage, I repeat.

No? he says, a hint of a French accent on his tongue. Mr. Valsetti said you requested my services.

Which one? I snarl, crossing my arms over my chest. His brows crease, confusion paints his pretty face. I shake my head with frustration. Was it, Nicolai?

No, mam.

Never mind. I shake my head with a sigh. I know which one. It’s fine. Uncrossing my arms, I rake my eyes over him one last time. Thank you, but I don’t require your services today.

Are you sure, madam? I have been hired to give you a personal and thorough treatment today. If you know what I mean? His winks seductively. God, I would love to say I wasn't tempted, but my strict and proper upbringing yells a big ‘NO’ in my face. I shake my head as if it would rid away my naughty thoughts.

I am positive, I assure him. Please make sure Mr. Valsetti pays you anyway. I don’t want you to have completely wasted your time.

Stepping back, I close the door quickly before I change my mind. How dare he? This is Alessio’s doing, I know it. I didn’t miss the smirk on his face this morning when I passed him in the kitchen. It was a look of mischief, and now I know why.

I try to do anything to distract myself. Read, listen to music, scroll through social media on my phone, but my mind cannot erase the ill thoughts I have of Alessio. The more time that passes, the angrier I become, until I just can’t take it anymore. Storming down the stairs, I set out on a mission to find him and give him my piece of mind. He is not in the kitchen, by the pool, or in the library, nor in his room. The last place I check is Nicolai’s office. I don’t know what I am thinking when I barge through the door without even knocking. My mind is so clouded with rage that my body acts of its own accord.

Luca immediately looks over the top of his laptop at Nicolai’s desk. His lips turn up at the sides with disgust when he sees me. All the breath in my lungs abandons me. The hostility in the air is stale and pungent.

Excuse me? he barks. Can I help you?

My mouth opens, but nothing comes out. I’m frozen in place, staring at the man who killed my family. This is the first time since I have been living with Sofia and Nicolai that I have ever been in a room alone with Luca. There is so much I want to yell at him, but at the same time, I have nothing to say. Even though Luca knows that it was me that helped save him, even though he knows I lost my brother as a result, he still looks at me as though I am the enemy. He still treats me with such contempt. Does he forget he murdered my father and my brother?

Well? He cocks his head, pinning me with his stare. Luca is tall, dark, and handsome. His Italian heritage predominates in his features, yet his soul is ugly. All the good that may have once been in him has been destroyed with his hatred, his power, and his greed for vengeance.

I found it. Alessio walks into the office holding up a folder. He entered through another doorway to the right-hand side of the office that I had not noticed before. It must lead to a file room, or a storeroom perhaps. Stopping mid-stride, he looks at me, then to Luca. His eyes widen a little as a sense of awareness washes over his face.

Everything okay, Eden? he asks, placing the folder on Luca’s desk, then walks over to stand in front of me. This is the first time Alessio has addressed me without a hint of sarcasm, jest, or intention. Tears threaten to fill my eyes, but I won’t give him the satisfaction of seeing them. I swallow thickly trying to alleviate the lump forming in my throat, but I’m still speechless. No matter how much I force my body to move, implore my mouth to open, nothing cooperates. I