“Can I Sit With You?”
Chapter 1
The Girl Nobody Noticed
Rain poured across Chicago like silver needles from the sky.
Inside Loyola University’s old library, every table was occupied. Students crammed for midterms while the smell of coffee and old books drifted through the air.
Kate Hayes hugged her anatomy textbook to her chest and searched desperately for an empty seat.
Nothing.
Except one.
In the far corner sat a young man dressed in a dark coat. He looked different from everyone else.
Too calm.
Too observant.
Too dangerous.
His dark eyes weren’t focused on the laptop in front of him.
They were watching everyone else.
Kate hesitated.
Then gathered her courage.
“Can I sit with you?”
The young man looked up.
For a moment, their eyes met.
Something strange passed between them.
Finally, he nodded.
“Sure.”
Relief flooded Kate’s face.
“Thank you.”
She dropped into the chair and immediately opened her textbook.
“I’m Kate.”
“Leo.”
“Nice to meet you.”
Leo gave a small nod.
That was all.
Most people would have found him intimidating.
Kate found him peaceful.
For the first time all day, nobody expected anything from her.
Nobody knew she worked night shifts.
Nobody knew she was drowning in student debt.
Nobody knew she’d buried her mother eight months ago.
And nobody knew she cried herself to sleep most nights.
For the first time in weeks, she smiled.
Leo felt something tighten in his chest.
Because that smile was real.
And real things were rare in his world.
What Kate didn’t know…
Was that Leo Russo wasn’t really a student.
And what Leo didn’t know…
Was that the girl sitting across from him was about to change his life forever.
Chapter 2
The Secret Daughter
Across the library stood two men.
Expensive coats.
Expensive watches.
Cold eyes.
Leo recognized them immediately.
Thomas Graziano.
One of Dominic Moroni’s most trusted men.
A killer.
A legend.
And he wasn’t watching Leo.
He was watching Kate.
That realization sent ice through Leo’s veins.
His mind raced through old rumors from Chicago’s underworld.
Twenty years ago…
Dominic Moroni had fallen in love with a nurse.
A woman completely outside the mafia world.
People whispered she had given birth to a daughter.
A daughter hidden from enemies.
Protected in secret.
A ghost.
Leo slowly looked back at Kate.
The exhausted nursing student.
The girl worried about exam grades.
The girl who bought instant noodles because she couldn’t afford real meals.
The girl who thought her father was dead.
Dear God.
She was Dominic Moroni’s daughter.
And she had absolutely no idea.
Chapter 3
Falling For The Wrong Girl
Weeks passed.
Coffee became conversations.
Conversations became friendship.
Friendship became something far more dangerous.
Leo fell in love.
He hated himself for it.
Because he worked for the Costa Family.
Moroni’s greatest enemy.
And one day, the order finally came.
Bring the girl.
Vincent Costa wanted leverage.
He wanted power.
He wanted war.
And Kate was the perfect weapon.
That night Leo couldn’t breathe.
Every instinct screamed at him to run.
To disappear.
To save her.
Because once the mafia got involved…
No one stayed innocent.
Not for long.
Chapter 4
The Pier
The attack came sooner than expected.
Black SUVs.
Masked gunmen.
Exploding glass.
Screaming civilians.
One second Kate was holding hot cider.
The next she was lying on frozen concrete while bullets tore through the air above her head.
Everything happened so fast.
Leo tackled her to the ground.
Gunfire erupted.
Men shouted.
Someone screamed.
And suddenly a stranger stepped forward firing a massive revolver.
Thomas Graziano.
The man who had secretly protected her since childhood.
A bullet struck him.
Blood sprayed across the snow.
Kate stared in horror.
Nothing made sense anymore.
Then Leo grabbed her shoulders.
His eyes burned with urgency.
“Kate, listen to me.”
“What is happening?”
His voice cracked.
“Your father is Dominic Moroni.”
Silence.
The world stopped.
The snow.
The gunfire.
The sirens.
Everything.
Dominic Moroni.
The most feared man in Chicago.
Her father.
Chapter 5
The Throne
By sunrise, Kate stood inside a mansion larger than any place she’d ever seen.
And across the room stood the man who had watched over her entire life.
Dominic Moroni.
Power radiated from him.
Yet when he looked at Kate…
His eyes filled with regret.
For twenty years he had protected her from afar.
For twenty years he had sacrificed being her father.
And now the truth stood between them.
Kate should have hated him.
Maybe part of her did.
But another part understood.
Because the moment bullets started flying…
She had already become part of his world.
The old Kate Hayes died on Navy Pier.
The frightened student.
The lonely orphan.
The girl searching for a place to belong.
What emerged from the ashes was something stronger.
Something harder.
Something impossible to ignore.
A Moroni.
And standing beside her was Leo.
The man who lied to her.
The man who saved her.
The man she couldn’t stop loving.
Together they would reshape Chicago.
Together they would build an empire.
And together they would discover that sometimes destiny doesn’t arrive with a crown.
Sometimes it begins with a simple question.
“Can I sit with you?”
