Stitched in Blood: A Forced Proximity Mafia Romance

He bled on my floor. I saved his life. Now, he refuses to let me go. As an ER trauma nurse, I operate on a strict triage protocol: assess the wound, stop the bleeding, and ask absolutely zero questions. So when a man in a ruined charcoal suit drags me into a hospital supply closet with a bullet hole in his side, I do my job. I take his cash, I stitch his flesh, and I pray I never see his terrifying, impassive face again. I should have prayed harder. Damiano Moretti isn't just a shadow in the night. He is the lethal, untouchable heir to Chicago's most ruthless syndicate. And because my hands patched him up, a rival cartel has just placed a half-million-dollar bounty on my head. Damiano's solution to the problem? He takes me. Locked behind the reinforced glass of his sprawling lakefront estate, I am told I am nothing but a tactical liability. A civilian he needs to manage until the war is over. But the icy enforcer is slipping. The longer I am trapped in his gilded cage, the more his clinical detachment fractures, revealing a violent, consuming obsession that is far more dangerous than the cartel hunting me. Damiano told me that in his world, caring about someone is a death sentence. He warned me that he is a monster. But when the syndicate's betrayal breaches our walls, I realize the most terrifying truth of all: I don't want to run from the monster. I want to watch him burn the city to the ground to keep me. Stitched in Blood is a standalone dark mafia romance. It features intense forced proximity, a morally gray hero, high-stakes suspense, and a "touch-her-and-you-die" protector. Intended for mature readers.