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CHAPTER ONE

Vittorio Ferraro stood in the shadows, his skin crawling with the need toWhatever his churning gut was about, he’d never quite felt the urgency of finding the source of the trouble as he did right then

He’d coeles this time He’d been there numerous times, but this particular one had been a bloodbath He was a shadow rider, one of the very few in existence ide With that caun his training at the age of two and continued every day of his life since Now, after carrying out justice in Los Angeles, he’d been et home His house was his sanctuary, and usually, once inside, he felt peace, not this terrible sense of i doom

He hadn’t been able to shake the feeling, so he got dressed and followed the dark dread that strengthened as he approached the nightclub his fa, thewith the energy of the music

The nightclub was the o and people stood in lines, so in Celebrities frequented the Ferraro Club, and there was always the possibility that one liht, the place was packed

As a rule, his fa of the club—they had ers who ran the place far better than any of them ever could—but they dropped in when they needed to be visible The paparazzi always swar the else ever could Right now, visibility was the last thing Vittorio wanted The sense of urgency was growing stronger, not weaker, and thatand fix it before it was too late That so was here In his club Close now

Heseen It was a slow process and his body was already torn up froeles Still, this wasn’t about work This wasn’t about bringing justice to criet to This was about the knots in his gut that coiled tighter and tighter, and felt personal Very personal And that in itself was shocking

Vittorio was the largest of the Ferraro men He was tall, broad-shouldered and very fit, as all riders had to be He was also a th Every flaw What he wanted in life, what he needed—both were impossible, and he’d accepted that he would never have a wife and family the way his brothers Stefano, Ricco and Giovanni had Even Taviano had a rowing feeling that this portent of trouble was connected to him personally

He was a man apart—even within his family, he stood apart Maybe they all did It was possible their wothened the connection between them in some way Certainly, Francesca, Stefano’s wife, did Vittorio loved her—they all did—but at the same time, it only emphasized his loneliness

He kneould already be nearly impossible to find a wo a woman who could ride shadoas in and of itself extre one ould suit his peculiarities, that was asking far too much He knew the odds, and they weren’t in his favor

Shadow riders were obligated to have children, so if they weren’t e—one he was approaching—an arranged e would follow For a man like Vittorio, that would be an utter disaster

For a , knowing not a single one of them would ever tolerate him as a life partner He had to find a woenetics to produce children capable of riding the shadows and carrying on their work That was his obligation He could never siht person The odds of finding that were so slim, most riders never believed it could happen

For Vittorio, the odds were even slimmer He didn’t want a traditional partnership He didn’t have that kind of personality He needed his woman to trust him implicitly and allow him to care for her For every aspect of her life Where, in the modern world, could a woman like that be found? That would be i to happen for hie for the rest of his life