TRIGGER WARNING: This is a DARK mafia romance. In addition to several scenes with strong sexual content, there are also scenes involving violence, death, gun play, mention of sexual abuse, and adult language. Due to the nature of this book, it is intended for 18+ audiences onlyThey call me Dash.Sixteen years ago my brother and I were kidnapped. The Scorpeones believed our father, boss of the … Scorpeones believed our father, boss of the Vitaliev Bratva, could be pressured into relinquishing his hold on Chicago’s underworld.
They were dead wrong.
Ultimately the Scorpeones made the youngest of their family pay for their sins. I tried not to care. Marco Polo Scorpeone, the hostage whose life was forfeit if his family moved on the Vitalievs, was the enemy. Why should I care if he was tortured worse than a prisoner of war?
Except I did care.
For sixteen years I’ve cared, more than I can say.
They call me Scorpio.
There was no light in my world. Then I saw Dash smile.
No voice could pierce my darkness. Then I heard Dash speak.
I’ve killed to survive. Killed to please my handler. Hell, I’ve killed to please myself. Killing is what I do.
I know I’m not good enough for Dash, but it doesn’t matter. What matters is that she’s mine, from now until the end of time. But that time might be nearer than I think, because someone deadlier than me is closing in…
109,000 words
Author’s Note: This is the first half of a two-part story arc. YEAR OF THE SCORPIO: PART ONE ends on a cliffhanger, which will be concluded in YEAR OF THE SCORPIO: PART TWO. You have been warned.
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This book ends on a cliffhanger, so be prepared, and while I avoid those stories like the plague, I wouldn’t have missed this for the world! The story was that good, the characters were that intriguing, and the world created here was so real, I lived in it while reading and didn’t want to leave
Having read and loved Rude and Sassy, which you don`t have to read this book, Marco Polo Scorpio completely and utterly captivated me, as well as who the Vitaliev children were. This clearly gives us who Polo is, what makes him tick, and how he was wound to end up that way. It will break your heart, but it will also make you love him even more
Dasha didn`t have sunshiney childhood memories either, but she, like Polo, has made the best if it and is making her life the best it can be. After coming through life, and then being apart, her and Polo reconnect after events put her in danger. While I think I figured out what was going on, the journey and watching things play out, I couldn`t put the story down
At the 81% mark, my heart broke, and just when I thought I could handle that, it completely shattered for the cliff hanger. I will be recovering from my book hangover and anxiously waiting for January to see how the story plays out
They call me Dash
Sixteen years ago my brother and I were kidnapped. The Scorpeones believed our father, boss of the Vitaliev Bratva, could be pressured into relinquishing his hold on Chicago’s underworld.
They were dead wrong.
They call me Scorpio
There was no light in my world. Then I saw Dash smile.
No voice could pierce my darkness. Then I heard Dash speak.
I’ve killed to survive. Killed to please my handler. Hell, I’ve killed to please myself. Killing is what I do.
I know I’m not good enough for Dash, but it doesn’t matter. What matters is that she’s mine, from now until the end of time. But that time might be nearer than I think, because someone deadlier than me is closing in.
What happens to two kidnapped siblings when one hears the other being tortured? What happens to their grip on reality? What intrinsic part of their personality is forever changed?
How can a young boy reconcile the fact that his own father gives him to the enemy as a sacrificial hostage? What happens to the mind when the child hears their father say you can kill him if we ever go against you again?
Right off you get a taste of classic Stacy Gail characters. Bodyguard Scorpio wins his freedom when the leader of the bratva dies and disappears for six months. Dash, his charge, has missed him a great deal. When an illegal card game brings him back in her life she is elated.
Crooked cops,Russian Mafia princess trying to do good, damaged Russian Mafia prince, an Italian Mafia family that could be innocent and the requisite catty protagonist.
Loved the H/h dynamic and the loyalty displayed to Scorpio. It was refreshing to see a h that doesn’t ignore advice of security and stupidly be headstrong. The brother scares me to know end and the looming question of who is manipulating the string of events that keep Dash in danger.
I can’t wait for the second part to see if the villain is exposed.