The Heir She Came to Kill
The night her father is shot inside his own club, pastry chef Livia Arzani wraps his .38 in a dish towel and walks into the enemy's nightclub to kill its heir.
Early access opens in batches. Invite friends to skip ahead.
The story
The story
The night her father is shot inside his own club, pastry chef Livia Arzani wraps his .38 in a dish towel and walks into the enemy's nightclub to kill its heir.
Damiano Ruvolo takes the gun from her in three seconds. He swears he didn't order the hit. He swears whoever did will come for her next. And when his capos want her held as leverage against her uncle, he faces them all down and puts her under his protection. His. Any hand raised against her answers to him.
Now someone is selling his routes to the men shooting at them, and after thirty years of war between their families, the safest place in South Philadelphia is beside the man she came to kill. He's controlled, dangerous and far too good at reading her. And when she asks him who decides, he says: you do.
She has a list of reasons this is a terrible idea. Then he says her name, and the list catches fire.
A scorching enemies-to-lovers mafia romance.
Spice map
Where it gets hot
Heat, chapter by chapter. No spoilers, just warning.
The world
Know your way around
Character
- Damiano Ruvolo
- Heir to the Ruvolo family: thirty-four, bigger than the stories, the name adults say with their backs straight. He takes Livia's gun in three seconds, tells her he didn't order her father's death, and says he is going to find out who did.
- Ettore Arzani
- Livia's father, shot inside his own club on a Friday night. Damiano calls him a fair man, for an enemy, and says Ettore was meant to be at a card game until midnight when somebody moved him.
- Livia Arzani
- A pastry chef who says she is good at exactly one thing, and it is ganache. The night her father is shot inside his own club, she wraps his .38 in a dish towel and walks into the Ruvolo nightclub to kill Damiano Ruvolo.
- Nereo Arzani
- Livia's uncle. His voice is very calm when he calls her about her father, and he tells her to come to the house.
Place
- The Arzani club
- Her father's club, where his .38 lived under the register since before Livia was born, and where he was shot on Friday night. By the time she gets there, cousins in dark coats are already on the sidewalk.
Family
- The Arzani family
- Livia's family, on one side of a long South Philadelphia war with the Ruvolos. When she walks into the Ruvolo club, the name Arzani moves through the crowd faster than she does.
- The Ruvolo family
- The other side of the war, and Damiano's name. Its nightclub runs on gold light, good suits and a bass line you feel in your back teeth, and its men stand between the door and the stairs with their jackets buttoned and exactly nowhere to be.
Spoiler-safe. Only what you learn in chapter 1.
