Forbidden Love: Book 1 in the Mackenzie Series (Leave Me Breathless World) Read online

  Forbidden Love

  A Black Rose Collection Novel

  Elizabeth Knox

  Contents

  Leave Me Breathless

  Forbidden Love

  Trigger Warning

  Playlist

  Time Period Note

  Acknowledgments

  Family Tree

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Epilogue

  Author’s Note

  Also by Elizabeth Knox

  Coming Soon

  Afterword

  When the daylight fades and time stands still.

  The feeling of flying from just one touch.

  Moving slowly, kissing softly.

  The flash of fever, becoming lost in the flames.

  Surrendering.

  Going under.

  These are the moments that leave us breathless.

  Introducing a brand-new collection of romance books by independently published and USA Today bestselling authors whose words will leave you breathless! The Leave Me Breathless books promise to bring you stories of love, passion, betrayal, and hope...and always a happily ever after!

  Plus, each collection is themed so you can easily shop for what you're in the mood to read! Want a sports romance? Check out the Ivy Collection! Or how about a dark romantic suspense? The Black Rose Collection has you covered!

  THE COLLECTIONS:

  The Moonflower Collection

  The Moonflower symbolizes dreaming of love. These books feature enemies-to-lovers romance, insta-love, virgin romance, and romantic comedy.

  The Ivy Collection

  The Ivy symbolizes dependence, endurance, and faithfulness. These books feature sports romances, rockstar romances, military, and single parent.

  The Black Rose Collection

  The darker side of Leave Me Breathless…

  The Black Rose symbolizes rejuvenation or rebirth, but it can also symbolize death and farewell. These books feature dark romantic suspense, BDSM themes, true crime, dark military, dark MC, and Mafia.

  The Lilac Collection

  The Lilac symbolizes the first emotion in love. These books feature new adult romance, second chance romance, and prequels to an existing series.

  For more books and authors in the Leave Me Breathless Collection, please visit WWW.LEAVEMEBREATHLESSBOOKS.COM.

  Forbidden Love

  A Black Rose Collection Novel

  The Mackenzie Series Book #1 by Elizabeth Knox

  FORBIDDEN LOVE

  This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are all products of the author's imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblances to persons, organizations, events, or locales are entirely coincidental.

  Forbidden Love. Copyright © 2020 by Elizabeth Knox. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the author, except in the case of brief quotations used in articles or reviews. For information contact Elizabeth Knox.

  https://www.facebook.com/elizabethknoxbooks

  Editing by Courtney Lynn Rose, Knox Publishing & Kim Lubbers, Knox Publishing

  Copyediting by Rebecca Vazquez, Full Bloom Editorial & Kim Lubbers, Knox Publishing

  Formatting by Dragonfly Ink Publishing

  Proofreading by Jackie Ziegler, Knox Publishing

  Published by Dakota Willink, Dragonfly Ink Publishing

  Trigger Warning

  This book is intended for mature audiences only and certain aspects may be sensitive to some readers.

  If darker books are not for you, please do not move forward. After re-adjusting my trigger warning system, I will not be giving any spoilers. Please understand that this is not your run of the mill romance and tough subjects will be spoken about in this storyline.

  Playlist

  Nothing Breaks Like a Heart — Mark Ronson & Miley Cyrus

  Good Years — ZAYN

  Better to Lie — Benny Blanco, Jessie & Swae Lee

  Drowning — KREAM & Clara Mae

  Sweettalk my Heart — Tove Lo

  If The World Was Ending — JP Saxe ft. Julia Michaels

  Not 20 Anymore — Bebe Rexha

  Scary Nights — G Easy

  Slow Dance — AJ Mitchell ft. Ava Max

  Yours — Ella Henderson

  Too Good To Be True — Danny Avila ft. The Vamps

  Time Period Note

  Forbidden Love takes place before Reclusive, which is in the Skulls Renegade MC.

  Dedicated to the forbidden loves

  Take the risk.

  Let the outsiders stare and love the person you stand beside as hard as you can. We only get one life and there’s no point in living with regrets.

  Just love them and smile doing it.

  Acknowledgments

  My Blogger Team — Thank you guys for sticking with me and my crazy writing schedule. I’m sure there are times where you slam your heads against your keyboards screaming out “again!?”. Trust me, I have those moments too. Just know I appreciate everything you do. I’m like a record on repeat, but I couldn’t do this without you.

  My Beta Bitchaz — We need shirts at this point, seriously. I’ll make a mental note of that and figure something out soon! Thank you guys for reading this entire book in less than two weeks. Y’all must really love me to put up with my hectic writing schedule. I love y’all to death and can’t wait to hug you all sometime soon!

  Dakota — Without being accepted on this project, I don’t know if I would’ve ever written this story. Thanks for taking me on, but more than that, thanks for getting my ass in gear.

  Family Tree

  The Mackenzie Family:

  Desmond, 57 (m.) Sofia, 59

  Liam, 31 (from Desmond’s previous marriage)

  Sloane, 22

  Greer, 22

  The DiGiovanni Family:

  Gabriele, 63 (m.) Carmella, 61

  Giovanni “Gio”, 33

  Lorenzo “Lore”, 30

  Luigi “Lu”, 29

  Domenico “Dom”, 28

  Matteo, 26

  Caprice, 26

  Francesca, 26

  Alessio, 22

  Alessandra, 17

  Antonio, 14

  Prologue

  “My heart is so tired.”

  ~ Markus Zuzak

  Caprice

  My father has done a lot of things to me, things that I can’t ever quite understand.
There’s not a doubt in my mind that he doesn’t give a damn about me. I’m only one thing for him – a tool. The only value I have is in the fact that I’m a woman. There is nothing else for me besides whoever it is that he tries to pawn me off too. My father had no problem tossing me in the direction of his business associates before. I was their small treat after he closed a deal, or maybe I was part of the deal. Some days I think about it and then I realize I don’t think I’ll ever know.

  My brothers will have the privilege of inheriting the mafia after he dies. Although I do wonder if it’s a blessing or a curse. My bet is on the latter.

  It’s obvious that I’m not a fan of my famiglia. They may be my blood, but they don’t treat me like family. My brothers treat me the same as our father does. When it comes to my mother, she barely looks at me. I think that’s because she’s too ashamed of the fact she doesn’t stand up to my father. But who would dare to speak up to Signore DiGiovanni? Any person who does is immediately shot down, and no, that isn’t a metaphor or an exaggeration.

  I hate the way that I’m treated but I’ll take every minute of agony if it means that my little sister, Alessandra, doesn’t have to endure the same horrors. Sometimes when I lay awake in the middle of the night all I can occupy my time with is wondering about when my father will force her to make the same sacrifices I do.

  I’m in New York right now at my friend Angelina’s apartment on the Upper East Side. Her father owns a massive cybersecurity company, but also caters to the famiglia’s physical needs as well. She’s the apple of her father’s eye, his absolute pride and joy. Growing up I had always looked at their relationship with jealousy, or maybe it was a longing feeling. Either way, I craved the sort of affection that I had witnessed Angelina get when we were children. Even now, well into our mid-twenties, her father showers her with love. I’ve accepted that I’ll never have anything close to it with my own.

  All I want to do is get up and leave, to abandon my family and the things that tie me to it. The only thing that they bring me is misery, or more specifically my father does. My brothers are close behind him on that train, though. I’m only here to protect Alessandra, and that’s it. I want her to come with me, to leave this place, to go anywhere. The only way we could ever escape my father’s clutches is if we disappear to someplace that no one knows us. My only problem is that she doesn’t see him in the same light that I do. That’s only because she’s a naïve seventeen-year-old girl who hasn’t been thrown into the bloodied trenches.

  The only reason she’s escaped is that I’ve protected her, and she doesn’t even see it. She wants to believe that our father is a good man and while I want to allow her to keep that innocence— I can’t let her believe in a fairytale. Our father is not a good person. There was a time that I had been like her and believed it, but those years have gone and past. I see him for what he is now.

  He did something horrific to me that has made me view him in an entirely different light. Alessandra has no idea of the atrocities he is guilty of, and I’m not talking about the deaths or his bad dealings. I don’t care about any of that. The only thing I care about is what he’s done to me and will do to my dear sister, and what he’s already done to my daughter. I haven’t seen her in over five years. She was ripped from my hands the day she was born and given straight to her father— Rafael Ramirez. It wasn’t a tale of love for Rafael and I. No, I was a gift given to him after my father and he had struck a deal. It’s always the same. My father tosses me to his associates as a reward. He acts as if my body isn’t my own and it belongs to the famiglia. It doesn’t, and I won’t ever allow it to.

  “When are you and Alessandra leaving?” Angelina asks, eyes peering up in a concerned gaze.

  I sigh because I haven’t uttered a word of it to my sister. I’m simply taking her in a rush and hoping we get far enough away to where my father won’t find us. “Tomorrow.”

  “Is your plan solid?”

  I nod. “As solid as it can be. I have new passports for us with brand new names, had the photos altered so our hair colors are different. You know our deal,” I remind her, smiling. “I can’t tell you anything because we know he’ll ask you what I’m doing and where I am. He’ll try to use you as a way to get to me and it’s safer for everyone involved if I don’t say anything.”

  Angelina shrugs. “I know. I just wish things were different. I wish my best friend wasn’t carting herself and her sister off to God knows where. I just . . . wish I could know something.”

  I start to open my mouth but am cut off by Angelina. “But I can’t.”

  I nod, looking down at the floor. This breaks my heart into a million pieces, leaving the only person who has ever known me for who I am. The only person who really gives a damn on what happens to me. “I wish I didn’t have to leave.”

  “You have to leave. Your father made an arrangement with Sergei Kolosov. There is no choice in the matter. I will not allow you to stay here and marry this monster, who does nothing but hurt the women he is with. I told you what he did to his last wife.” Bella had told me a week ago, when my “engagement” to Sergei was announced, of the rumors. Apparently, he had forced an abortion on his last wife, a woman who he had been trying to have a child with for years.

  I will not be married to Sergei, and I’ll say that to him straight to his face if he ever meets me. I will not bear children for him. I already have a child, a daughter named Piper and as soon as I am in Ireland and settled, I plan on taking her from her father.

  I don’t know how but I will get my daughter back.

  1

  “A self that goes on changing is a self that goes on living.”

  ~ Virginia Wolf

  Caprice

  “What on earth is going on? Why haven’t you told me anything?” Alessandra screams at me while we’re on our way to the shipping yards. I haven’t told her as much as I should have already and I’ll admit that, but I knew how much she would fight with me regardless. If I need anything from her, it’s for her to not fight with me. I’m already mentally exhausted, thinking of how to accomplish this for the last few months and there are so many opportunities for error. We could even be caught before we’re on the ship, but we won’t know until that happens.

  I quickly glance over to her, silently pleading for her to stop, just for her to trust me but it’s no use. She’s always asked questions since the day she was born. “You just have to trust me, Alessandra. Please, just trust me as your sister that what I’m doing for us is right, that it will help us. Please.” Tears well in my eyes as I beg her and for the first time in a very long time, she doesn’t ask me a question, she simply nods her head.

  “I know this has something to do with Father. It’s obviously drawn across your face. I’m not a stupid girl, Caprice. I know that your relationship with him isn’t good, but why are you dragging me into this?”

  I think of the ways that I should reply to her, of how I can sugar coat it and try to protect her memory of him as much as possible. While I love my sister, I hate my father and I’d love nothing more than to rip the love she has for him away but that would be selfish of me. “I’m taking us far away from Father. Far enough away to where hopefully he will never find us or do the things to you that he’s done to me. I don’t want that for you. I don’t want you to have to experience the same pain and struggle that I have at his hand. You deserve more than that, Alessandra. We both do. We deserve so much more.”

  We are dropped off at the shipping yard in no time and thankfully through a friend of a friend we are able to board a shipping container and make our grand venture across the Atlantic. It will take days, but it was the only way to get us out of the country without some sort of record. It will simply look like we vanished— and that’s the only thing that will ensure our safety.

  The accommodations in the container aren’t the most luxurious, but we don’t need anything fancy. We just need to stay alive, far away from our Father.

  We’ve been on this boat for
a week, a week worth of headaches and seasickness and today is the day that we should arrive in Dublin, Ireland— our new home. Alessandra hasn’t asked too many questions. It’s obvious that she sees the emotion and stress this is taking on my body. I haven’t acted like myself in a few days. I’m sure once we dock and get off the boat, I’ll start feeling better.

  “Will you tell me what the plan is? I mean, I don’t want to bother you by asking you, but I need to know what’s going on.”

  I take a deep breath, pulling my cardigan closer to my body. “We’re going to dock within the next couple of hours hopefully, and from that point, you and I will go to a studio apartment that I have secured for us in downtown Dublin. We’ll rest and then I need to find a job. I think I’ll walk around town and see what I can get as a bartender or waitress job, something that won’t mind paying in cash.” I get up and walk over to where our few duffel bags are, unzipping one and pull out passports and cash. “We have enough to get us through the first month and a half at least but I need to find work if we’re going to stay ahead of everything.”