Destructive King

by Rachel Van Dyken

  Destructive King

  A Mafia Royals Romance, Book 3

  by Rachel Van Dyken

  Copyright © 2021 RACHEL VAN DYKEN

  This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters, and events are fictitious in every regard. Any similarities to actual events and persons, living or dead, are purely coincidental. Any trademarks, service marks, product names, or named features are assumed to be the property of their respective owners, and are used only for reference. There is no implied endorsement if any of these terms are used. Except for review purposes, the reproduction of this book in whole or part, electronically or mechanically, constitutes a copyright violation.

  DESTRUCTIVE KING

  Copyright © 2021 RACHEL VAN DYKEN

  ISBN: 978-1-946061-54-6

  Cover Design by Jena Brignola

  Editing by Kay Springsteen

  Formatting & Editing by Jill Sava, Love Affair With Fiction

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Author Note

  Who’s Who in the Cosa Nostra

  Mafia Royals

  Destructive King

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Epilogue

  Want More RVD?

  Acknowledgments

  About The Author

  Also By Rachel Van Dyken

  Dedication

  To all of the readers, new and old, experiencing this mafia world—thank you for your constant support. I would be nothing without you guys! And appreciate you more than words will ever describe! Oh, also… grab some whiskey; it’s gonna get worse before it gets better… lol, blood in, no out!

  Author Note

  This is the third standalone within a brand new series; I know you probably already know that since you picked up this book, but hey, let’s just repeat it again! ;) If you recognize some of the names in this book, it’s because back in 2010, I wrote a series called Eagle Elite, and the parents in this series are the OG’s of Eagle Elite. That series got extremely long (as you can imagine), so I decided we needed fresh blood back at Eagle Elite University, and that started with Ruthless Princess and continues the saga with Scandalous Prince and now drumroll Destructive King.

  If you are an EE fan, then this is the part where you may nerd out and want a family tree; I have that on the very next page, NEVER FEAR! If you’re new, just scroll on by, it won’t matter to you, haha, and you’ll be like yeah, I don’t care. And you don’t NEED to know any backstory, because again, this is a new series (do you like how I keep repeating that), oh by the way, it’s a new series.

  So if you’ve made it this far, this is the part where I tell you that this book is a bit different from the first two. I’m lucky to have amazing readers who, when I was plotting this book out and going back and forth, really helped me see how important it was that the characters not only allow themselves to feel even if it hurts but that we need to visually see that process on the page, even if it makes us reach for the whiskey (thank you btw, Krystal R for your honest feedback!).

  This book will make you laugh on one page, and on the next, you may want to strangle Ash alive; just keep with it. You’ll notice that I was probably a bit emotional writing it because, during this book, we were in the process of adopting, so I was feeling all the things as I was sitting in that hospital going, are we going to get baby, are we not, what’s going to happen, etc. One thing I’ve learned is no matter what, you must allow yourself to feel things. 2020 has been extremely hard on EVERYONE, so I just wanted to add that in—that we’re all human, we all go through pain even if social media doesn’t make it seem that way. In reading this book, I hope you’ll allow yourself to feel, to maybe deal with a loss that you’ve never dealt with before. I hope you heal. You laugh. You have fun. I hope, hope, hope you NEVER look at mafia books the same again, and that you go back and read the rest of the series or even the original (aka OG) Eagle Elite books!

  Phew, enjoy my bloodthirsty readers, enjoy!

  Blood in. No out. Let’s go meet our Angry Ash, royalty, Destructive King. May God have mercy on your soul… because he—will not.

  Who’s Who in the Cosa Nostra

  Nixon and Trace Abandonato. Nixon is the boss of the Abandonato Family; he’s a bit psycho, has a lip ring, and in his mid-forties, looks like a freaking badass. Think if Jason Momoa and Channing Tatum had a baby. SURPRISE, Nixon! Trace is the love of his life. Nixon’s daughter, Serena, is his pride and joy; she’s the heir to his throne and in love with Junior Nicolasi. His adopted son Dom is ten years older than Serena. At thirty and married to Tanit, he’s ready to step in if he needs to, but he really doesn’t want to, not that he’s thinking about a family of his own. Nixon’s youngest, Bella, was a most welcome surprise.

  Phoenix and Bee Nicolasi (formerly De Lange) have one son, Junior, and he’s everything. The same age as Serena, he has only ever had one thing on his mind. Her. And now he has her. Pursuing her was like signing his own death sentence. The one rule that the bosses gave all the cousins, all the kids, no dating each other, it complicates things. They all took a blood oath. But he risked it all, for just one taste—and is still here to tell about it (Ruthless Princess).

  Which brings us to Chase and Luciana Abandonato, their love story is one for the ages. He had Violet first, gorgeous, Violet Emiliana Abandonato, now married to her own boss Valerian Petrov (Scandalous Prince). And then he had twins, God help him. Asher (Marco) and Izzy. All are attending Eagle Elite University. Violet is more into books than people. And the twins, well they are polar opposites. While Izzy is quiet and reserved, taking after her uncle Sergio in the tech support part of the mafia, Asher was an assassin at age twelve. He takes care of everyone even though he’s younger than Serena and Junior. He feels it’s his job to make sure everyone is safe, so when he was unable to do that for his girlfriend, Claire—he was inconsolable. She was his soul mate, and he’d do anything for her. And don’t forget the baby of the family, Ariel, who everyone dotes on.

  Tex and Mo Campisi. He’s the godfather of this joint, gorgeous, he’s a gentle giant unless he’s pissed, and his wife, Mo, is just as violent as he is. They have two sons, Breaker and King. Breaker their adoptive son is really Valerian Petrov, he just took over as the boss of the Petrov (Russian) Family releasing Andrei Petrov Sinacore from that role. He’s now married to Violet Abandonato, the love of his life (Scandalous Prince). King, on the other hand, is vying for top whore at Eagle Elite University, going as far as to seduce his own older… tutor (that he doesn’t need).

  Sergio and Valentina are
also Abandonatos. While Val is quiet and reserved, Sergio is the resident doctor of the Families. He’s also really into tech and loves spying on people. They have two gorgeous daughters. Kartini has her daddy wrapped around her little finger. He just hopes he survives her first year of college without shooting one of her boyfriends. With Lydia, he knows she can take care of herself. She already beat up the class bully, making Sergio quite proud.

  Dante and El don’t have things easier; they’re one of the younger mafia families, he’s the head of the Alfero Family. And he has two twin girls at age eleven who are making him pull his hair out. Raven and Tempest are adorable, but they’re feisty like their mom. He lets them have more screen time than he should, but they say he’s their favorite in the world, sooooo… he lets it pass.

  Andrei and Alice have been through a lot. Their name single-handedly brought the Russian Mafia into the Italian fold then successfully handed over the Russian throne to the true rightful heir, Valerian. Andrei is both Petrov and Sinacore, meaning that the oldest Italian mafia family is now part of the Cosa Nostra. Forever and will stay that way if he has anything to say about it. Their son’s name is Maksim, and weirdly enough, he’s a total flirt; he takes nothing seriously but can flip a switch in a minute if someone he loves is threatened. Anya is his little sister, and he would do anything for her; she seems fragile but studies Krav Maga, so nobody messes with her.

  These are the Families of the Cosa Nostra.

  Welcome to the Family.

  Blood in. No out.

  Mafia Royals

  Mafia Royals Romances

  Royal Bully

  Royal Bully is a prequel novella that is FREE Everywhere!

  Ruthless Princess

  Scandalous Prince

  Destructive King

  Mafia King

  Fallen Dynasty

  Destructive King

  “Do not stand at my grave and weep, I am not there; I do not sleep. I am a thousand winds that blow. I am the diamond glints on snow. I am the sun on ripened grain, I am the gentle autumn rain. When you awaken in the morning’s hush I am the swipe uplifting rush, of quiet birds in circled flight. I am the soft stars that shine at night. Do not stand at my grave and cry. I am not there; I did not die. — Mary Elizabeth Fyre

  Prologue

  “Death is not the opposite of life, but a part of it.” —Haruki Murakami

  Annie

  I’d been living at the Abandonato compound, aka house, for two days, and already I felt like I was going to go crazy.

  It was huge.

  Like a mausoleum.

  The only thing that helped was Ash’s mom Luc’s amazing cooking and the fact that Chase, underboss to the Abandonato Family and current US Senator from Illinois, reserved his terrifying mafia face for his children.

  But me?

  It was like he saw past the sweaters I couldn’t help but button all the way up to my chin.

  He saw past the shyness.

  He saw it all.

  So when he looked at me, it was with respect.

  If only that trickled down into his one and only son, Ash.

  The same son who’d been spiraling since the death of his fiancée.

  A chill wracked my body as I shot up from the bed in search of a sweatshirt I could put on. Why did they always keep the house so frigid? It was like they didn’t believe in heat or something, not that I wasn’t thankful for having a roof over my head after my adoptive parents’ death.

  I blocked out the memories.

  Just like I blocked out the blood that seemed to still be staining my hands even though I hadn’t done anything.

  No, that had all been Ash.

  I’d never seen another person so full of rage, so full of uncontrollable sadness that you couldn’t help but feel it every time you were in their presence.

  Thunder boomed outside my window as the late fall rain pounded against the rooftop. I’d always loved storms, even more so now that I had a ginormous room with a balcony that overlooked the pool—including the pool house where Ash was currently brooding.

  Memories of kissing him in that pool assaulted me until my feet took me over to the door, until I was opening it and peeking my head out to get a glance at the shallow end where he’d pushed me up against the wall and kissed the hell out of me.

  To the footsteps I’d taken from the pool in a stupid immature move that probably could have ended with my blood on his fingertips—he’d been that angry.

  I stared at his door and willed it to open.

  And when it did, I nearly dropped to the ground so he couldn’t see me.

  Instead, he just looked up at the sky, swaying on his feet as a bottle of pills fell from his hands onto the cement; he barked out a laugh and tilted back whatever was left of the fifth he’d chosen that night.

  His full lips were pulled back into an amused smile as the rain attacked whatever shreds of good sense he still possessed.

  “Are you happy now?” He roared up at the sky, then threw the bottle against the side of the pool house as the pills on the ground washed away. “Answer me!” He grabbed a chair and threw it into the pool. “Are you fucking happy?”

  His screams were going to wake up the only neighbors we had—two miles away.

  As it was, he was one more mistake from getting chained in the dungeon. I knew this because Chase had said so during dinner the night before, and when I laughed, and nobody else did, I realized they did, in fact, actually have a soundproof room in the basement.

  Something told me people didn’t exactly come back from that.

  It was his own child, but it was also the mafia, and even though nobody ever explained the rules—I knew one thing. They were killers. All of them. So chaining your son to a chair in the basement?

  Probable.

  I hesitated for a minute, but when he grabbed another chair and threw it, I snatched my sweatshirt, told myself that I’d faced angry before and knew how to calm it, and ran down the stairs and out the kitchen door.

  Rain pelted my gray hoody as I jogged over to Ash and yelled, “Stop!”

  He was holding the chair midair as he turned to me, his icy blue eyes void of all emotion.

  Lost. He was so lost my heart cracked bit by bit as his chest heaved with more rage than a human was capable of holding—capable of coming back from.

  A tear slid down my cheek, mixing with the raindrops.

  He had everything.

  And yet, he focused on the one thing he had lost.

  I didn’t want to judge his mourning, but that’s not what this was—this was devastation pure and simple. This was carnage in its rarest form—this was death while still living.

  A damned purgatory I wasn’t sure anyone would come back from, especially since he chose to punish himself because he was left behind.

  And Claire?

  In Heaven with their unborn child.

  “Go. Away,” he said through clenched teeth, but at least he lowered the chair to the ground.

  I took a deep breath and then a step forward. “You’re drunk and, from the looks of the pills you spilled, high. Just sleep it off, Ash—”

  “Why the fuck does everyone suggest I sleep it off? Like I could just go to bed, close my eyes, and when I wake up in a blanket of fucking sunshine, I’ll have her back? I’ll have our baby back? That’s not how life works, Claire…” He stumbled toward me, then swayed on his feet as he rubbed his eyes with his right hand.

  He’d called me Claire.

  The knife twisted deeper into my chest as I took the second step, raising my hand to put it on his shoulder. “It won’t be better. I never said it would be better; I just think it’s best that you go inside so you don’t die from pneumonia or force your dad’s hand any more than you already have.”

  He flinched a bit.

  He worshipped his dad.

  He was, after all, a carbon copy of Chase right down to the tattoos, good looks, and insanely out-of-control temper when he had no outlet for his feeli
ngs.

  Luc calmed Chase the way Claire had calmed Ash.

  And now…

  Destruction.

  “Ash.” I squeezed his shoulder, his full weight collapsed against me, thank God I was stronger than I looked as I helped him walk back into the pool house, completely soaked.

  We made it as far as the couch before he fell against it. I decided to use gravity to shove him down.

  He groaned and flipped onto his side, eyes empty as he stared straight ahead, droplets of water slid down his sculpted jaw onto the black leather.

  I cleared my throat. “Let me just get you some dry clothes and some water…”

  He squeezed his eyes shut.

  At least he wasn’t yelling anymore.

  It took me at least ten minutes to grab some clean clothes from the chaos that was his room. I finally located a dry shirt that didn’t smell like whiskey and a pair of Nike sweats that looked clean-enough.

  By the time I made it downstairs with one of the bottles of water he always kept by his bed, along with his clothes, he was nowhere to be found.

  Seriously?

  Ugh, I so did not sign up to play babysitter tonight. I had class in the morning—early. And my only shot at survival was keeping my scholarships and actually graduating so I could get a job and get away from killers.

  Not that I wasn’t thankful.

  At this point, I would have agreed to be their live-in cook full time if it got me a place to stay—plus, they protected me from the outside.

  And I knew it was only a matter of time before someone came after me, mistook me for someone else, tried to hurt me, or just found out what pain I was hiding.

  Better to keep your enemies close even if they are terrifying.

  “Ash,” I called.

  A light flickered from the bathroom.

  I sighed in relief, then went over and knocked, the door creaked open, and there he was, sitting in the bathtub completely naked.

  It was impossible not to notice his perfect physique; even drunk out of his mind, he was beautiful—like a fallen angel that forgot his place was in Heaven—not his own personal hell.