What the Devil Leaves Behind

In this high-heat Italian mafia rivals-to-lovers romance, a Caruso heiress must trust the ruthless art-recovery specialist she can barely stand when a bloody exhibition robbery exposes a family secret dangerous enough to kill for.

Elena Caruso has built a world that belongs to her: galleries, collectors, priceless art, and a reputation earned beyond the reach of her powerful mafia family.
Then armed men storm her Christmas exhibition, leave a man dead, and steal several works-including a mysterious devotional painting Elena never approved for display.
Someone inside her trusted circle put it there.

And Antonio Sartori may be the only man capable of getting it back.

Controlled, relentless, and infuriatingly difficult to intimidate, Antonio operates in the shadowy space between legitimate art recovery and the criminal world. He wants Elena safely out of his way.

Elena has other ideas.

Their hunt drags them through hidden restoration rooms, stolen-art routes, violent intermediaries, and secrets that reach far beyond Naples. Every answer makes the missing painting more dangerous-and every confrontation pulls Elena and Antonio closer to a line neither of them intends to cross.

Because Antonio's instinct is to protect by taking control.

Elena has spent her entire life fighting men who believe loving her gives them the right to decide what she can handle.

And with her father's failing health threatening to tear open the Caruso succession, the secret behind the stolen painting could destroy far more than Elena's career.
Now she must uncover who betrayed her, survive the people determined to bury the truth, and decide whether the man who would put himself between her and every threat can learn to stand beside her instead.

For readers who love professional rivals-to-lovers, he falls first, possessive protectors, forced partnerships, betrayal from within.