Alliance — Catherine Johnson

The criminal underworld is balanced on a knife-edge, weighted by respect, fear, and greed. For years an alliance has held true between the different factions that compete for control of New York, but the suspicious death of the founding father of that coalition throws the underworld into chaos.

The Italian mob has been gutted by continued RICO persecution since the Seventies, but although their power has been diminished, their time is not yet over. The Yakuza and the Triads arrived with the first immigrants from Japan and China, but they've always had to compete with the home-grown factions. The Mexican and Latin cartels have been extending their reach from the West Coast since the drugs trade exploded, as have the Caribbean gangs from the south, but the biggest players are the Russians. Once criminal enterprises born of resistance to the corruption and persecution of government- now bolstered and legitimized by the corruption of the oligarchs â€" they are now a mafiya that has the implicit backing of their country to do whatever they like.

Alessia Dioli is the granddaughter of Don Tosetti. In the way of the legitimate world, her marriage is one of politics and power. Her grandfather founded the alliance. Her husband is the don of one of the families that makes up the jigsaw of peace and profit. Her life has been molded around the dangerous activities of the men who control it.

Nikolai Volkov is pakhan of his family, their leader, although not their figurehead; that honor belongs to his grandmother, and he would have it no other way. Irina Volkov rose from the collapse of the Soviet Union like a phoenix and spread her wings to fly to America, bringing the remnants of her family with her. Having paid in blood during the wars between the Vory and the Suki, she found a place where her children and grandchildren could grow strong, where her family could become again what it had been. Under her rule, under Nikolai's leadership, the Volkovs have flourished.

As the puzzle pieces scatter and the players fight for dominance once more, the city burns. People die loved ones are lost, and new alliances are forged. Alessia and Nikolai must fight to survive, to protect their own. Ultimately, they have to decide if the trust they instinctively hold for each other is true, if they can be stronger together.