Welcome to The Russo Mafia Vows—a dark romance series where arranged marriages spark obsession, enemies become lovers, and every heart learns that the most dangerous promise is love itself.

Standalone interconnected novels • He Falls First • Arranged Marriage • Forced Proximity • Guaranteed HEA

He wasn’t supposed to stay.

Dante Russo spent his entire life preparing his escape from the Russo empire: arrange a marriage to a civilian no-one, use it as cover, disappear. Clean. Calculated. Guaranteed.

Sloane Ashford is supposed to be his perfect exit. A tattoo-artist drowning in debt, she agrees to the contract because desperation has teeth. She doesn’t expect to become his weakness.

Within hours of their courthouse vows, a rival family drags her into the dark. Dante rips through the city to find her, bullets and betrayal trailing behind him. He fights like he’s broken—because he is.

He claimed her as cover. He claimed her as his ransom. Now he claims her as his reason to stay.

The arrangement is over. The war is just beginning.

He fell first. He fell hard. And he will burn everything—and everyone—down to keep her.

About

Lauren Kennedy writes dark, dangerous love stories where the villains get redemption—and the heroines make them earn it. Her books blend obsession, betrayal, and devotion in equal measure, exploring what happens when love crosses every line.

Expect mafia dynasties, brutal loyalty, and slow-burn passion that ignites into fire. Every story is an emotional gut punch wrapped in silk and smoke—perfect for readers who crave hurt-so-good romance and men who would burn the world for the women they love.

When she’s not writing, Lauren can be found drinking espresso too late at night, plotting betrayals that end in happily ever afters, and pretending her playlists aren’t just thinly veiled character studies.

Content Warnings: This is a dark mafia romance with mature themes. Content warnings include: graphic violence (not toward heroine), murder, kidnapping, forced proximity, morally gray hero who kills when necessary, spicy spicy content, psychological tension, and organized crime elements. No cheating. HEA guaranteed.