Confess

Confess A Diamond Empire Novel Copyright © 2023 by Kathy Coopmans authorkathycoopmans.com All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without prior permission of the publisher. The characters and events in this book are fictitious. Names, characters, places, and plots are a product of the author’s imagination. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author. Please protect this art form by not pirating. Editing by Chasing Sophie Publications Cover & Interior Design by Jill Sava, Love Affair With Fiction TABLE OF CONTENTS Title Page Dedication Family Tree The Diamond Empire Epigraph 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 Epilogue Up Next From Kathy Did you enjoy Confess? About The Author Also by Kathy Coopmans DEDICATION A letter to my father. Once again, I find myself dedicating a book to you, Daddy. Instead of saying ‘To my dad,’ I wanted to write you a little letter. First of all, I miss you terribly. There isn’t a day that goes by I don’t think of you in one way or another. I wanted you to know something, though. Writing this book was the balm I needed to soothe my aching heart over losing you. Can you believe my own words, my own characters, helped me when the first six months after your death, nothing could? Strange, right? When that calm came over me, when I realized I was going to be okay without you, I got it then, Dad. I got the reason why Shiloh and Dray helped me. It was love. The love they had for one another. The love they had from family. Just pure love. Love is something special, Dad. Love is the way a father looks at his daughter the way you did me. Like you helped make this special gift and you were going to make sure I knew that. Love is unconditional. It comes with no strings, no expectations. Just like me and Tony. Like you and Mom. Like Shiloh and Dray. Love is sacrifice. It’s letting go of some things and replacing them with something else. I’ve let go of so much grief, Dad. All because you taught me that love – no matter what kind it is, no matter who it’s directed at – it trumps all things. Thank you. I love you, Dad. Your daughter. FAMILY TREE THE DIAMOND EMPIRE Victoria Hughes—CONCEDE. AVAILABLE NOW Diesel Hughes—CALLOUS. AVAILABLE NOW Aaron Diamond—CONTROL. AVAILABLE NOW Jonathon Bexley—CONDEMN. AVAILABLE NOW Dray Hughes—CONFESS. AVAILABLE NOW Cara Levy—CLINCH. Release date TBA Micah Levy—CAPTIVATE. Release date TBA EPIGRAPH To be brave is to love someone unconditionally, without expecting anything from them in return. ~ Madonna. PROLOGUE Dray “You broke the rule, so spare me the tears.” She trembles before me, my words cutting into her as I take a step closer, my harsh voice dropping an octave. “On second thought, you’re much prettier when you cry.” I lick one of the salty drops she’s shedding from the edge of her jaw. My words meant to bite and sting sharper than the tip of a whip. And they do. They not only slice her wide open, cutting right to the center of her bones, but they’ll also leave permanent damage through the middle of me.  Wrecking me. Decimating and destroying. Still, they had to be said. I should have spoken them before it got this far. Before I crushed her beautiful spirit. Before we both did the one thing we swore we wouldn’t do. Fall in love. Her fracturing breath releases a choking sob, and I can physically feel those delicate pieces inside of her beginning to rupture. Shattering. The pain I’ve inflicted ebbs and flows throughout her shaking body. She has no idea the same thing is happening to me. That the chambers of my heart are in the process of incinerating. That the organ will be useless once she’s gone. That remorse is flooding my veins with the urge to smash my head into the wall. That truthfully, I want to keep her. Cherish her. Worship at her feet. Give her a life of love and happiness. No, she doesn’t know any of that, and she never will. I have to let her go, even if it deadens me inside. Even if I never want to hurt her. Even if I want to take her pain away. Heal her in an instant. Damn, Shiloh Walker. We were never supposed to get attached. We both did, but she’s the one who confessed her love while I kept mine bottled inside. We had an agreement, and fuck all if I didn’t try to fight my feelings the same way I’ve fought the intensity between us since the day we met. The woman slayed me with her beauty at first glance. Stunned me stupid. Mounds of thick blonde hair. A face many men would conquer a war just to look at every day and legs that went on for miles. Her dark brown eyes, the color of melted chocolate, sucked me straight into her orbit—the place where my crooked soul found nirvana. The woman is the closest to heaven I’ll ever fucking get. So fucking pretty and perfect with her blazing sass and caring heart, and she wasn’t one bit afraid to jump into the mafia world. She just plunged right in. Fearlessly. If only I could keep her there. Right smack in the belly of it where I’ll someday be. It was selfish of me to taste her, but even I’m not selfish enough to keep her. The day we met and shook hands, the contact felt like a lightning