Enemy

Ruthless Daddies 2 #8

by R.A. Frick

Is it really kidnapping and torture if they both get turned on by it?

Giorgio “George” Greco was the former leader of the Italian crime family in the Bay Area, but he was done with that life. Children grown and wife long dead, George was ready to start exploring what it meant to be a civilian… and maybe get to know a new side of himself as a Daddy.

Vasily “Basil” Kiselov was fresh out of college and ready to prove himself to his Russian crime family in San Francisco. After being kept on the edge of their business, Basil goes on the hunt for an Enemy. When Basil tried to kill George, he ended up being the one under the gun.

The problem? George didn’t want to let go of the boy so easily.

Enemy is part of the Ruthless Daddies multi-author collab and a complete standalone. With a sadistic older Italian Daddy, a not-so-innocent Russian boy, and rival families, these two hurt each other until they like it! Want more deliciously morally gray Daddies and boys? Grab the whole series!

* Enemy has connections to characters in my other books (X Club: For You), but is a standalone. Contains dub con.

Genres: M M Romance, BDSM, Enemies To Lovers, Contemporary, Dark, Dark Romance, Adult

220 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 25, 2023

About the author

R.A. Frick is a queer author of steamy queer romance, often with angst, always with a HEA! Focusing on non-binary, trans, and gay characters is close to RA's lived experiences, though they have written everything from YA dystopian time travel to dark taboo romance, and added paranormal romance to their repertoire in 2025.

RA's books have been on multiple bestseller lists, and they are usually found writing with their corgi in Northern California.

Reviews

[Peppa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I might have expected someone else but I’m not complaining! This book was exactly what I needed—a mafia MM romance with a large age gap, a little enemies-to-lovers tension, and plenty of firsts.
It’s surprisingly sweet (for a mafia story so if you are here for a dark romance it’s not really it), fast-paced, and packed with steam, including daddy kink, praise, humiliation, and some fun with toys. And we can’t forget the docking scene, this definitely got me🤭!!

Basil, a 23-year-old Bratva recruit, sets out to kill Giorgio, a retired Italian ex-Don and single dad. Too bad for him, things get heated before he even makes a move. Giorgio captures him, but instead of revenge, things take a much more interesting turn.
Their dynamic? Protective, experienced Daddy meets bratty but eager boy—absolute gold.
Their relationship moves fast but feels right to me. It had some emotional moments, a bit of angst, and a super satisfying ending. Definitely devoured this one!

[⭐Toonasa⭐ •Romance Book Lovers' Haven• · Rating 5 out of 5]

A mafia MM romance with a Big (~25yrs) age gap with (sorta lol) enemies/strangers to lovers, sexy daddy kink with humiliation, praise & sex toys, plenty of first times (exploring & acceptance!), A story which is Straightforward, not much dark & too cute (relatively) for its own good —YES I LOVED IT. Exactly what I wanted right then.

True to the drill, here I was just checking this book out. As this series is pretty good ya. Admittedly read fast/skimmed the 1st some chapters (after lol), but then Giorgio & Basil came onto the page together & I couldn't resist, sucked in! Devoured this book in like 3-4 hrs 😁.

Dearie young Russian(Bratva) Basil (23 & not a teen, gratefully) wanted to kill Older Italian(ex-Don) Georgio (Widow, Single dad to twins who are off to college), to prove his merit. But Basil was manipulated by wrong people, & G captured him. A lil issue that they were kissing & had just cummed before Basil tried that knife lol. A call home, & the delicious punishments that occur afterwards is something I can totally get behind it 🔥😍 . The good kind 😁. B's Sweet & a bit bratty boy + G's Caring & Protective daddy.

The 2 had homophobic upbringings but I guess being surrounded by queer(+kinky) people makes their own acceptance easier. Tho, Basil was in denial– Daddy G helped 😏. Their relationship is hot, both new to being with men, so cute 🥰, Fast & insta but done well. Feelings too big & new 😭, some angst —A misunderstanding, that I normally dislike but it's understandable & helpful here😘. Thence coming out & confessions are sweet.

I liked this world & side cast, My 1st book by Frick & I'll definitely try more!
P.s. Enjoyed the story, but can we get more of G+B, in kink club or date, maybe a bonus? 😳

Story ratings: Enjoyed 5+/5

POV: 1st person, DUAL POV
1) The Characters & Story: 5/5
2) The feels: 🤨😳🙄🧐🙂😍🥺😈😏😂😘🔥😦🥰😁
3) Relationship & World: 4.5/5
4) Sexy/Steamy scenes: 3/5
5) Levels: Low Angst, Very Cute, lowish Dark
6) Writing style: 4.5/5

(1st half fast) read + review: 29 Aug 2023

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[Kirsten · Rating 2 out of 5]

Campy “dark”romance
with kink checklist. Bad writing.
Read better books next.

[Ro {semi-hiatus} · Rating 4 out of 5]

lived it, loved it, laughed it
was honestly cuter than i thought. also i love the name Vasily/Basil that's an automatic star for me. just one of those things fr

[BelleLovesRomance · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has a lot of duality. I'm not sure if I'm gonna explain it right, but I'm gonna try my best. Giorgio/George the Daddy has a sadist/mean streak, but he's also tooth-achingly sweet and caring. Like, the level of emotion and affection he showed was one of the things that hit me kinda hard—in a good way. I truly love when the dominant and/or top shed some tears, due to his overwhelming feelings for his sub.

And it's the same thing with Vasily/Basil the boy. In the beginning, he’s a hard-headed rather cold, and stoic brat, but he gradually becomes so eager to be a good obedient boy with intense feelings for his Daddy.

To sum it all up, their character and relationship are high in contrast but also perfectly balanced. Just like their dynamic. I hope that makes sense. 😬

This book is a perfect balance of sweet and spicy, wrapped in a mafia romance world. I’m also a sucker for Italian terms of endearment or just Italian language in general. So that's a plus point for me. 😚🥰

Tropes:
🖤 Mafia romance
🖤 Age gap (big one)
🖤 Enemies to lovers
🖤 BDSM
🖤 First MM experience for both MCs

Oh, and this is my first book with docking in it. So freaking hot! 🥵

Spice: 🌶🌶🌶

[ShelfLife · Rating 2 out of 5]

Gave up at 20%...

I've read all but the first of these books in this multi-author series so far, and this is the first I DNF. I can't recall if I've read anything by this author before (definitely nothing in the X Club world), but from what I read from this book, I won't. I was mildly curious about George and Basil, but the first part of the story was more background info about the other books and giving the reader an education on being politically correct when using pronouns. Off-putting and boring. As this was a short read to begin with, spending over 20% of the book telling the reader everything rather than showing it, I was done. Besides these issues, there are several typos (even spelling a character's name wrong). Moving on...

[True Loveislovereview · Rating 5 out of 5]

Giorgio/George Greco retired from his duty as leader of the Italian crime family. He’s ready for something else, he’s a single dad, and his twins are grown up. He wants to explore his kinkier side.
And guess what, after a test, it seems he scores super high being a Dominant, Daddy, Owner, and Sadist. Hmmm… that offers delicious perspective!

Vasily/Basil got direct advice on how to prove himself and move up the Russian crime family ranks faster. “Kill an enemy”.
So, he found an enemy, Giorgio Greco. Oh boy, of all enemies he’d choose him!

Tight up to his bed, George can have his wicked way with Basil. The silly boy thought he could end him. Watching the boy sputtering ignited a fire in George, and all his glorious kinky qualities came alive.

What they didn’t expect they fit perfectly. George wants to claim and dominate, Basil wants to be claimed and dominated.

There are a few struggles, read them yourself.

Awesome story, I enjoyed it very much, it was kinky af, scorching, and yes there was love and even sweetness.
The characters were consistent and beautifully portrayed.
All wonderfully written, intense, and super entertaining!

[Trish Skywalker · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed George and Basil’s story!
Basil has graduated college, and his cousin and the head of the Bratva has him working a desk job. I’m an effort to prove himself, Basil decides he needs to bring in a big kill, and who better than Giorgio Greco, head of the Italians.
But there’s a couple of issues: George is retired. And Basil is incredibly turned on by him. When a hot hookup turns into attempted murder, George decides to he needs to teach Basil a lesson…locked in his house for three days.
Both men have struggled with their attraction to men due to cultural and religious upbringings, especially in crime families where “men should be men.” Thanks to cousin Felix (yes Kot Felix is back!!!), many of these stereotypes have been shattered, but Basil still struggles. There’s no denying how much he loves George’s toys and hands on him, and his fight dies pretty fast.
This is a very sexy story of two unlikely men falling in love.
-Enemies to lovers
-Insta-Lust
-BD$M
-Daddy/boy
-Age gap
-Meddling teens
-A sassy brat and a firm daddy!

[silent_voices]

Dnf

[Ana Bloup · Rating 3 out of 5]

C’est lu et ce sera oublié le mois prochain pour sûr

[Mandy (MP Book Reviews) · Rating 5 out of 5]

The former leader of the Italian crime family for the Bay Area was Giorgio “George” Greco before he retired. He was now living on his own after his wife had died in childbirth and his children were grown so he was ready to explore a more normal life. Fresh out of college and ready to prove himself to his Russian crime family in San Francisco, Vasily “Basil” Kiselov has gone on the hunt for an enemy but that enemy is George and when he tries he ends up being held captive. As part of that captivity, George becomes Basil's Daddy and they explore some more extreme sexual options which poses the question Is it really kidnapping and torture if they both get turned on by it? When it is the end of their time together there is a problem - George doesn't want to let go of the boy so easily.

I enjoyed this dark story where an assassination attempt becomes the start of a more extreme Daddy/boy relationship which neither wants to walk away from. I loved the way that their relationship started with the whole training and stalking followed by the botched attempt and then the negotiation for the punishment. I loved the way that they both were without each other. Easy to read, feel and understand. This was an MM story with mature content.

** Please note there are issues around consent in this story so please skip if that is trigger for you.

[Tosha · Rating 5 out of 5]

“When George sealed his lips with mine, I heard a mix of sounds that turned me on even more. One was a guttural grunt of pleasure, and the other a soft, moaning whimper. My face flamed under Greco’s touch when I realized the second sound came from me. I let him take the lead, and while he savored my mouth, sounds kept tumbling out of me. I wanted to be mortified, but all I felt was fire.”

Well holy heck that was hot!! I’m not typically a mafia romance fan but the premise sounded so good that I thought I’d give it a go and seriously so thankful I did. George & Basil were pure fire. The kink was a lot of fun and matched the characters and I really loved the side characters. This was a multi author collaboration, I might need to check out the other books.

Please be sure to checkout the triggers before starting.

[Theresa Derwin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sort of Enemies to Lovers and Found Family

I adored this book, particularly as it contains characters and settings from the X Club series by Frick
In fact, Felix takes the prologue for scene setting.
Vasily - Basil - is twenty three but still couped up by the Bratva, as the youngest.
He's fed up and wants to prove his worth, so with encouragement from a Russian cousin, he decides he'll kill Georgio Greco, the older Italian don.
Of course he's caught, so Felix agrees that George can teach him a lesson over three days.
The lesson includes bondage, edging, denial and spanking.
Not only is it very sexy, but both men finding out about their sexualities and likes together and learning to love is the part that makes this special.
It's also very funny and addictive.

[Na It' · Rating 1 out of 5]

It was just nonsense. From the beginning, only nonsense, I didn't like it, I can even say I hate it but I read it for Vasily. I like only his character because all that happen to him wasn't his fault.

Felix is dumb for a big boss. The family also dumb. Don't let me start about de MMC.

What I hate the most was the fact George talk about Vasily sexuality with other without his consent. Where this author go search such a bitch moov? Like who give him the permission to out the boy to his family without his consent 🙄.

[Ten · Rating 3 out of 5]

-Right off the bat there’s A LOT of characters
-But the book is just like 5 hours long
-Passed 20% and the MCs haven’t even met yet
- Super large age gap (25+ years)
- Errors here and there but not too much
- Some sentences are kinda confusing
- Very very little mafia it’s practically nonexistent
- This book is leaning more on fluff with a dash of spice. A good break tho after the whole series so far

[Jess Bracewell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Overall a great read

This book was really good and I'm so glad! This series was all over the place with a couple really good books and the rest duds. This book was really good and a perfect ending to the series. The plot was perfect and fell in line with the oh so hot spicy scenes!

[Diane Dannenfeldt · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars. I am not a big mafia fan, but I kind of liked this one. I had an issue with our MC’s who were raised in homophobic/religious families that they switched into accepting that they are gay kind of easily & George finding out that he is like a super Dom. Why this wasn’t a higher rated book is the internal homophobia that was going on, was a bit too much IMO. I loved the kink though.

[Colleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

So, technically I realize this was not the best written book out there - but I liked it anyway. The biggest issue was just that the characters and their relationship were not well developed. George keeps Basil hostage for 2 days and they somehow fall in love while doing kinky things in a barely consensual non-consent kind of way. That being said I actually enjoyed it despite all of that. Particularly watching Basil fall in love despite himself.

[Bianca M · Rating 5 out of 5]

Surprisingly Cute

RA is a new to me author and this book is good. It’s surprisingly cute with what starting out as an attempted hit against a retired mafia man and it turned into an adorable love story. Double bi-awakenings, with lots of different types of spice.

[Christa Garoutte · Rating 5 out of 5]

Deliciously sweet and sexy 🔥🔥

How does a not-out-of-the-closet would be Russian assassin find his HEA? By trying to un-alive a retired Don. How does a retired Don find his HEA? By capturing his would-be assassin and having his delicious way with him. 🥵🔥

[OnePieceOfReading · Rating 5 out of 5]

Why is this not more highly rated!?!? I loved this Daddy/boy dynamic and the characters are so sweet to each other! This is my first book with this author and I'm a fan now! I cant wait to read the other books about the side characters - im so excited! Enjoy y'all!

[Lila · Rating 4 out of 5]

It seems I like a little sweetness

While I do like some rough mafia romances, I do think I prefer romances like these with a bit of sweetness.

I know it's unrealistic because obviously no mafia is that okay with queerness. I would have expected a little more bite back.

[Liza · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was just what I needed to shake me out of my recent reading funk. It was a quick and kinky read, a Mafia, double bi-awakening with a side of Daddy Dom, and consensual non-consensual kidnapping fun. Yeah, it was a lot, but still managed to be sweet and entertaining at the same time.

[Ashley GR · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought this book was just missing something. For me it just felt like a lot of Insta love without a lot of background on the characters. I felt like I didn’t know them at all beyond a very brief history and I guess I was expecting more. It felt like half a story to me.

[Bianca · Rating 5 out of 5]

Basil and George story was intense with a side of sweetness and danger as their families are considered enemies.
Their first encounter was exquisite and hilarious as one propose lead to another that triggers their future relationship.
Their chemistry is of the charts but sadly their communication needs some working on as a misunderstandings and miscommunication leads to temporary heartache.
I liked seeing old friends and the way they contributed to their happiness as well as the way he was accepted in George family.
It was an entertaining read and I'm looking forward to see how the other couples connected.

[J K H · Rating 5 out of 5]

RA Frick is a favorite and this book shows why! Basil and George have a push/pull that is a little bit dark, a lot edgy and so incredibly sexy. Unique, spicy and a really fun read!

[Fangirl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dark Daddies are something I really enjoy.
This was a fun read and I loved the way George and Basil found each other. ;)

[Jessie H. · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5 Stars

[Reads Queer Books · Rating 5 out of 5]

K*nky, hot, enemies to lovers Mafia romance!

[Queen A.]

dnf @ 20%

At the very least, please get a professional proofreader.
Your readers‘ time is precious.