What was it about me that made everyone leave me? Daddy was always in my corner, but he couldn’t be around. A few times a year, I could communicate by writing notes in code only he and I used. We did this since the threat to my life was still high. He believed once I was introduced to the Family and given my title, it would end the fight over the position of underboss.
Personally, I wasn’t so sure about that, but that was a worry for another day. For now, I had something else to focus on—my last night asLuna Selena.Letting out a heavy sigh, I looked over the property of the Michelson estate from my vantage point on top of their peaked roof. This was my last hurrah. Tomorrow I’m going back to Eastrose, Mansara. It was time to announce my ascension to second-in-command, the underboss of the Caprioni Family.
My target, Patrick Michelson, was known for his collection of stamps, and he’d just managed to acquire one of the rarest last week. He’d been so proud that he had a viewing party to show it off—it was incredibly foolish of him if you ask me. Plus, who really wants to come look at a damn stamp the size of a quarter? It was like he was begging me to take it as my last job before ending my time asLuna Selena.
It might also have something to do with the fact I learned he’d fucked over one of our businesses here in Huntingford. It seems Patrick dearest sold us supplies that weren’t exactly up to code. Shit like that wouldn’t fly with me, and I was in a unique position to retaliate without it causing any trouble for the Family.
Double-checking my harness and lines, I repelled down the wall of the three-story mansion to the second floor. My plan was to enter through one of the spare bedrooms near the office where the stamp was kept. Patrick loved his stamps so much he had a special room made that would keep them in perfect condition. The damn thing was even climate controlled. That made this job slightly tricky but so exciting when I pulled it off. I’d have to get past the security of his office, then get into the secure preservation room behind a bookcase.
People really should stop putting things behind bookcases and fireplaces—it’s the first place us thieves check out. Using my glass cutter, I made a hole big enough for me to fit through then, using the suction cup handle, I set the cut section on the nightstand. Once through, I put the glass back in the window, planning on getting out another way, and hit the button to send the rope back up to the roof. God, I loved technology and good toys to help with the job.
Having located all the cameras in the hallway ahead of time, I shot paintballs at them from a custom-made pistol for occasions like this. The motion sensors were the next trick, but there was a narrow section right down the middle of the room they missed. This is why you get a reputable company to install this type of shit. All I had to do was get to the desk, then I’d be in the clear. With the computer that was hardwired into the house, I could shut down the security where I needed to. Hacking wasn’t my greatest skill, but I was forced to learn enough to manage issues like this, and most security wasn’t overly complicated in the homes I targeted.
If I were going to try and steal from a bank or museum, that would be an entirely different can of worms. That shit I wouldn’t be able to do without help. The other thing working in my favor was I don’t stick to one specific thing to steal—doing so made itwayharder to figure out who I’d target next. Last month, it had been a painting I just fell in love with at a party. Not all things I stole were expensive. I just took what I liked, and apparently, I have high-class taste.
People think once you have a security system in place, everything else is just a precaution. That might be the case for some people, but not the idiots who leave the complicated password written down on a sticky note under the keyboard. Once I got into the computer, shutting down the security was easy. Whoever invented saving passwords for every website you use automatically was brilliant and made my job so much easier. Not wanting to alert the company to anything suspicious, I only shut off the motion sensors and left the rest running. This wouldn’t raise a red flag since Patrick liked to work at odd hours of the night.
Revealing the preservation room door, I scanned it over to ensure I had what I needed. It was an old-school tumbler lock I could crack easily. Pulling the door open, I snorted at how small the room was—a specially made broom closet filled with his little stamps in their protective casing lined the shelves in neat rows. I double-checked to make sure there weren’t any sensors or pressure triggers before taking the stamp I wanted. It really didn’t look like much, but the damn thing was worth five million dollars. Tucking the case into my satchel, I zipped it shut, replaced it with my moonflower, and closed up the room again.
Looking around the office, I let out a deep sigh knowing everything would change when the sun came up. While I was excited to finally get to be where I belonged, I was sad not to be doing this anymore. I mean, over ten years of stealing was a long time, even though the world thinks I started eight years ago thanks to my simple beginnings.
I would be giving up this life of hiding in the shadows and coming out as the heir to the Caprioni Family. Life would never be this simple ever again, but I was ready for the change. This had lost its challenge, and I wasn’t going for a bigger job, no matter how much the dark web was willing to pay me. I didn’t need the money, that’s for sure. With my earnings from this and my family being billionaires already, I was set. I liked having my own money, though. You never know what life could throw at you, and having a few million stashed away was simply smart business.
Swiftly, I left the office, jogged down the stairs to the first floor, and headed to the mud room where the doggy door was located. Bruno, their mastiff, passed away a few weeks ago, and they never remembered to do anything with this giant hole in the wall. I couldn’t get in through this point with the motion detectors throughout the house, but I could leave that way. I waved goodbye, abandoning my rig on their roof, and ran through the woods beside their house. On the other side, I’d parked my blacked-out SUV I used for jobs. Normally, I like something with more speed, but this could handle anything I stole or the equipment I needed with that beauty.
Glancing at my watch, I had just enough time to get four hours of sleep before I had to head out. The movers would be coming to pack everything up and bring it back to Eastrose. According to the plan, I was supposed to wait for the security team to come get me.
Yeah, that wasn’t going to happen.
I’d been stuck here for far too long, and I was getting the hell out of dodge on my own terms. So I was gonna take my powder-blue Aston Martin and drive my happy ass there myself. Might even make a few stops along the way to make up for lost time, keeping a low profile.
two
Myshoestappedonthe marble floor as I walked, the sound echoing down the hall to the boss’s office. It was crazy late for him to call me to his office, but I knew things had been busy around here with the party scheduled for tomorrow evening. No one had a clue what the purpose of the party was, but when the head of the Caprioni Family says we’re having a party, no one argues. I had a feeling I knew what was up with all the secret meetings the boss was having with Mathis and Athos.
It had to be about Astin.
My hope was after fifteen years of being kept away from her home, she’d be allowed to return. If this was a party for her homecoming, then shit was about to hit the fan and not only in the Caprioni Family. No, this was going to ripple throughout the criminal empire in the whole of Mansara and all of the East Coast. The Caprioni Family ruled not just our city but most of Mansara as well, dictating what happened in the whole of Apria.
Looking down at my hand, I rubbed my thumb along the scar from my promise with Astin when we were kids. We’d become everything to each other as kids. What I couldn’t tell her is that my father wasn’t just the head caretaker of the Huntingford home but the head of her personal security. Dad wanted to keep what he was a secret from her so she wouldn’t dodge him like she did all the other things designed to keep her safe and in her cage.
I never had the heart to tell my old man about her being a thief. Hell, it all started because of me. What right did I have to rat her out? Fuck, I’d been so in love with her that I wouldn’t have given up her secrets for anything. Then I was ripped away from my safe little bubble with her and brought back into the fold of the Family. Her father wanted me to be in charge of her personal protection when she returned home. For this to happen, I had to be trained for what I am now—head security for the Caprioni Family.
For a while after I first left, she’d tried to write me letters, but I couldn’t lie to her like that. I tried, goddamn did I try. I knew that with me gone, she didn’t have anyone in her corner besides Glenda who was getting too old for Astin’s shit. Boss caught wind that we were writing to each other, and he put a stop to it, telling me that if he couldn’t talk to his daughter, neither could I. I’d gotten more time with her than he ever had, so I was just going to have to suck it up and deal with leaving my heart back in Huntingford. Of course, I didn’t tell her father I was head over heels in love with her and still was to this day.
No other woman could match Astin with her sharp mind, deadly skill, and sassy mouth always ready with a comeback. It didn’t hurt that she was tall and drop-dead gorgeous, making men fall to their knees for the chance to be with her. For ten years, she was all mine, and I was the only one she ever wanted to spend time with, ignoring every other guy who even tried to get her attention.
Being head of security meant I got updates from our security team at the house. These just so happened to come with pictures and other bits of information about her life to appease her father. Since I got to look at everything first, I liked to pretend it was meant for me so I could keep track of how she was doing. The boss and I were the only ones who knew anything about her life right now. After her intensive training was completed four years ago and her uncles returned to the main house, they were again cut off from communicating. I took pity on them before and after they got back, including them on her life updates so they felt like they were still a part of her life.
I instructed my team to send highlights—pictures of her when she graduated high school, who her friends were, guys she went on dates with and when she dropped them—things like that. When my team sent along information sharing they thought she’d lost her virginity, I had to squash it. That type of update would cause the wrath of Colmazio Caprioni to come raining down on the nineteen-year-old asswipe who she tumbled with. Astin picked him up at one of the parties her stepmother brought her to and snuck a tryst with him in one of the mansion’s bedrooms.
Some things didn’t need to be shared because I knew it wasn’t her first time. I was the one who actually took her V card, but learning this told me she wasn’t waiting for me anymore, and it crushed me in a way I didn’t see coming.
I knocked lightly on the door before letting myself in. There, in a leather armchair with a snifter of brandy sat the king of the criminal empire of Eastrose. His gray hair was cut short since the top of his head was mostly bald, but he made up for it with a full beard. He raised his emerald-green eyes that matched his daughter’s perfectly to me. The only difference was the hint of tiredness in his gaze.
He’d been running this empire for forty-five years, taking over at the age of twenty when his father was killed. He married Astin’s mother later in life, but he loved Natalina more than life itself. When he lost her and had to send Astin away, it broke something in the boss that made him hard and cruel, or so my father tells me. This is the only version of the man I’ve ever known, and Colmazio was the boss, and no one questioned that fact if they wanted to live.
“Ah, Ryker.” He smiled. “Come take a seat. Let’s chat awhile.”