CHAPTER ONE
MIA
Ifelt the change in the air and in my bones as I gripped the doorknob, preparing to face whatever trap my stepbrother had set for me that day.
I had work to do, but I couldn’t stay. Things were too dangerous, especially if Ricco and my father discovered that the problems cropping up with the sex-trafficking ring they ran—the broken-down trucks and missing girls—were because of me.
I’m the rat. To be caught would have been a fate worse than death. Since my existence sometimes bordered on that, anyway, I had to listen to my gut. It was screaming to leave.
Slipping out of my bedroom, I measured each breath as my heels clicked on the wood floor and I neared the stairway that would lead me closer to my escape. I would leave with the clothes on my back, a stockpile of weapons strategically strapped to my body, and Mom’s elegant gold-bar necklace with the miniature chamomile flower etched in the base, which I never left home without.
For the fifteen years since she’d died, I’d been playing an elaborate chess game with my father, Ricco, and my life. But over the past few months, things had escalated. I wouldn’t have put anything past Ricco, and that morning was no different. It was a game of cat and mouse, and I damn well would not be the mouse in the end.
I crept along the hallway until I was two steps from the second-floor landing when the click of a door opening shattered my focus. Pure evil permeated the air, causing the fine hairs all over my body to rise. The familiar cloying scent of my stepbrother’s strong cologne announced his presence, and I tensed to run.
A punishing grip closed around my upper arm, jerking my body back, and I lost my footing, falling into the hallway table and vase. Glass shattered in a crash across the floor. I fell into the shards of glass, pain piercing my hip as I felt something sharp tear through my skin.
I pushed off the ground, ignoring the blood that trickled down my leg from the gash. He grabbed me again and jerked. I stiffened, refusing to fall into him. A pinch in my upper arm had me craning my neck and looking over my shoulder to see what he’d done.
Ricco grinned at me. He’d stabbed me with a needle.
Freezing liquid raced up my arm as his hand clamped over my mouth. I struggled, kicking back, but his hand only tightened as he waited for the drug to work. Within minutes, I felt the foreign substance take effect, infecting my blood and making my movements languid. I met the eyes of my tormentor before I lost the ability to fight.
“Hello, sis.” Dark intent churned within his obsidian gaze, and a malicious smirk grazed his face. I should have experienced a surge of adrenaline. I didn’t. The drug’s effects were swift, and my body was no longer my own to control.
He hefted me over a broad shoulder, and my arms flopped by the side of my head. My thoughts were sluggish, but I tried to pay attention as he turned and went in the opposite direction from where I’d been headed. With each step, the effort to keep my eyes open became too great. Not even the fear of where he was taking me or what it meant for my future could stop the darkness from descending.
Time blinked in and out, creating a slideshow of still images: the hallway, the back seat of a black sedan, arctic-gray cement floors, and a row of windowless, locked doors. Finally, a white ceiling remained as a fixed viewpoint for what seemed like—and probably was—hours.How long have I been in here?Without my phone, or any sort of clock, I couldn’t tell how much time had passed since Ricco had tossed me on this lumpy cot.
A tsunami of dread rose, and I balanced precariously on the crest of the giant wave as I became more aware of my surroundings. Sensation returned in increments, starting with my fingers and toes.
A stuttered influx of adrenaline fired through me as the tan steel door opened, and my stepbrother walked into the room. His dark shoulder-length hair was slicked back in his signature ponytail. My gaze dropped to the deep indentation in his chin, where he had trouble shaving the whiskers that grew within, so he wore a perpetual five o’clock shadow. It didn’t matter—that spot was still noticeable and a chink in his armor, something I used to tease him about unmercifully when we were teenagers. I called him “Buttface” and told him his chin reminded me of a hairy butthole. It was mean, but he did worse things.
I snapped my attention back to him, working hard to focus on what he was saying. My lips tingled as feeling returned to them, and I fought from grimacing. There was no point in letting him know how much of the drug had worn off.
He glanced at his watch, a ten-thousand-dollar monstrosity of gold and diamonds. “Our father has decided to marry you to that politician.”
Notyourfather, asshole. It was a wasted thought because Dad sure as hell preferred Ricco. Not only that, but he would hand over the reins to the family legacy to him, the boy he took in after the death of the captain of our guard, Ricco’s birth father.
The conversation I’d overheard the night before between my dad and stepbrother about marriage wreaked havoc in my mind as I considered who I might be paired with and how my father would benefit.
The Verretti boss was out. Dante had declined my father’s proposition for an arrangement between our families, including my marrying either of his two brothers. Since they were no longer candidates, my father pivoted in another direction—a very powerful and well-connected politician. I did not want that life. Nor would I be safe. There was only one way I would be protected, and I needed to figure out how to achieve that.
I’d edged closer to the office door the night before to better hear the fate of my future. But when Ricco threw his name into the pot, I’d made myself scarce. He was a snake, and I wouldn’t have put it past him to go behind my father’s back to benefit his position in the family. Each day was much of the same as I eased myself closer to being trapped with a man I wouldn’t choose.
I needed a plan.
Ricco’s upper lip curled, and I forced myself to listen to the venom he was spewing. “We have enough people in our pocket in government positions. Your marriage to one of them would be a wasted opportunity.”
I held my breath. Whatever was coming, it wouldn’t be good.
“What we need is an ally, and Guido is very interested in providing that through his marriage to you.”
I gave up part of the farce and voiced how ignorant Ricco was. “Guido Amato isn’t an underboss anymore. His position was stripped from him by his stupidity.” The son and former underboss of one of New York’s Mafia families wasn’t someone I’d ever liked. And his recent stunt had cost him his position in the family. Messing with the Five Families was asinine, and Guido had been lucky to escape with his life.
My foot dangled off the mattress, and Ricco tapped it with his, watching closely for a physical response to see if the drug had worn all the way off. When none came, I knew it bought me a little time, and I had to use every second.
“In a few short weeks, Guido will be boss of his family with his new wife by his side—you.”