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Chapter 1
Mia
* * *
When you’re a mafia boss’s daughter, someone always wants to kill you. It’s a fact. Look it up. There’s a bounty on your head the day you’re born. Sad, but true. Can’t a girl just watch Netflix without her father’s nemesis planning a sneak attack? Is that too much to ask?
“You can’t change your mind. You have to leave, Mia,” Sophia says, raising her dark brows along with her voice. “Bishop will be here tonight to kidnap you.”
“How can you be so sure?” We’ve been friends since she came to work for my family as a housekeeper, so I trust her, but I don’t know about this plan anymore. She’s been searching for the elusive Bishop Blackstone for years.
“Someone told me,” she turns to stare out the tall glass windows of my skyrise condo on the Upper East Side, “but I can’t say who.”
“Right, ok.” I rush across the hardwoods into my bedroom, gathering a few last-minute personal items. “Wouldn’t it be easier to just let my father deal with this?” I poke my head out of the walk-in closet. “He would enjoy taking care of it, I’m sure.”
Bishop isn’t my enemy, per se, but he is the enemy of my father. Georgio DeWinter runs the largest crime outfit in New York City.
“We went over this already,” Sophia says, resting her shoulder against the doorframe, watching as I hustle from the closet to the mahogany armoire in the room’s corner. “It’s important no one suspects anything, so Bishop suspects nothing. He’s mine to kill.”
I spin around and stare at her. “What if he kills you right here in my bed?” It’s a fair question. If Bishop hurt Sophia, I would never forgive myself.
“Don’t worry about me, everything will be ok.” Sophia crosses to where I’m now frozen, sneakers stuck to the thick, white rug beneath them, and places both hands on my shoulders, staring into my eyes. “I need you to stick with the plan. Don’t panic. You’re going to leave, acting like me. In my clothes.”
“Ok, got it. No panic.” It’s a good thing Sophia and I look alike. Long brown hair, brown eyes. But, if anyone looked closely enough, they’d know. The security firm my father hired to protect me sits just outside my front door, but hopefully, I can slip past my guards and make it out of this place. “Again, what if Bishop kills you?”
“He won’t,” she says with enough conviction for me to believe it. “He wants you alive. He’s going to take all four daughters, make your fathers think they have a choice and a fighting chance, and then he’s going to murder you all.”
I shiver at the thought of what Bishop wants to do to us. “You’re positive about this?”
“Yes.” She drops her hands. “What did you tell Sebastian at your job about why you wouldn’t be there?”
“Nothing. He hasn’t been at the restaurant.”
She tilts her head. “Why?”
“I don’t know. No one will tell me anything.”
Something is definitely out of sorts. Not only is Sebastian my father’s business partner, they’re best friends, so the fact my father won’t discuss Sebastian Cain isn’t lost on me.
“That’s strange,” she says. “He’s run your father’s restaurant for years.”
He’s also been a pain in my butt at the restaurant for years. Osteria Dei Mascalzoni, which roughly translates to ‘Tavern of Scoundrels,’ fits Sebastian perfectly. A gorgeous scoundrel is still a scoundrel. I’m not dumb, and I know from working there that the restaurant is also a front for my father’s dirty deeds. Sebastian takes the power of running the place directly to his head. He likes being in charge. I think he gets off on being in control over me. Working with him, having him constantly tell me no when I try to expand the events department is infuriating.
“You sure you’re going to be ok?” I ask once more, shoulders drooping with worry.
“Trust me.”
“I do trust you.” I just hope she’s smart enough to get away. If she can kill Bishop, then I won’t need to stay away. Everything can go back to the way it was, where everyone is safe.
Sophia removes her hat and hoodie, and I slip them on. The sun is shining so I can get away with wearing sunglasses as well. Security shouldn’t even look twice at me. Hopefully.
“Do you have cash like I told you to get?” Sophia asks, perching on the edge of the bed.
“Yes. I have more than enough to buy clothes and whatever else I’ll need. What about you? Do you have money to hide once you do the job?”
Sophia smiles. “Mia, I’m fine. Don’t worry.”
She’s so badass. Sometimes I wish I were more like her. I know she’ll kill Bishop and get this whole mess cleared up for the Four Families. If anyone can do it, she can. Once, and only once, I went to a kickboxing class with her. She straight up murdered the bag. Even the instructor said she was lethal. She studies all the martial arts. The only workouts I do are running around the restaurant when I’ve got back-to-back events scheduled.
