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CHAPTER 1
Nick
Staring across at Seeley Ricci, I tap my fingers on the desk in front of me. He makes a tempting offer, one I’ve been offered by many men before and always turned down. Ricci is desperate, however. Meaning that I can get him to do just about anything in order to agree to take his daughter off his hands.
“Tell me more about her,” I inquire, against my better judgment. Marco, my second-in-command, raises an eyebrow at that. He knows I don’t operate like the other families; I don’t ordinarily entertain the idea of arranged marriages.
He hasn’t seen this woman’s picture, though. He hasn’t seen the way her smile doesn’t reach her eyes.
Or that she was pale and sallow.
He couldn’t know that whenever this image under my hand was taken, she was on the edge of falling off a sharp cliff.
And his heart didn’t stop when his eyes roamed across her angelic face.
But I do; I have. I see and feel all these things when I know I shouldn’t. I’m a hardened man. I take what I want, when I want, how I want. I don’t make deals.
“She was bred for the perfect pairing. She’s obedient and innocent in the ways of our world. She is the perfect girl to be molded into the perfect wife. Trainable.” There’s glee in his gaze as he says this. He’s excited to offer his daughter like a piece of meat.
“How many others have you offered her to?”
Marco gets on his phone before walking out. He’ll have the honest answer for me because men like Ricci always lie.
His sight shifts to the side before falling back on me. “No one. You’re the first.”
Marco returns to the room, shaking his head in opposition. “How many?” I repeat the question.
I can hear the diminutive man swallow harshly as he tries to lie his way out. “I don’t know what you mean.”
Marco holds up four fingers behind the man’s back. “I’m afraid I’ll have to pass then. I don’t enjoy being lied to my face.” With a flick of my wrist, Marco hauls him to his feet and drags him out the door before the bastard can make a single sound of protest.
Despite what I just said to him, however, I fully intend on making the young Ricci girl mine. Just as soon as I do my due diligence and discover everything I can about why Seeley is so desperate to sell her now. And how the hell he kept her a secret for so fucking long.
“Do we have any informants on his payroll?” I ask Marco as soon as he strolls back into my office.
“One of his lieutenants.” Before I have to ask, he’s making the call. “Boss wants to meet you.” A few seconds later, he hangs up. “Midnight at the docks.”
“Anything you know about Ricci that I don’t?” I eye him suspiciously. Marco has been in the game for as long as I have; we came up together. He’s my brother by choice. But sometimes, he keeps information close to the vest to bring out when we need it at a later date.
“Didn’t know there was a daughter.” I believe him.
“Any of the other families know about her?” If I didn’t, I’d be surprised if they did.
“Cato and Adonis say no.” I notice who he’s left out.
“And Devlin?” I raise a brow. Devlin Cormac and I are on thin ice. Mainly because we are too much alike. See, take, own; it’s been our motto since grade school. He has a wilder streak than I do, though, making him unpredictable.
Marco’s hand raises and waffles back and forth. “Hit or miss on him. Won’t give a straight answer, but I don’t get the feeling he cares too much. Irvine is too far from his territory to even worry about.”
Devlin’s family has run everything from Bakersfield to Barstow and farther north up the coast for as long as I’ve known them, and I’m certain even longer than that. The Ricci’s barely have Irvine. Nobody wants to deal with them, so they haven’t had the opportunity to expand.
Cato Daire has taken advantage of that, nonetheless, and everything south of Irvine belongs to his family. Because of the Mexico border, they make a mint, too.
LA County has been in my own family for six generations. We run the streets, the police, and the politics. In return for not drawing a weekly blood bath with anyone trying to take over, they leave my organization alone.
Adonis Lorde has Riverside, Anaheim, and San Bernadino. He’s been making a play for Irvine for quite some time, which means he might take Seeley Ricci up on the marriage proposition so he can have it before Cato takes over.
“Fuck,” I hiss, leaning back and pinching the bridge of my nose. “Ask Adonis what he wants so he doesn’t make a move on the girl.” I don’t know why, but that fucking picture of her—I don’t even know her fucking name—has a death grip on me. Something somewhere deep inside my gut is screaming that I can’t let her slip through my fingers.
