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I was born out of determination and true love.
I was born to rule, to be a queen, not a beautiful jewel to be kept safe.
I will take my place at the head of the Russo family when the time is right and when I do, I will demolish the Carluccio family as it’s known now, whether Dante wants to help or not.
I am not a princess to be hidden in an ivory tower.
I am a queen in a fortress, aiming, waiting until my target comes close enough.
“Your first day.”
My first day.
“My first day working for Dante?” I ask, staring at Marco and pretending to believe that is the case. Pretending I don’t understand what he means.
My own version of protecting myself.
But his eyes say everything.
“Your first day at Jerzy Girls.”
I roll my lips together at the betrayal, my single tell, before I nod and stand tall.
“Take me to Dante,” I say, and Marco nods, reaching for his phone. “Take me to Dante, Marco. Do not call him. Take me to him,” I say, and Marco sighs.
“Lilah—"
There are no cameras in the girls' room. I remember Dante telling me this, that the entire building is wired and monitored, but here isn’t.
That means no ears.
“You know who I am. You know what I am to him. You know what the plan is. That means you know who I am to you.” The power weaves through my words. Power I didn’t realize I was already ready to wield.
Aching to wield.
The look in Marco’s eyes tells me everything I need to know.
It shocks him too.
But I’m right—he knows it.
And just when I think he’ll argue, that he’ll tell me he works for and answers to Dante and Dante alone, he sighs, slipping his phone back in his pocket and moving a hand to the spot between my shoulder blades.
“Let’s go, princess,” he says, and it takes everything in me not to let the cat smile reach my lips.
Thirty-Seven
-Lilah-
I don’t have to worry about hiding that smile as we pull up in front of the Carluccio complex, the blacked-out windows of the town car making the gigantic home look Gothic and daunting. The entirety of the ten-minute drive was spent thinking about the thousands of times I told Dante I didn’t need protecting and the thousands of times he agreed.
The times I told him how shitty my family keeping secrets from me had made me feel, the times I told him I was tired of hiding away, protected from reality.
And the millions of times he’d mention his plan without elaborating.
Paulie wanted to sell me to the highest bidder, my mind tells me, unscrambling the drunken words he’d said in that hallway.
The car stops at the front, and I know Marco wants me to wait.
