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ONE
SIENNA
Red and blue lights flashed across the window panes, lighting up the darkness. I sat on the couch, numb as I watched the cops comb through every room, every nook and cranny they could find for clues as to who had murdered my father. It didn’t seem real. It felt like a dream.
I had already gone through the grief of losing my father once. But twice? I didn’t know how to deal with it. I felt sad, but at the same time, I still just expected this to be another twist in my father’s plans. He would walk through that door any minute, or I’d find another clue that would lead me to another safe house. I could almost picture him opening the door with a grin, just as he had a few days ago.
But he wouldn’t, and I would never see my father smile at me ever again. My fingers tightened around the tissues one of the officers had handed me, though it was unnecessary. Not even a single tear had slipped past my lashes since we found his body.
There had been bite marks on his ankle, and from the way his skin was discolored and bloated, I knew it was from a snake bite. Or, more specifically, the Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake. It was concerning how the Snake had found my father so soon, when it had even taken me a few days. Whoever it was, they knew more than I thought they did.
And that made them dangerous.
“Sienna?” Dante crouched down in front of me, his face lined with concern. “Do you want to go? The police are done questioning me.”
They’d questioned me right away, though neither of us had been able to give them the answers they needed. When the police finally realized that we hadn’t killed my father, they still wanted us to stick around to answer any questions that might pop up during the search. I guess they were finished.
I nodded slightly, unable to do much more than that. He took my hand in his, leading me towards the door. Outside, the shadows seemed to creep between the stilted houses, pressing in, suffocating me. Dante opened the door to his black Jaguar XJ, helping me in. I hated how he was handling me, like I was glass. Like I would break easily. My father had me trained to be stronger than that.
As Dante slipped into the driver’s seat, I turned to him slightly. “We have to tell my mother.”
“Right now?”
“She needs to know.” My voice held out just long enough to get the words out.
Dante pulled out of the drive, heading back to the city. All I could do was sit there, watching the highway whip past, the lights of the buildings surrounding us blurring together. I wished he would drive slower. I didn’t want to be the one to tell my mother that her husband was actually gone—that it wasn’t another plan. I could barely take her crying on the phone from the first time.
And now we had to do it all over again…for real this time.
The guilt hits me just as we reach the outskirts of downtown New York. I should have known that the Snake would stop at nothing to take my father down. I should have been there to save him. Or, better yet, I should have caught the Snake when we were supposed to and put an end to all of this. I couldn’t help but feel as if it were my fault. As if I had somehow failed him.
Now, more than ever, we needed to find the Snake before he managed to take out my entire family. I knew he wasn’t going to stop with just my father. Someone else would just take his place. Someone like me…
“The Commission.”
Dante glanced over at me. “What?”
“The Commission meeting is coming up soon,” I said slowly, my brain taking longer to connect the dots than usual. “I’ll need to go.”
He frowned, hesitating. “You’re going?”
“How else would they vote for me as the new Don?”
I watched as his mouth opened and shut in surprise, as if he couldn’t believe that I would try to get a position that hadn’t been held by a woman in mafia history. “Is that a problem?”
His mouth snapped shut. “Not at all. Whatever you decide, you know I’ll support you.”
“And your father?”
That was a loaded question. I knew his father was hoping that Dante would take over my family and everything we owned. It had been his original plan when he first offered to have his son marry me. Not that my father and I ever would have let that happen. I still won’t. Dante would never be the head of the Rosania family.
That title belonged to me and me alone.
“He’ll…get over it.”
I highly doubted it, but I didn’t have enough energy to argue about it now. I had to save everything I had to face my mother.
“What about Mateo?” Dante asked.
