Page 67 of Day Shift

“Yes, sir.” I leaned in and gave him a kiss on each cheek. “Thank you, Uncle Luca.”

With that, I opened the door and stepped through, but I couldn’t resist a parting shot. “Dead men have no contracts,” I quipped, flouncing my hair over my shoulder.

Uncle Luca’s low rumble of laughter followed me out of his office. I smiled politely at his bodyguards, my heart racing as I darted to the elevator. Once inside, I leaned against the handrail, the adrenaline coursing through my veins making my legs weak. I couldn’t believe I had faced Luca and stood my ground.

I was proud of myself for standing tall but also disappointed that he wouldn’t budge on the marriage contract or commit to protecting Samantha, Atticus, Conan, and Braxton. Yet I had a gut feeling he would help somehow, especially considering how he’d reacted when I told him about Viktor’s plans.

Shaking off my worries, I headed to Club Xyst. I needed to confront my business partners. They had supposedly been my friends for the past six years, but none of them had looked for me when I suddenly disappeared. It was time to address that.

Chapter thirty-one

When I stepped out of the taxi in front of Club Xyst, a thrill of excitement shot up my spine. I had fucking missed this place. Slade was hard at work on a ladder adjusting a security camera that hung off the eave of the portico. As much as I adored him and wanted to stop and chat, I was hell-bent on getting some answers from the guys, especially Lucian.

“Hi, Slade. Good to see you. I’ll come say hello in a little bit.” I gave him a quick nod and a wave and hurried past. His face fell a little. A small pang of regret went through me. I tugged the door open and was greeted by a whoosh of cool air.

Inside, I found Lucian and Lachlan unpacking a crate of liquor bottles next to the main bar. As I approached, they looked up, their eyes widening in disbelief. For a moment, they just stared at me, shocked, as if they couldn’t quite process that I was standing there after disappearing for a month. Then, they broke into wide, astonished smiles.

“Ana! Where the hell have you been?” Lucian called out, but I didn’t slow down, tossing the bag with my laptop on the bar with a thud.

Marching straight up to him, I shoved him—hard. He slammed into the bar, a bottle of whiskey slipping from his grasp and shattering on the floor.

“That’s right, I’m fucking alive!” I screamed, inches from his face. In the most annoying way possible, I poked my finger in his chest with each accusing word. “Not that any of you give two shits. I nearly died and had amnesia for a month, and you never stopped to think, ‘Hey, I wonder where Anastasia is? Weird. Wonder why our co-owner and business manager never showed up again?’ I thought you guys would have at least made an effort to figure out what happened to me. Good to know how little I mean to you!”

Lucian raised his hands defensively. “Whoa, whoa, whoa, Ana. Slow down. Your uncle—Luca Genovese—and his men paid us a visit and said you had to step away for a while for family business. His thugs made it clear that the type of business you were taking care of was none of ours. He straight up told us he’d break our knees if we went looking for you.”

Lachlan added, “When Lucian said it didn’t sound right to him and copped an attitude, one of the thugs beat the crap out of him. Check out the new curve to his nose. So maybe you should stop being so self-righteous, lose the damn attitude, and tell us about your fucking mafia ties.”

I pulled Lucian’s face toward me and took a closer look. Sure enough, his nose had been broken and still looked tender. My stomach twisted with guilt. “Oh my God. No. I’m so sorry. Fuck me, all I do is bring misery to everyone I care about.” Exhaling a pent-up breath and trying to iron out the creases on my forehead with my fingertips, I stepped back a little. In a much softer voice, I asked, “How can I make this right?”

Lucian pushed off the bar, putting more distance between us. “Well, you could start by telling us the truth about your mafia connections… You’re a goddamn mafia princess, for crying out loud. No wonder we were able to run a gambling room and the whole NYSLA issue just disappeared. I must be stupid because I assumed the uncle you were so close to was just politically well-connected. None of us would have ever thought the shy librarian who came in that first night for a job as a waitress was under the notorious Luca Genovese’s guardianship. I think that small detail should have come out over the last few years, don’t you?”

More guilt hammered at my conscience. I grabbed a towel and started cleaning up the mess from the broken bottle. “I’m sorry, Lucian. I should have told you.”

“Step back, Ana,” he said, waving me away. “In that fancy dress and those heels, it won’t be long before you’re flat on your ass.”

Just then, Julian and Gabriel came out from the back.

Gabriel’s eyebrows shot up as recognition hit. “Ana, I can’t believe it’s you! Where’ve you been?” His smile fell, and he cocked his head to the side. “It’s good to see you, but I’ve got to admit, I can’t believe you just checked out on us like that.”

“Yeah, and what’s up with mafia thugs?” Julian asked.

They both stared at me expectantly. My time of reckoning had come. I had to tell them the truth but didn’t know where to begin. No more secrets. I pulled out a bar stool and hiked myself up on it. “It’s complicated…especially now. For most of my life, I had no idea who my family really was. Over the years, I slowly learned they were powerful and tied to the mafia, but I had no clue what that meant until I got much older.” I let out a huff.

Waiting for me to continue, Julian and Gabriel crossed their arms, while Lachlan jammed his hands in his pockets and Lucian leaned against the bar.

“I was shipped from Russia to a boarding school in upstate New York when I was twelve.” I hesitated, gathering my thoughts. It was difficult to condense twenty-seven years into a brief explanation that would make sense. “They separated me from my twin brother, the only person who ever loved me. My last name was changed to that of my aunt, Elena Genovese, and she and Luca became my godparents.”

My cheeks flushed with embarrassment as I tried to hurriedly recount my past. “Over time, I became the typical American girl, passport and all. After boarding school, I went to Kennedy University and earned my master’s in library and information science, just as my aunt and uncle wanted me to.” Nervously, I chewed on my cheek. I hated sharing all this with them.

“It wasn’t easy for me as a young girl. My lack of English and my thick Russian accent made it hard to learn and make friends, not to mention I was super shy. So, I spent loads of time watching TV, carefully observing and listening to my classmates and then practicing alone in my room. I tried to speak like they did and forced any hint of my accent away. I wanted to be like all the popular girls in my school, but my aunt and uncle made it clear that my only purpose in life was to be a dutiful daughter, marry whomever they chose, and have babies. Sounds easy, I know. The problem was, I was lonely and completely miserable. I was desperate to taste freedom and live a little but didn’t have a clue where to begin. Not long after I started working for the library, I came across your ad for a job at Club Xyst. Coming to work here was the best thing I’ve ever done for myself.” I glanced around at each of them, hoping the truth of who I was hadn’t ruined things between us. “I want you guys to know that I had no clue about the types of dealings my family was really involved in until after I began working here. And then…how on earth was I supposed to tell you?”

Gabriel raised an eyebrow. “No clue about the drugs and human trafficking, huh?”

I shook my head. “None. It was almost a year later that my aunt sort of told me about how mafia families work,” I said, a lump forming in my throat. “She told me they were searching for the best marriage contract to benefit the family and explained I was part of one of the most powerful families in the world. She called it a privilege, saying I’d be the beneficiary of immense wealth, but didn’t get into any specifics about where all that money had come from. All I had to do was stay a virgin, marry who I was told to marry, and I would be a pampered mafia wife for the rest of my life, never having to work.”

Julian sat down next to me, his brows knitting in worry. “And if you didn’t?”

“At first I tried to refuse, to tell her I wouldn’t go along with the arranged marriage, but that didn’t go over so well. She laughed right in my face and said the alternative was an untimely death.” I paused, steadying myself. “She followed up later by sending me images of women’s dead bodies—those who had stood up against family expectations. They were tortured and mutilated. So what choice did I have? It was then I truly realized what it meant to be part of the mafia. Before, I’d thought they were just powerful businessmen who walked the line of what was legal and illegal. I didn’t understand about the violence, the drugs, the sex trade. I’d never had a reason to dig deeper. I mean, you guys have gambling in the basement, but it doesn’t mean you sell women or drugs on the side.”

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