I turned on my heel and smirked at him. “Are you begging?” I asked, a sudden power rushing through me. Never in a million years did I think I’d hear the gangster beg for anything. But … I kind of liked that power I had over him.

He postured over me, then stepped back, noticing Dad in the corner of the room, watching us. Without so much as another word, he stormed past me and to him. I hurried after him this time and stood by his side, wanting Dad to know that I had been there last night and that I wasn’t the one who had fucked this up.

Dad stood up and pulled me into a hug, like he always did, then sat back down and nodded. “How’d last night go?” he said to Alessandro but glanced at me.

What he was really asking was if I had been too much for Alessandro to handle on the assignment, not if it was successful or not. I could see it in his damn eyes and wanted to slap that expression right off of him.

“Good. Everything went smoothly.”

“Any problems?”

“No,” Alessandro said, lying straight through his teeth.

Dad looked at me. “Any problems?”

I glanced at Alessandro, then back at Dad. This would be my one and only chance to prove myself to the family. Prove that I wasn’t going to take shit from anyone, that I could find the problematic people in the family before he could, that I could be twice the leader that he ever had been. And that started with finding Mom’s killer by myself.

“No,” I said. “No problems at all.”

23

chiara

After staring me down for a few moments, he sat back in his seat and nodded. I took a deep breath, feeling like I was being interrogated, and clasped my hands behind my back. Alessandro pulled off his suit jacket and sat in front of Dad.

“We have to talk,” he said to Dad. “There is a hit on your daughter’s head by someone in this family.”

I sat next to Alessandro and stared at Dad, watching his reaction.

“I know. I heard this morning. I have—”

“You’re the leader of the fucking family, and you only found out about it this morning?” Alessandro asked.

Everyone in the entire restaurant went quiet, even me. Nobody had ever talked back to Dad. And Alessandro should’ve never talked back to him, especially when Dad had the opportunity to kill him in public and nobody would say a single word about it. In fact, it’d be covered up without a second thought.

I held my breath and waited for Dad to react.

Dad’s jaw twitched. “Don’t question me, Alessandro. I didn’t bring you here to stir up trouble.” He looked at me. “And that’s all you seem to be doing lately.”

“Are you blaming me for your shortcomings?” Alessandro asked, jaw clenching.

He had that same violent look in his eyes that he’d had last night when he killed those two men. I stared, wide-eyed, at him, wanting to tell him to calm his ass down or he wouldn’t have an ass when Dad was finished with him.

Dad slammed his hands down on the table. “I’m saying that Chiara was never in danger from anyone in this family until you came to town.” He flared his nostrils and swallowed hard. “I don’t want you seeing my daughter again. No more assignments together. No more visiting each other’s home late at night.” He looked back and forth between us like he knew our secrets. “Do you understand me?”

Alessandro leaned back in his seat, kicked his ankle onto his knee, and stared at Dad. “If you’re saying that I’m the one who put the hit on her head, you’re lying, and you know it,” Alessandro said.

“I’m done with this conversation and with you,” he said. “Know your place before I have to put you into it.” He glanced over at me and motioned behind me. “Chiara, Matteo will be your bodyguard. He’ll be with you at all times. You won’t leave his sight.”

My mouth dried when I glanced up at Matteo. He was one of Tommy’s friends—and by friends, I meant, one of the guards Tommy had been talking to and hanging around when he and his whore were flirting with each other at the party.

“What about my assignments with Alessandro?” I asked.

“You will have your own assignments.” He slid a folder across the table toward me. “Get this done within the week,” he said as if it wasn’t important to the family at all.

“Chiara is safer with me,” Alessandro said, standing up. “Not with some guard who doesn’t know the danger she’s in.”

Dad stood up and glared at him. “You don’t tell me how to run my family.”