Page 6 of That Time I Accidentally Took Over the Mafia

My father was a business mogul who was never around. He shoved me off to be cared for by our staff, never coming to anything important in my life—birthdays, graduations—nothing. As soon as I could get away, I did.

He left me nothing but a legacy of silence and absence long before he died—and now he’s left me this. A criminal empire. One I didn’t even know existed. One I’m now supposed to lead.

“You’re going to have to,” Enzo says flatly, his serious tone snapping me out of my spiral. “You have six days to get to Chicago for the presentation of the will. It’s imperative youattend, Delaney. This isn’t just a formality—it’s a matter of life or death.”

I’m still in shock. “I don’t want any part of this. I’m not going.” I stand abruptly, ready to storm off. “This is insane, and you… you guys… why are you even here? You can’t make me do this.”

“Delaney,” Jax says softly, his voice unusually gentle. “You don’t have a choice.”

I turn on him, ready to argue, but the words spill out before I can stop them. “What the hell do you want from me? You’ve all been out of my life for years, and now you’re telling me I’m some damn mafia queen? And how are you all involved in this? Why are you the ones telling me?” I point between them. “Explain that. I deserve that much at least.”

Jax hesitates, clearly weighing his words. Luca remains silent, stone-like, but Enzo speaks with calm authority.

“We’re here because we’re all connected to mafia families,” he says simply. “You know my enterprise. It’s a legitimate business, but it hides my family’s otherwork.” He stresses the word. “Luca’s family has been mafia associates for years. Jax, too. We work together now.”

I glare at the chair Jax pulls out for me, but I sit anyway, my legs too shaky to stand.

“Your father was the most powerful man in the country,” Enzo continues. “The Capo dei Capi—boss of all bosses. Now that he’s gone, a war has begun.”

“The most powerful man in the country.” The words feel foreign as I repeat them, like I’m speaking someone else’s language. “What do you mean… a war?”

Luca finally speaks, his voice low but intense. “Every family in the country is after the power your father left behind. But they can’t take it unless you’re out of the picture. And that’s why you have to claim it—or someone else will. By force, if necessary.”

I’m about to start laying into them—yell, demand answers, anything—when the sound of a floral delivery van pulling into my driveway derails me.

Seriously? Flowers? Now?

The white van creeps up the U-shaped drive, parking in the middle. A man in an all-brown uniform steps out, retrieving a large bouquet of flowers from the back. The sudden tension in the room feels like a punch to the chest. All three of them stiffen. Their eyes snap to the delivery guy like he’s holding a ticking bomb instead of a bouquet.

“What the hell is wrong with you guys?” I roll my eyes, exhausted by the absurdity of the morning. “It’s just flowers. People get them all the time. Not that any of you ever got me flowers,” I add, giving Jax a pointed look. “Mike did, though.”

“Mark,” Luca corrects, as if it matters.

I glare at him. “Don’t you have a Walmart to raid or something? I hear there’s a sale in the keyboard aisle. You should go.”

He shrugs, completely unbothered.

I scoff. “Ridiculous. No one has ever died from a floral delivery before.”

“Delaney, stop,” Enzo whisper-yells like a total psychopath as I open the door before the guy can even ring the bell.

It’s just flowers. Right? How bad could it be?

I mean, they just said my father died so don’t people get flowers during mourning. The fact that no one here knows my real name dawns on me and cold dread creeps down my neck.

I only use my pen name…always. No one from my past knows where I am so… who would know to send me flowers?

The delivery guy looks up from the bouquet, smiling politely as delivery people often do. Then, like some twisted magician, he pulls a gun from the middle of the arrangement.

For a split second, my brain freezes. Is he really holding a gun? In the flowers?

Before I can fully process the situation, Enzo barrels into me like a freight train. He shoves me out of the way so hard I stumble back into the wall, pain shooting through my shoulder.

“Enzo!” I start to snap, but he pins me to the wall with his body, shielding me.

Jax moves faster than I thought humanly possible. He pulls a gun—God knows where he was hiding it—and shoots the delivery guy square between the eyes just as I push Enzo off me.

I stand there, stunned, my mouth hanging open. The hole in the center of the man’s forehead smokes slightly, and I can’t take my eyes off it. Bright red blood trickles down his face as his body crumples to the ground like a rag doll. The bouquet scatters across the porch, mixing with the dark pool of blood spreading beneath him.

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