Page 1 of Snowed in with the Mafia

Chapter One

Alessia

Every part of me melts in relief as I step into the house, and a surge of warmth envelops me. Soft snowflakes soak the rug in the mudroom as I remove my gloves, hat, coat, boots, and two layers of socks.

I don’t, at all, relish the ache in my limbs from tending the animals, making sure the troughs haven’t frozen overnight, checking the fences, and falling on my ass on the ice while carrying a bucket of feed on this winter morning. I would rather still be in bed. Farm life is hard, whether the land is basking in golden sunlight or draped in a carpet of snow.

I grab a clean pair of thick woolen socks that I’d left on the old cast-iron radiator to heat up before I started my morning chores, and I almost giggle as my toes curl into the soft warmth. I slip my feet into a pair of slippers and head to the kitchen, where my consolation prize for getting up at the crack of dawn in the blistering cold awaits—a cup of superindulgent hot chocolate and freshly baked blueberry muffins, courtesy of my beloved sister, Gianna.

With both our parents no longer with us, the farm is now ours—mine and Gianna’s. The only reason I’m still here, though, is because of Gianna. She won’t leave this place, and I won’t make her.

There isn’t anything in the world I wouldn’t do for my younger sister. I made that promise to my parents just before they died, and I plan to keep my word no matter what.

Voices catch my attention on my way to the kitchen, and the little good mood I’d mustered at the thought of my hot chocolate and muffins evaporates all at once. When I say this is our land—mine and Gianna’s—I mean it in spirit. Technically, the land and farmhouse, once my parents’ pride and joy, now belong to my uncle, thanks to some completely criminal fuckery on his part and some asinine Italian mafia law. It’s so stupid it makes me want to scream.

Not only has our uncle invaded our space for the last three months after losing his house in a poker game, but we’ve also had to put up with his diva of a wife and their daughter.

If I’d let them get away with half the stuff, they try to pull on us, Gianna and I would be in a Cinderella situation right now. Just as well, I’m tough as nails enough for both my sweet sister and me, otherwise, we’d be catering to my uncle and cousin as if we were their personal servants.

A fresh dose of irritation runs through me. I don’t have the resources to get rid of them right now, but I’m not giving up on finding a solution. I’ll work myself to the bone if I have to come up with the money I need. I won’t rest until I can get them off our property.

The farm was a gift from my father to my mother, and it was meant to be ours—a safe haven filled with loving memories everywhere we look. Now those memories are being tarnished by uninvited guests.

What are they up to now? It’s too early for them to be awake. My cousin doesn’t get out of bed before two in the afternoon. Three months later, she’s still waiting for breakfast to be brought to her room at ten. That’s never going to happen. Second, they sound too enthusiastic for this early in the morning.

And why is Gianna part of their conversation?

I forego the kitchen for the living room, already cranky that my sugary breakfast is delayed.

“What’s going on?” My gaze rests on my sister, who looks equal parts terrified, anxious, and somehow also insincerely happy at the same time.

“Gianna?” I say.

“Everything is all right. This is good news,” she says, but her pretty face is going to crack if she forces another smile. Since she’s not much help, I turn to my other family members—Aunt Martina and my nemesis cousin, Bianca.

“We finally have a breakthrough. The Morenos will once again reclaim their rightful place in the world as the heads of the once-powerful Passero Mafia. Ah, I knew it would be me who puts this family back where it belongs,” Aunt Martina says. And yes, she’s wearing a thick animal-print fur coat because she can’t stand the weather in this godforsaken wasteland. No one is asking her to stay, though.

“Your father was a disgrace to the Passero name,” Aunt Martina spits. “He was a coward who took the easy way out, too busy playing fairytale farmhouse with that poisonous wife of his. But now my Tony will sit at the head of the Passero Family, and it will be glorious. Powerful men will bow to us. We will—”

I should have known something was up when my uncle Tony didn’t come home from the city for two days.

“Oh, Mamma, it’s going to be amazing. I won’t have to live in this shithole anymore with her,” Bianca says, pointing her perfectly manicured red nail at me. “I will have servants at my beck and call and clothes and—”

“Excellent. I’ll help you pack,” I say. Honestly, I don’t care what cockamamie plot they have going on. If it means they’re leaving, I’m helping them on their way.

“It’s the year the Falchi have to produce an heir,” Aunt Martina continues. “And it will be our beautiful Gianna who will bear the Falchi heir, forever binding the Passero Family to the Falchi Family, thereby restoring us to our former glory. We will be untouchable once again.”

I’m not entirely sure I misheard my aunt. Did she say my darling sister, who wouldn’t hurt an ant and has the cleanest, purest soul ever, is going to produce an heir for the Falchi, the most dangerous mafia family in existence?

Chapter Two

Alessia

I don’t know what planet they think they woke up on, but there is no way in hell they’re taking my sister anywhere.

“No,” I say. No fucking way ever are they going to use Gianna for their own warped plans.

“Oh, Alessia. We don’t have time for your endless negativity right now. Just go sit over there and be ugly by yourself. I have to help get Gianna ready.”

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