Chapter 2

Nico's helicopter sat on the lawn outside headquarters. He must have returned early.

At the front entrance, a guard stepped forward with a ring set with small diamonds. "The Don asked me to give you this."

I glanced at it and kept walking. "Give it to the garbage collector in the morning."

The castle doors opened into the ten-story Gothic manor Nico had given me after he became Don. To everyone else, it looked like proof of his respect. In truth, every deed and ownership stake still bore his name. None of it belonged to me.

All I had been given was work.

At his level, he liked to say, no outsider could be trusted. So I took the bullets. I endured the political fights. I managed the routes, the weapons, the payroll, the doctors, the ports, and the capos who smiled while measuring each other's graves.

A sharp crack split the air. The lights died.

Some fault in the surveillance system had blown the castle circuits. Static hissed through the hall as the security grid failed by half.

In the past, I would have stayed up all night tracing the fault and restoring every feed. This time, in the dark, I had no strength left.

I sank to the floor.

My phone rang. Mara Bennett's name flashed on the screen.

Mara was my best friend and one of the finest arms designers in Europe. Years ago, I had turned down her offer to work with her because I had chosen Nico instead.

"Lena!" she said the moment I answered. "I heard Nico is finally formalizing the marriage contract. Ten years at his side, and you're getting your happy ending. I've already loaded ten cargo ships of munitions as your wedding gift."

The old wound in my arm throbbed.

"There won't be a wedding."

Silence hit the line. Then Mara exploded.

"Elena Rossi, are you out of your mind? When he was a street thug with a price on his head, you gave up your future, built his contacts, dodged assassins, and helped found the whole operation. You stood with him from nothing to Don, and now that he controls both sides of the law, you're just going to walk away?"

I listened to her anger and did not know where to begin.

"Mara, I ordered a custom ruby brooch tonight," I said. "Before, I wouldn't have dared to dream of one."

She went quiet.

"I live in a ten-story mansion now. I wear a ruby worth a fortune. I command thousands and answer to one man. But none of it compares to the years when Nico and I hid in abandoned warehouses and fought rats for bread, or lay in trenches while bullets passed over us. Back then, the suffering belonged to both of us. Now the sweetness has nothing to do with me."

For a long moment, I heard only Mara breathing.

When she spoke again, her voice had softened. "Lena, I'm on your side. There is still a lead designer opening at our European headquarters. Your talent did not disappear because you buried it for him. Come back whenever you're ready. The position has always been yours."

Heat gathered behind my eyes. "Thank you."

Outside, a citywide broadcast rolled across the territory.

"Happy eighteenth birthday to Serena. May every year bring her joy, and may she keep his devotion all to herself."

I followed the sound into the courtyard. A massive airship hovered above the city, projecting intimate photographs of Nico and Serena across the sky.

That airship was a classified asset from our research division. It was authorized for emergencies only. Building it had cost a fortune, and keeping it in the air burned through several million dollars by the minute.

Once, when a bullet tore through my abdomen and I was barely alive, Nico refused to deploy it.

Now he risked exposing it so Serena could smile on her birthday.

People poured into the streets.

"Don De Luca isn't hiding it anymore. She's practically Family."

"She's sweet, gentle, and from a respectable bloodline. No wonder he fell for her. The Don has suffered long enough. He deserves someone soft."

I watched the sky until the photographs blurred.

It was time to leave.

I went down to the basement, where my old toolbox and design blueprints had been sealed away for years.

Dust covered the cases. When I wiped it away, the instruments beneath still shone.

Years ago, when Nico's funding collapsed and rival crews intercepted his arms shipments, I stayed awake night after night modifying weapons, machining precision components, and taking private contracts until his operation could breathe again.

I had hidden my talent and made myself smaller for ten years.

From now on, I would live for myself.