CHAPTER 2

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

The moment I stepped out, the guard at the entrance handed me a ring studded with small diamonds. "The Don asked me to deliver this to you."

I glanced at it and didn't take it. Instead, I told him to pass it along to the garbage collector in the morning.

I pushed open the castle's ornate doors. This ten-story Gothic manor was the gift Matteo had given me to compensate for the ten years I'd spent by his side after he'd claimed the title of Don.

Everyone assumed he'd shown me plenty of respect, but every property deed and ownership stake in the organization was in his name alone. None of it had anything to do with me.

All I got was the grunt work of logistics.

He said that at his level, no outsider could be trusted. So I was the one dodging bullets. I was the one weathering every political battle. I was the one managing every mundane task for the Family.

a crackling burst cut through the air, and everything went dark.

A short in the surveillance system had blown the castle's circuits.

Static hissed through the cavernous hall, and the security system was partially disabled.

In the past, whenever anything went wrong, I would always stay up through the night to diagnose and fix it.

But this time, standing in the empty hall, I had no strength left.

I sank to the floor, and right then, my best friend, Mara Ellis, called from overseas. She was a world-class arms designer. Years ago, I'd turned down her offer to work together so I could help Matteo build the organization.

"Rena! I heard Matteo is about to finalize the Family's marriage contract. Ten years by his side, and you're finally getting your happy ending? I've already loaded up ten cargo ships of munitions as a wedding gift for you!"

The old wound on my arm throbbed. I said flatly, "There won't be a wedding."

"Serena, are you out of your mind?!" Mara's voice shot up on the other end. "Back when Matteo was just a street thug, you threw away your future, risked everything to help him build connections, dodged assassins, and founded the whole operation! You stood by him from nothing all the way to Don, and now that he controls both sides of the law, you're just going to walk away?"

I listened to her outrage, unsure how to begin. "Mara, did you know I ordered a custom ruby brooch tonight? Before, I wouldn't have even dared to dream of it!"

Mara said nothing, just listened quietly.

"I live in a ten-story mansion now, wearing a pigeon's blood ruby worth a fortune, answering to one man and commanding thousands. But none of it compares to the days when we hid in abandoned warehouses fighting rats for bread, or lay side by side in trenches dodging bullets. Back then, the suffering went both ways. Now, the sweetness has nothing to do with me."

A long silence hung on the other end before Mara spoke, her voice choked.

"Rena, I'll always be on your side. There's an opening for a lead designer at our headquarters in Europe. Your talent never went anywhere. Come back whenever you're ready. The position has always been yours."

I blinked back the heat behind my eyes. "Thank you."

Just then, a citywide broadcast rang out. "Happy eighteenth birthday to Princess Bianca. May every year bring her joy, and may she keep his devotion all to herself."

I followed the sound outside. A massive airship hovered overhead, while intimate photographs of the two of them filled the sky.

That airship was a classified asset from the organization's research division, authorized for emergencies only. Its construction cost was astronomical, and it burned through several million dollars every minute it stayed airborne. Even when a bullet had torn through my abdomen and I was barely clinging to life, he hadn't been willing to deploy it.

Now he'd rather risk exposing a classified asset than miss the chance to make Bianca Falcone smile.

People poured into the streets, buzzing with talk.

"Don Rinaldi's not even trying to hide it anymore. She's as good as family already!"

"She's from a respectable family, and she's sweet and gentle. No wonder the Don fell for her. He's suffered long enough and finally found someone tender."

Watching it all, I knew it was time to walk away.

I turned and headed for the castle's basement, where my toolbox and design blueprints had been sealed away for years, untouched.

The moment I wiped the dust off the precision instruments I hadn't used in ten years, they gleamed as bright as the talent that had never left me.

I inspected every piece carefully for damage.

Years ago, when Matteo's funding had collapsed and rival organizations had intercepted his arms shipments, it was I who'd stayed up night after night, modifying weapons, machining precision components, and earning enough from one contract after another to stabilize the situation.

For ten years, I had made myself smaller so he could become larger. I was done.