ien

her voice lingered in the silence of

m fi

what I would do if I knew the extent of it. She didn't understand yet. She wasn't just a

controlled. Across from me, Leo Gallo, my *Consigliere*, stood like a statue c

voice was a low rumble

his family name-a mistake the salon owner is currently regretting." Leo paused, his eyes flicking to my hand

ouche

ountain pen in

ne leather blotter. I didn't look at it. I didn't feel the sharp crack of the resin

ten degrees. Leo didn't flin

wiping the ink from my han

ntly, he is at a bar in Midtown, drinking and mak

erchief into the waste bi

olemn. "To what ex

ty that bowed at my feet. "Freeze their accounts. Call in their debts. Burn their wa

privilege. Marco Bianchi, my *Underboss*, strolled in, a smirk playi

irs, unbuttoning his suit jacket. "So, the rumors are true

leather creaking under the shif

, Damien. A pretty bird with clipped wings. What's the pl

y. "Taking her destroys his leverage. It humiliates hi

uthless. I like it. A strategic marr

without heat. "Both of y

le doors behind them. The silence

let them believe. That's

encrypted business line, but the one n

ndscape. It was a photo taken from

sunlight catching the gold in her hair. She was wearing a yellow sun

ken three

r to escape a debt. She had no idea that I had been watching her, guarding her from the

the key. I had been for

to the girl on the screen, my thumb tracing the curv

my thoughts. Leo pok

lerk's office says Andrew is trying to pull t

image of her smile van

it," Leo said, a hint of satisfaction in his tone. "Without a direct order from

from my hands, but the urge to violence still hummed benea

elevator that would take m

n her breath, see it in the way she trembled. S

w that this monster would burn th