Chapter 1

The day I first met the street girl Marco Delgado had taken in, I had just outrun a departing train in my heels to make a sit-down and seal a pact.

Gianna Russo looked at the beads of sweat at my temples, ran a critical eye up and down my body, and pouted, whining in a syrupy voice,

"Marco, sweetie, this is your so-called right hand? Don't tell me she's just some little arm-candy who closes arrangements fresh out of somebody's bed."

My composure had held through backrooms full of made men who wanted me dead. It had never been tested like this. The calm on my face nearly cracked.

Even the stray dogs picking through the alley dumpsters behind the social club at dawn would call me a workaholic.

Capos from stronger Families were dangling seats and tribute to draw me over, and yet here was someone treating me like the boss's bed-warmer.

I turned away and made a call.

"Papa, I'm done getting my hands dirty out here. Once I finish this arrangement, I'm coming home to take my place at the head of the Family."

……

Before I could get a word of explanation out, Gianna fumed,

"A brainless, big-chested vase like you? You obviously slept your way into that seat at his side."

"Marco, sweetie, you should cut her loose right now. Keeping trash like this in the crew just poisons the whole house. Give the place to someone who actually earns it!"

Marco frowned and coaxed her helplessly, "Gianna, you've got it wrong."

"I brought Adriana Moretti in at a high tribute. Her ability is on par with mine, even."

His usually sharp mind seemed clouded over by love; he hadn't caught the faintest hint of Gianna's hostility toward me.

"Adriana's been my right hand for three years. Her work is impeccable. From now on she'll be showing you the ropes, so learn from her, all right?"

Gianna tilted her chin up and looked at me with contempt.

"I came up out of the Kingsport streets, connected to real people. What nothing neighborhood did she crawl out of? She's fit to teach me?"

The air froze in an instant, but she took my silence for not daring to speak.

In the end it was Marco who broke it.

"Adriana came up under the Moretti bloodline. Gianna, a little humility goes a long way."

Gianna's fair little face flushed red, and she muttered, unwilling to concede,

"Just some old name. You can buy your way into any famiglia if you've got the cash. What's she showing off for?"

She shook Marco's arm and cooed,

"Then I'm going to keep an eye on her too. I won't give her any chance to get her hooks in you!"

She cast herself as the Cinderella of some fairy tale.

And I was the wicked one standing between her and true love.

Marco rubbed the back of his neck and looked away from me, and the glance he finally gave was full of apology and appeal.

I understood at once.

Handling the boss's problems was part of the work, too.

I kept my smile and said gently to Gianna, "Miss Russo, you've misunderstood. Mr. Delgado and I are bound by nothing but business."

"If you don't believe me, I can lay out the terms of my arrangement and every word that's passed between us to show you."

Marco took the opening to soothe her. "Gianna, stop making a scene. Go wait for me in the lounge. I'll come find you once the pact is sealed."

Only then did Gianna let herself be led away, grudgingly, shooting me one last venomous glare before she went.

Marco called me back, his tone complicated.

"I'm sorry to put this on you. Starting this month, your tribute's doubled."

As we came out of the back room, Gianna threw me a scornful look and said loudly,

"Ms. Moretti, it's about time you changed out of those trashy, slutty clothes. Dressing so indecently, who exactly are you trying to seduce?"

I glanced down at my dress, a conservative cut with no flair to speak of, and smoothed the fabric over my wrist once, slow and deliberate, utterly baffled.

Before I could get a word out, she went on accusing me,

"With a chest like that, you deliberately wear something fitted at the waist. You're probably just begging to be touched. You may be a vase, but in a Family you should still have some decency and shame."