Chapter 1

Ten years ago, Lorenzo Moretti saved my life. Tonight, he's ordering me to smile while his mistress uses me for target practice.

I was eighteen when he found us. Some sick bastard had my baby sister and me locked in a cage at a black-market auction, ready to sell us to the highest bidder.

Lorenzo shot the place up single-handed. Walked through the blood and the bodies, popped the lock, and pulled us out.

He crouched down in front of me. Wiped a thumb across my split lip.

"You belong to the Morettis now, sweetheart. I'll teach you how to survive."

And he did.

He trained me himself. Guns. Knives. How to break a man twice my size. Ten years later I was Underboss of the Moretti Family. His right hand. The girl he built from scratch.

The day I got my star, I walked into the estate covered in blood, grinning like a lunatic.

That's the day he came home with her.

"Luna. Jesus. Look at you."

His eyes went over me like I was garbage on his marble.

"Go clean up. You're scaring my little rabbit."

That night, the men stopped calling me Boss. They started calling her Mrs. Moretti.

Lorenzo took the gun off my hip. Tied an apron around my waist himself. Underboss to babysitter, just like that.

She won't eat? I kneel by her chair and spoon-feed her.

She scratches her wrist on a nail? He carves ten of the same into me. For failing her.

I don't cry. I don't scream. I take it.

Because ten years ago, he told me:

"Wanna pay me back, Luna?"

"Do a hundred things for me."

I open the leather notebook I keep hidden under my mattress.

Ninety-seven done.

Three left. Three, and I'm done with him forever.

I'm carrying Sienna's dinner tray down the hall when he stops me.

"Luna. Grab your sister's cross. Sienna wants it."

That cross was our mother's. It's the only thing Nina has left of her. She sleeps with it under her pillow every single night.

My eyes go wet. His jaw locks.

"Luna Moretti."

He only pulls out my full name when he wants somebody to bleed.

Two days ago I wouldn't hand Sienna my sunglasses at the stables. He tied me to the back of her horse and let her drag me around the paddock till the sun went down.

I turn around. I walk to Nina's room. I lift the chain off her sleeping neck with my own hands.

I clasp it around Sienna's throat myself.

"Looks good on you."

Lorenzo smirks. Pulls her into his side.

"See, baby? Hundreds of soldiers on my payroll. She's the best-trained dog I got."

He looks at me over her hair.

"Keep her happy, Luna. Maybe we'll still talk about that wedding."

Sienna rips the cross off and slams it on the marble. It shatters.

"Enzo! You swore you'd only marry me!"

Big fat tears. The whole performance.

And he crumbles. He always crumbles.

He shoves past me, scoops her up, and carries her back to their bedroom whispering baby, baby, baby like a damn prayer.

I drop to my knees. Pick up the pieces. My hands are shaking so bad the silver slices me open. Blood on the marble.

The guards in the hall are laughing.

Whatever. So am I.

Last month I flatlined twice on a table taking a job for him. He walked into the ICU, looked at all the tubes running out of me, and said:

"You're slipping, Luna. A handful of amateurs did this to you?"

"Doesn't matter. Sienna needs a nanny anyway."

I squeeze the broken cross tighter. My eyes burn worse than my palm.

That night Nina finds the pieces in my pocket and cries herself sick.

I hold her. Rock her. Whisper into her hair.

"Nina. Just a little longer. I swear on Mom. We're getting out."

The door blows open.

Lorenzo. Face like a storm.

"Why is she crying? She woke Sienna up."

"Take your sister. Border safehouse. Now."

I don't even get to open my mouth. His men are already hauling us to the SUV.

Nina twists in their grip and screams at him.

"Enzo, you didn't used to be like this!"

He freezes.

The whole hallway freezes.

I clap my hand over her mouth. My tears run down her cheek.

I don't talk much anymore. Not since Sienna moved in.

I told him once to come home to the compound more. He stripped my rank in front of the whole crew that same night.

I told Sienna to quit playing at the shooting range. He put a gun to my forehead and told me I forgot my place.

He caught a bullet on a run. I brought him soup. He threw the bowl at the wall.

"Don't act like you care. Sienna'll get the wrong idea."

But he was the one who said he loved me first.

He was the one who said he'd marry me.

I let my hand off Nina's mouth. She's still crying, quiet now.

The border safehouse is a death sentence. Cruz territory runs two blocks over. Nobody sleeps out there and wakes up.

Halfway through the drive, I make my call. I jump out of the SUV and run back on foot.

The second I pound on Sienna's door, the moaning inside stops cold.

A crystal glass explodes against my forehead.

I bite the inside of my cheek till it bleeds. I bow.

"Miss Vale. I'm apologizing for my sister. She won't bother you again. I swear."

Blood runs down my face in three thin lines. Lorenzo's chest is moving too fast.

"Cut the wounded puppy act, Luna. People are gonna think Sienna hurt you on purpose."

I don't even look at him. I drop to my knees. Press my forehead to the marble. Once. Twice. Three times.

Only then does she wave a lazy hand.

"Enzo, baby, I'm tired. Just let her off."

He kisses her forehead. Shakes his head.

"You're too sweet, princess. People are gonna eat you alive."

Then he looks at me. Dead flat.

"You care so much about your sister? Walk her to the safehouse. No driver. No escort."

That night, Nina spikes a hundred and four.

I carry her on my back through a blizzard for six hours straight.

Outside the ER, I flip the notebook open.

Two left.