“The Bianchi kid is demanding an audience with you.”
From my place looking out the floor-to-ceiling windows at the city alive below me, I smiled.
The Bianchi kid. It had been six years since Gio had taken over his family’s business, and he was still called a kid. No one respected him. Me least of all.
Shrugging, I turned to stare at the man on the other side of my wide, black glass desk.
“Is that so?” Lifting my hands, I straightened my already straight tie. “That’s not new news, Marco.”
The corner of the other man’s mouth twitched, but he didn’t break into a full smile.
“Well, it seems that another of his shipments has gone missing. A pretty big one.”
I gave another shrug. “Gio should take more care with his merchandise, then. I don’t really see how it’s my problem.”
My voice was bored, but inside I was almost singing with glee. Of course, Gio was failing. I had made sure of it. From the moment hehad called a hit on my parents and I had taken charge, it had been war between us.
And he was losing.
He would always lose when it came to me. I was smarter, stronger, and more ruthless than he would ever be. I wouldn’t stop until the whole Bianchi family was in the gutter.
The whole fucking family.
Including—
Sophia’s face swam into my thoughts, how she had looked that night I had taken her virginity with her nails clawing my back and her sweet little cries filling my ears.
Shaking the thought away, I fell into my leather chair and closed my hands into fists.
I might hate Gio, even though once upon a time he had been my closest friend, but I hated her more.
“And what does Gio expect me to do?”
“He wants an alliance. Or so he says,” Marco said in a bored voice. “I think his actual words were to build up the friendship you once had and mend old bridges.”
I scoffed loudly before schooling my face back into my signature bored coldness.
Gio was even more stupid than he looked if he thought we had any chance of building anything but pure hatred between us. He had killed my parents. Without proof that it had been my family who had murdered his. He had torn my whole world away from me.
There was no friendship.
“He has nothing I want or need.” I flicked my fingers toward the door. “There is no alliance to be had, and he knows it. Just like he knows that I won’t stop until I’ve destroyed him.”
That was one of the best parts; Gio knew it was me ruining him. Every time something went wrong. I was there, picking up his contacts, fulfilling his shipments when his merchandise went missing. I took every ally he had ever had and made them loyal to me.
In six short years, I had tripled my family's fortune and made us the most powerful family in the city.
And I had left him with scraps.
“Yes, he does, but he still wants a meeting.” Marco fidgeted uncomfortably, and I noticed it right away. “There’s two of his men waiting outside. They want to talk to you.”
My eyebrows arched up. “He’s begging for my help but sends his people to do it for him.” Leaning forward, I steepled my hands together and rested my chin on my fingers. “I tell you what, if he needs my help so badly, he can come here and beg me on my knees in person.”
Grinning, I nodded my head. That sounded like an amazing idea. I could already picture it. I’d make him crawl and beg on his knees.
It would be the ultimate humiliation.
“He’s not in the country.”
