Chapter 1
Saranna
“Shit,” I cried out, stalking out of the room. “This cannot be happening.”
“Saranna, wait.”
I crossed my arms as I stopped in the middle of the hallway. I might be spitting mad right now, but I wasn’t a dumbass. If the head of the mafia family told me to wait, I’m waiting. Even if I wanted to kick his ass right now. I just wasn’t dumb enough to do it.
“What?” I hissed, making him raise a brow at me.
“Given the circumstances, I will let the attitude slide, but don’t think you can talk to me that way and it will be okay in the future.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose, trying to fight the oncoming headache that I felt coming on. Not that it was all this man’s fault, but a good chunk of it was.
“I’m sorry, boss,” I muttered, opening my eyes to look at him.
“Look, Saranna, this is not what I want. But I can tell you that I don’t really like getting a death threat on not only my cousin, butalso my best negotiator. You think I was happy to see that blood stained shit sitting on my desk?”
“No, no Marcell, I know you weren’t.”
“I’m doing everything I can to protect you, but I can’t always do it. And I have my protection team out doing other things and I can’t pull them off to watch you. If you weren’t so good at your job, then maybe we wouldn’t be in this mess.”
“Funny,” I muttered, rolling my neck.
He was right though.
I was good at my job, and that’s why I was getting death threats. When Marcell wanted something, he would send me, whatever the deal was, and it always happened that I would get what I wanted. Marcell very rarely had to use force to close a deal.
It’s how I worked for our mafia family.
I wasn’t in the line of danger until recently, when a deal I had signed didn’t go as planned with the other side. They lost more in the bargain and were highly pissed off. And since I was the name on the contract, it was me they wanted.
At least, that’s what we assumed, but honestly, it could be anything at this point.
And of course, Marcell wouldn’t take kindly to that.
“I have never had a bodyguard; you know that right? Like, even growing up with my dad as enforcer, or my brother as protection, I’ve never had anyone to watch my back but family.”
“I know, Saranna,” he said, pulling me into his arms for a tight hug. I wrapped my arms around his waist, just resting against him. “The stakes have never been higher. I won’t lie and say I don’t want to lose you for your job skills, but that’s not the main reason. You’ve always been my favorite cousin, and I honestly don’t know what I would do if I ever saw blood from you.
“Don’t you remember when we were younger and you cut yourself? You did it to yourself and I was ranting and raving. I wanted someone’s head on a stick.”
“I do recall. I also remember when you wanted to beat someone up because they hurt me in high school. Do you remember that?”
“You bet your ass I do. Last time I checked, he still has a slight limp.”
I rolled my eyes at my over-protective cousin. He might be the head of this family, but he certainly had soft spots for some of us.
“Do I at least get to know who is going to be watching out for me here? Who it is I get to bug the crap out of?”
“I don’t know if I want to tell you. You might freak out and try to kill him.”
“Marcell! That’s your job, not mine. I just get people to sign their life away.”
He turned us back around to head to his office, where he had me sit down. He sat on the corner of his black desk, his hands in his lap before he reached for something.
“Read this.”
