Chapter 1
Furyspreadthroughmelike a blazing inferno as my sister’s scream filled the room, breaking my heart, before I met my father’s gaze. I tightened my fingers around the handle of the knife in my hand before plunging it into my best friend’s chest, right above his heart. Without taking my attention off my father, I tossed the blade to the side and reached inside Joel’s chest, the warmth of his blood seeping into me. My fingers grabbed rib bones one by one, pulling each back with a final crack, and with every one, Rhea flinched and crumbled a bit more, tears streaking down her face. White bone slick with red protruded from his chest as I tore the flesh open wider. Finally, with my mind unable to make a coherent thought and rage and pain balled in my throat, I worked by muscle memory. I reached into his chest and wrapped my fingers around his still cooling heart and tugged. There was the sound of wet squelching as I pulled it from his lifeless body. The smell of iron filled my senses, the feel of the blood spray sprinkling onto my face. The normality of that calmed a touch of my rage.
Slowly, I rose to my feet, blood streaming down my hand and splattering onto his chest. I turned and took methodical steps toward my sister, who was wailing, tears streaming down her face, as two bodyguards held her back from the man she loved so thoroughly. I swallowed the regret that balled in my throat. Rhea had gone behind our father’s back for him, almost igniting a war within the family. When I reached her, I knelt on one knee in front of her as my gaze met hers. She didn’t see me. She was still looking at Joel’s cooling body in a pile of blood. I lifted his heart to her.
“This belonged to you. Now, I present it to you.” Blood ran down my forearm until it met where my white button-up was rolled up at the elbows, seeping into the fibers, turning them crimson, permanently staining the threading as a reminder of what I had done under the orders of our father.
Her scream stopped as her attention snapped from his corpse to me. The devastation in her eyes pulled at my cold, dead heart. She was the only person I protected with everything I had in me, even if that was from herself.
Rhea’s words were hard and hissed through her teeth, her eyes closed as she shook her head in disbelief. “I willneverforgive you for this.”
Our father’s voice was dismissive. “It doesn’t matter. Gavriel does his duty and will always protect the family and its interests. Regardless of who or what it is. Don’t forget that, my dear Rhea.” Then he commanded the guards, “Take her home. Let her mourn before she marries Don Juarez.”
I stayed where I was, kneeling on the floor, hands outstretched and holding Joel’s heart, as everyone stood back. The organ turned cold, blood still leaking out of the torn tissue down my arm and onto the carpet. My father came to stand in front of me. “I am proud of you, son. You put aside your personal feelings and did what was required for the betterment of the family.”
He plucked up Joel’s heart, looked it over a moment, twisting it at different angles, then tossed it back behind me, where I heard it land with a soft, wet squelch. With a snap of his fingers, he commanded me to stand and look at him. When my gaze met his, there was deception in those eyes, and I knew that whatever he had planned was not going to end well for anyone. “I’ll have Perkins's body removed, but go and fetch his daughter.”
“Yes, Father.” I turned and closed my eyes as I walked past Joel and thought of Elin. She was a spoiled, snot-nosed brat, and there was a part of me that was looking forward to this visit.
This will be fun.
Chapter 2
Two months later
Ihadbeenavoidingsetting up a formal reading of Dad’s will and trust just so I wouldn’t have to see the Azzaro family again. Hell, it had only been four months since Don Azzaro and his son, Gavriel, had brought me to the room, still covered in my father’s blood, to tell me that he was dead. Now, they were coming to the reading. It wasn’t like they didn’t know what Dad had down to every last penny. Besides, I had been busy fighting with the fucking bank to give me access to his damn bank accounts. The estate attorney had sent the trust over no fewer than four times. Seriously, how many signatures did they need to certify it?
Unfortunately, I couldn’t wait any longer to have the will reading. We’d notified beneficiaries of his death, and since noone had contested the trust, we needed to move on. It was only a couple minutes until the meeting, and as I walked into Andrea Greene’s office, my father’s estate attorney, I was greeted with a bubbly blonde at the front desk. “Hello, Ms. Perkins. Please follow me.”
We went down a hallway lined with frosted floor-to-ceiling windows with matching doors, each etched with “Conference Room” and then the associated number, until we got to the end of the hall, where she opened the door for me. Taking a deep breath, I walked in to see Don Azzaro, Gavriel Azzaro, Andrea Greene’s assistant, and a brunette woman, all of whom turned to look at me, and my heart stopped.
“Hello, Elin sweetheart.”
Straightening my back, I crossed my arms over my chest. She needed no introduction. Dad had shown me pictures over the years, not to mention the fact we looked so damn similar. “Why in the fuck are you here, Natalia?”
“I was asked to be by Mrs. Greene. I am a beneficiary after all.” She preened a bit and swiped her hair over her shoulder. As I looked at the woman who’d abandoned us when I’d just been a toddler, I wanted to take a pair of shears and shave off her perfectly quaffed hair and eyebrows.
Not wanting to show any emotion, I forced a deep breath to keep my control and let it out slowly through my nose. I hadn’t had it in me to read through the distributions, but now I couldn’t help but wonder what Dad would have given her, except for a shit pie. Ignoring her and the two asshats sitting at the table, I reached over and shook Andrea’s hand. “Thank you for arranging this.”
“You are welcome, ma’am. I will miss your father dearly.” I nodded and took a seat. “Now that we are all here, we can begin. It shouldn’t take too long.”
Don Azzaro and Gavriel leaned forward on the glass table as Andrea started reading. Most of it was common knowledge and boilerplate. I was named the sole trustee, with Mrs. Greene as the successor, if I was unable to fulfill my duties. Before long, she came to the list of distributions.
“Upon the death of the settlor, the trustee shall divide the estate as follows: an amount equal to no more than one dollar to Natalia Perkins-Jones.”
A huge smile grew on my face as the woman who’d given birth to me stood in outrage. While she was sputtering, I reached into my purse, a little sad that all I had was a five-dollar bill. Shrugging, I stood and lifting it to her. “Consider yourself paid, with a bonus of four dollars. Now, if you would, kindly fucking leave and never show your face around me again.”
Even Don Azzaro failed at hiding his smile. I was sure even his son, and my father's best friend, Gavriel, had heard many a rant about the woman and was loving the embarrassment she was being handed.
Scoffing as she threw her nose in the air, she stormed out, snatching the five-dollar bill I held in the air for her.
“Well, that was an easy and satisfying distribution. Please continue, Mrs. Green.” I sat back in my chair and gave her my full attention.
As she continued listing a variety of charities, which included women’s shelters, libraries, and cancer research, that were to receive monetary sums, I started to play with my fingers nervously under the table. I knew that while my father had made most of his fortune on the backs of druggies and crime, it helped that he was giving it to others to do good. Rhea Azzaro, daughter of Don Azzaro and my father’s girlfriend, who he’d loved eternally, was bestowed a portfolio he had set up in secret for her worth a few million dollars. He’d also transferred a number of shell companies that I knew were solely mafia related toeither Don Azzaro or Gavriel, who nodded in agreement as they were read off. Though, when the club and a few other accounts weren’t listed, Gavriel’s gaze met mine in confusion.
“The balance of my estate, itemized in the distribution schedule attached, shall be distributed to Elin Marie Perkins.” I blinked, and the tension that filled Gavriel’s shoulders was clear as he sat up straighter.
“Excuse me, Mrs. Greene. Are you sure that the club goes toher?” He sneered but then covered it up quickly with his usual mask of indifference.
