Chapter 2

I tore a strip from my own robe and pressed it against Marco’s bleeding arm. My hands were steady, but my voice was hard. “Serena, harming Marchetti blood is a death sentence.”

Rowan laughed. "Marchetti blood? Eva—your acting's getting sloppy."

Serena lifted her chin, smug and satisfied, and looped her arm through Damien’s.

I stared at Damien across the space, my gaze heavy. Waiting.

He met my eyes for a long moment. Then he shrugged. “Eva, you’ve learned to lie.” His voice was flat, dismissive. “You almost had me.”

Serena pouted, faking worry. "If word got back to Don Salvatore that Eva had some random kid pretending to be Marchetti blood, the Ashford family will suffer. She still hates me.”

Damien and Rowan frowned.

“I’m here. Don’t be afraid.” Damien pulled Serena close and kissed her forehead—slow, deliberate, like he wanted me to see.

But Rowan was blind with rage. “Eight years and you still haven’t learned. What do you want? Serena is my real sister. You’re just a fake. What right do you have to compete with her? To resent her?”

His words were knives. Every one of them found its mark.

A small warm hand wrapped around my freezing fingers.

"You had it bad before, didn't you?"

Harlan’s daughter was looking up at me, Lucia. My tiny demon. My tiny mercy.

I forced a smile down at her, then turned back to Rowan. "Fifteen more minutes. Then you'll know if I'm lying."

Just fifteen minutes. That was when the pickup would arrive—the rotating security details from each of the Four Families, here to collect their precious little charges. Same time every evening. Same time I usually kicked off my boots and went home to crash on the couch with the TV on.

“How long are you going to stall!” Rowan was shouting now.

Serena stepped in, all false sweetness.

“The Ashford family can afford eight children. If Eva insists on keeping them alive, then… fine. Fine. Let her keep them."

Damien's face flickered—annoyed.

But he sighed and looked down at Serena like she'd hung the moon.

"Whatever you want, Serena. I'm with you."

Rowan nodded. Even he relented.

I pulled Marco closer, my knuckles bone-white where I gripped him.

"We'll tell people they're orphans," Serena said, voice dripping honey. "But Eva—you're going into the Marchetti family. You can't be tangled up with these kids. Not one inch out of line."

She drifted closer slowly. Her eyes glittered with something ugly underneath.

"So just let you remember fresh. For every life you save tonight, you take a bullet for them."

The kids closed ranks around me before her words even finished.

"You three are out of your minds!"

"Eva is brilliant! My father says she's smarter than half the Capos in his crew! And you—you Marchettis—treat her like this?! I'm telling my dad the second I get home and she's coming with me! Nobody can kill her!"

"My mom is still waiting for Eva to teach her piano! Don't you dare hurt her!"

"You wanna play? Just wait fifteen minutes. You’re cowards, threatening us to get to Eva. When my father comes, none of you will dare touch her!"

They were brave, but they were children.

In a heartbeat, all of them were pinned with Serena’s men. Mouths gagged. Forced down into the dirt.

Then the clock ran out.

"Miss Eva!"

Tires screamed. A black SUV slammed to a stop on the edge of the clearing and Garrick threw himself out, eyes blown wide with fury.

"Stand down! Who the hell are you people?!"

I looked past his shoulder.

No one else.

My stomach dropped.

"You came alone?"

His voice went rough and guarded.

"Trouble at the docks. Don Calder rolled out with the rest of the crew to handle it. He's not back yet."

Trouble at the docks. Which meant the Volkov detail coming for the twins couldn't get through either.

"Stop pretending."

Damien's eyes had gone dark. His voice dropped, scraping rough at the edges.

"Eva, are those children really so precious to you? You’d risk your life for them?”