Rightfully belongs to whom?

She forces her drowsy eyes to flutter open, fighting against the sedative and scratching the back of my hand with her blunt nails. Does she ever give up a fight? Her weak attempt stirs something inside my dead heart that I can't figure out what it is. Something fierce. Something protective. Dark.

"Check her," I order Alex when she falls asleep, her hands going limp. I pull the covers down and rub the glaring red needle marks on her neck. Markel uses drugs on the girls he auctions to keep them docile for his clients when they do dirty stuff, which either turns them into addicts or kills them within a year. 

Alex checks her eyes, mutters something, and samples her blood, all the while giving me a look.

"Just ask."

"You never bring home the woman you want to fuck." His tone states he is confused. I don't bring my woman here because I have a child living here. Can't let her see or hear things.

"Who said I want to fuck her?" Maybe I do. She's an ethereal beauty. When I saw her on stage, shivering in the cold but glaring daggers at her bidders like marking targets, it was a sight to behold.

Then she moves her green eyes on me, locking me, marking me. I swear a thousand invisible arrows shoot through me and shake me. She still makes me curious, like she did fifteen years back. A mystery. A puzzle. A walking-talking fire. Nothing changed, you are still the same, piccolo gatto selvatico.

"Then why pay five million for her? Don't tell me it's out of charity."

He has spread his testing equipment on the table, mixing her blood with some liquids to check what antidote to give her.

"I only paid five million to stop the bidding and cause Markel a financial loss. Nothing related to her." Partial truth. A woman as beautiful as Elena and a virgin no less fetches a much higher price. Since Markel broke the terms of our peace treaty, I don't mind reminding him who heads Cosa Nostra.

"CAREFUL."

Elena flinches when Alex administers the antidote through the IV.

"Shhh…" I caress her head.

Alex's right brow lifts.

"Your actions speak differently. But I'm sure that's my imagination. You will let her go, right?"

My jaw ticks. If he wasn't my best friend, I'd have thrown him out of the balcony.

"No. Markel will kill or abduct her the moment she steps out. She's safe with me."

"Then what are you going to do with her? Make her Sophia's nanny?"

I glance at her sleeping face and recall her small interaction with Soph and Ghost.

"Not a bad idea. Maybe."

"Jesus Ady. She's Lorenzo's daughter. If he raised the issue to Ravens, how would you handle that?"

Ravens—an organized council of five powerful mafia lords in the world. I'm one of them and best friends with the other four. To prevent unnecessary bloodshed, we had a peace treaty with other mafia lords and criminal organizations that, as long as they stay away from our dealings, Ravens will stay away from theirs.

I break into Markel's territory because a few of his men were found wandering on my territory, poking their noses where they don't belong. But keeping another mafia lord's daughter, no matter how insignificant he was, comes with questions when you are a Raven.

I glance at Elena's sleeping face; she's sweating profusely due to the medicine Alex is administering. I swipe a thumb on the tiny beads of sweat on her upper lip. I owe a debt, and I'm going to protect her at all costs, consequences be damned.

"She's staying. I'll take care of Ravens."

Alex grins.

"Of course you will. Can't wait to see how."

I flip him a bird over his innuendo. Anyone else who tries to talk to me like this, I'd feed him to Ghost. But Alex is not only my best friend but like my brother. My only assassination assignment that I dropped.

The door knocks twice, and Matteo pokes his head in. I pull the covers on Elena higher to cover her body.

I had sent him to get the information on how she ended up in the auction and where Lorenzo was. Matteo's ability to get information through his network of spies is unparalleled.

"Lorenzo sold her off to Markel to pay off his debts. That's why she was in the auction," he informs. "Right now, Lorenzo's whereabouts are unknown. Last he was seen heading toward the west coast. According to inside info, Markel is searching for him."

Bloody fuckers.

Sold his daughter.

"Get Lorenzo," I growl.

I leave Elena under Alex's care to take care of important business. The business? Inform the Raven's, my other best friends, of my actions that could possibly start a civil war among the mafia world.

All the fuckers live in different parts of the world, and won't possibly be online at this time, so I just drop the message, giving as much detail as possible. I'll deal with the questions later.

But a second later, Viktor's call comes,

"WTF, bro?!" straight on point.

He took over as Bratva just a month after I became Cosa Nostra head, and he's closest to me. The man can kill and die for me, and I'd do the same.

"You disrupted the auction, and set the building on fire, that's understandable. But why did you buy her in the auction?"

"You know what would have happened if someone else had taken her."

"So what? We don't care what happens to others."

Right. We mind our own business, the world can just go to hell. Even if I owe a debt, nobody knows about it. That was just a spoken promise with the person who wasn't alive anymore. A promise I made to her mother. I can just pretend it never existed, not like I'm a moral saint or believe in righteousness. She's nothing to me. Yet here I am, pissed at Viktor for calling me when I was about to go back to the room to check on Elena and make sure Alex stays gentle when he takes out the IV from her hand.

"Return her to Lorenzo in the name of saving her, and let them deal with each other," he adds, igniting a fire inside me.

"I'm not returning her to the monster who sold her. Period."

"Lorenzo is her father and sold her to Markel. This is nothing new in the mafia world—one mafia lord gives his daughter to another to pay off the debt in the name of marriage or whatever. She rightfully belongs to Markel."

But this wasn't marriage. She was being auctioned like cattle.

"What if she rightfully belongs to me? By her will?" 

There is a long pause I have to check the phone to make sure he's still with me.

"You mean—"

Don't say it. Don't say it. It's a stupid decision.

"Yes. Marriage."