Page 37 of Auctioned To Her Dad's Mafia Enemies

“It was white with tinted windows. Unmarked.”

I curse under my breath. “You didn’t think tocheck before bringing them up here?”

Vito tenses, his face darkening. “We checkedthe flowers.”

I grab the bouquet from him, my fingersclosing around the delicate stems as I rip through the soft petals and glossywrapping. Something small and metallic clinks against the marble floor.

Luca bends down, picking it up between twofingers and turning it toward the light.

A single bullet.

I lean closer, studying it. “Look at the side.”

Luca flips it in his palm, and my blood turnsto ice.

Aemelia.

Her name is carved into the brass casing, neatand precise, like it was made just for her.

“Fuck.” I exhale, barely resisting the urge tocrush the bouquet in my hands. My fingers dig into the ribbon still attached,something small and stiff tucked inside the folds of the bow. A card.

I pull it free and flip it open.

One letter.

C.

We stare at the initial in heavy silence.

Luca is the first to move, turning back toVito with a look that could burn through steel. “Find out who delivered them.Check every florist in the city, Vito. Don’t make me wait for an answer.”

Vito straightens under Luca’s glare, his jawtight. He nods, but Luca isn’t finished. His voice is low, lethal. “And findthe guy who delivered them.”

Vito turns on his heel and strides out,already pulling out his phone. I toss the shredded bouquet onto the kitchencounter, the soft petals spilling across the surface like blood.

“Her own father wants to kill her?” Lucamutters, his voice high with disbelief.

I grit my teeth, looking down at the bullet inLuca’s palm. The message is clear. Someone wants her to be afraid. Or maybe forus to believe there’s a threat.

“We don’t know it’s him,” I say.

“It’s him,” he says. “I don’t like any ofthis.”

“We’ll find out where they came from.”

“Maybe.” He returns to sit in front of hislaptop. “Or maybe we need to move her now.”

17

ALEXIS

NOT THE PLAZA

This isn’t the first time we’ve been confinedto a safehouse, but it’s the first time we’ve had a woman with us. As a rule,families—the women and children—are kept out of business. To break that rulewould be the end of this world. Everything would burn. We have rules for areason. Even chaos requires order to contain it. But with one bullet concealedinside a beautiful bouquet, Aemelia has become the focus of this vendetta, notthe pawn. We left the penthouse via secret passages with only our most trustedmen, Aemelia sheltered between us.

She doesn’t fit into this basic environment.Not anymore. Not now that we’ve dressed her in designer clothes, adorned herlike the mafia princess she is, even if she doesn’t realize it yet.

Fuck.

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