Page 473 of Sinfully Savage Mafia

CHAPTER2

LILY

“This-s is-s the best nightever! I’m so glad you guys-s came out with me to celebrate!” I teeter on my high heels as I step off of the dance floor at Vice, the popular Vegas nightclub that I’ve been dying to experience since I moved out here but was always too busy with schoolwork to find the time. I head toward our private table in the VIP room, my friends flanking me on all sides. Pulsating electronica reverberates between my ears and I lose my footing as the bouncer holds open the velvet rope for us to pass. I sway into Chloe, reaching for her arm to steady myself and grabbing one of her boobs instead. “Oops! Sorry!”

“Jeez, I don’t want to see where you try to put that hand after the next drink,” she says, snickering.

Katarina slings an arm around my shoulders. “I’d like to see,” she says with a waggle of her perfectly arched eyebrows.

“Kat!” Lindy yelps, laughing so hard, her cosmopolitan sloshes over the side of her glass.

“What?” Kat asks, her blue eyes glimmering with mischief. “The kid deserves to have a little unorthodox fun for once, don’t you think?”

Chloe shrugs. “Yeah, and let’s face it. I could do worse.”

“I’m a damn good catch,” I say with a wink.

“Brilliant, gorgeous, funny.” Lindy blows me a kiss. “Any guy worth a look would drop to his knees for you in a hot second.”

“I’m not sure her father and brother would appreciate hearing that. The Salesi men don’t have much of a tolerance for men coming within a three-foot radius of Lily,” Kat says, sliding into our booth and tossing back a shot of vodka.

“Well, they’re not here right now, are they?” Lindy raises her near-empty glass. “And you heard the girl. She’s celebrating tonight!”

I collapse onto the red leather couch at our private table. It’s one of the perks you get when you’re friends of the family who owns the place, that family otherwise knowns as the ruthless, powerful, and staggeringly wealthy Severinov bratva. And family is a very big part of my life, whether I like it or not.

I tried to distance myself from it years back when I announced that I wanted to go away to college. My father Joe and brother Nico weren’t too keen on me being farther than forty-five minutes away from our home in northern New Jersey, though. They were thinking that Fordham University would be a good choice, but hellnowas I going to end up in the Bronx of all places, right in the heart of Little Italy, the mecca for the exact type of people I was trying so hard to escape. It was a hard-earned victory when they finally agreed that I could attend the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

Of course, there were conditions.

There always are when you’re the only daughter of a notorious mob boss who has a list of enemies that spans the length of the eastern seaboard. Fortunately, Dad and Nico have a lot of powerful Russian allies out west, namely the Severinov bratva, courtesy of Katarina. When Kat married Rocco, one of Dad’s soldiers, both families joined forces and formed a tight alliance.

It’s only because of Dad’s relationship with the Severinovs that he agreed to let me move out here. He knew I’d be protected, and that if any of his enemies made the stupid decision to target me, they’d have a gaggle of pissed-off Russian brutes to contend with, too.

It took a long time to wear them down and get them to loosen the chain around my neck, but they finally conceded. And for the past few years, I’ve been on a very determined path to becoming a veterinarian, a dream I’d had since I was just a child. I’d worked harder than ever to get the grades I needed to advance to veterinary college and gave up all semblance of a social life to focus on my passion for animals.

My life was perfectly orchestrated for success, the kind I wanted to achieve on my own terms.

Then, over Christmas break, I went home for a visit, and everything damn-near crumbled with me in the epicenter of the havoc.

Dad and Nico had been so laser-focused on keeping me safe in Vegas that they didn’t think any threats would follow me back to New Jersey.

They were wrong.

And I was just oblivious.

My perfectly orchestrated life was almost extinguished as a result. The horrors of that night…the one where I’d almost been kidnapped by some faceless enemy of my family…have lingered ever since. I managed to escape by the skin of my teeth, and even though Nico swore to me that the threat was eliminated, the terror of being so close to a devastating end still haunts me.

I push those thoughts to the corners of my alcohol-fogged mind and let out a deep sigh as my head falls back against the cushion. It’s a relieved sigh…one that comes after the long breath I’ve been holding since I applied to vet school eight months ago.

That’s what I want to think about right now, achieving the goal I’d only dared to dream about for so long.

When I came out here for school, I had a plan.

And it was to never go back to the life I’d left behind, one where I was powerless against the dangers that seemingly lurk around every corner.

Ironic that the first time I left my new life, I was almost swallowed up by my old one.

Almost.

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