THE MAFIA BOSS’S DAUGHTER

The heavy thud of the steel blast doors sealing shut echoed like a gunshot through the underground server room. Red emergency strobe lights washed over Lorenzo Vale’s silver hair, giving him the terrifying appearance of a phantom in a modern-day labyrinth.

Mara stood up abruptly, backing away from her desk as the steel walls locked firmly into place. Her hand still gripped the dead panic button, realizing too late the fatal flaw of trusting corporate infrastructure without verifying who built the foundation.

“There’s no escape from the sub-level once the lockdown protocol is engaged, Mara,” Lorenzo said, his voice entirely unbothered as he strolled calmly toward her. “Not unless you have the override code. Which, naturally, only I possess.”

“Dante will figure it out,” Mara said, her voice tight but controlled. She refused to let him see her panic. “You think he won’t notice his head attorney locking himself in the basement with his new director of intelligence?”

“Dante is currently reviewing shipping manifests on the forty-second floor, distracted by my carefully fabricated reports about a Milwaukee supply raid,” Lorenzo replied smoothly, pulling a sleek, silenced pistol from inside his tailored suit jacket. The matte black metal caught the pulsing red emergency light. “By the time he realizes something is amiss down here, the carbon dioxide levels in this sealed vault will have quietly put you to sleep. A tragic technical malfunction. Very clean. Very legal.”

Mara’s eyes darted frantically across the room. The server racks hummed loudly, creating a wall of white noise that drowned out any sound from the upper levels. She needed time—every second she could buy increased the chances that Mercer or Dante would check the surveillance feeds.

“Why Ava?” Mara asked sharply, keeping him talking. “She’s a child, Lorenzo. What kind of monster targets a six-year-old just to hurt her father?”

“Not to hurt him—to free him,” Lorenzo corrected calmly, raising the pistol and taking another measured step forward. “Dante built this empire on blood and iron. But over the last six years, since his wife died and that girl was born, he’s gone soft. He started selling off territories, negotiating truces instead of wiping out rivals, and investing in legitimate restaurant chains like Bellamy House. He was destroying everything we spent decades building. Sometimes, a king needs to be reminded of what war looks like. And if he lost his daughter... he would have gone back to the monster he used to be.”

“You’re insane,” Mara whispered.

“I’m a pragmatist,” Lorenzo corrected coldly, leveling the barrel of the silenced pistol directly at her chest. “Any last words, Miss Ellis? For the record.”

Mara didn't flinch. Instead, a cold, sharp smile touched her lips.

“Yeah,” she said softly. “You forgot the most important rule of serving wealthy, paranoid men.”

Lorenzo paused, his brow furrowing slightly. “What rule is that?”