THE SYNDICATE'S HEIR AND THE MIRACLE WORKER

We relocated to an abandoned warehouse in Brooklyn, a place owned by an old friend who owed me his life.

It was time to call in the loyalists. I spent the next twenty-four hours reaching out to the capos I knew my mother couldn't buy. Men who respected the old ways. Men who knew that Isabella Moretti was a snake.

By nightfall, fifty heavily armed, fiercely loyal men stood in the warehouse.

I stood on a wooden crate, looking at my soldiers. "Isabella Moretti has broken the sacred oath of this family! She invited the Calabrese rats into our home. She tried to murder her own son and her granddaughters for power!"

A roar of angry murmurs swept through the crowd.

"Tonight, we do not just take back our territory. We cut the head off the snake. We march on the main estate. We leave no Calabrese alive."

The men cheered, raising their weapons.

As they loaded into the black SUVs, Elena caught my arm. She was dressed in dark clothes, a bulletproof vest strapped tightly over her chest.

"You are not coming," I said firmly. "You stay here and protect the girls."

"I am not a maid anymore, Adrian," she said, her eyes flashing with defiance. "I am a part of this family now. I know the estate’s security system. I know where your mother hides the override codes. You need me."

I wanted to argue, but I looked into her fierce, determined eyes and knew I had met my match. I pulled her into my arms and kissed her. It was desperate, bruising, and tasted like gunpowder and rain. She kissed me back with equal ferocity.