"Why?" She asked Santino calmly.
"Why what?" He replied.
"Don't act stupid, you know what I'm talking about." She snapped at him.
"If you weren't my daughter, I would have killed you for disrespecting me like that," He said to her angrily "She didn't want you growing up with criminals and she got tired of this life."
"So you just let her go. I thought you loved her." She said to him with a sad voice.
He signed deeply and took a sip of his drink.
"I do love her. So I signed an agreement with her, that she keeps you safe and keeps herself safe too." He said.
"What did you mean by I either live freely or I don't live at all?" She asked looking down at her fingers.
"I have enemies Mia. If you where here, you'd have been used as a bargain. Or you would have been hunted down or used as my weakness to kill me."
He said while staring deeply at her, as if he can see her soul.
"But I'd never let my father get killed." She looked at him with hurt.
"If you lived here from day one, you'll have so many reasons to kill me." He said as he started getting up from his chair. "Go to your room Mia, it's getting late." With that he left his office, leaving Mia alone.
---
Mia couldn't sleep that night.
She just laid on the bed of her new room, wrapped up in her duvet. Staring at the far end corner of the room where a mirror faced the bed's direction. She staring at her reflection not being able to recognize herself anymore. A chandelier in the middle of the room, glittering like stars. While the lovely scent from the garden filled her nostrils through the window.
Florence was hauntingly beautiful. And so was the prison she had just entered.
When morning came, the maids knocked exactly at seven. Not even a minute late.
"Buongiorno signorina De Luca," one said with a slight bow, offering her a silver tray with black coffee and some kind of pastry.
(Good morning miss De Luca)
Mia barely tasted the coffee and pastry.
After breakfast, they offered to bathed her. But she declined politely. But they kept on insisting which was starting to piss Mia off.
"Fuck off!" She shouted out of anger and annoyance. "Do I look like I'm disabled. Leave my room, Now!" The maids bowed their heads quietly and left the room.
She didn't mean to shout at them but it was the only way to get them to leave.
She quickly had her bath. Blow dried her hair and combed it into a ponytail and applied light makeup with red lipstick.
She seems to love the color red nowadays.
Her outfit was already laid out for her. A black high waist trousers, with a blood-red blouse and stiletto boots sharp enough to be used as a weapon.
She stared at herself in the mirror for a while.
"What on earth have I gotten myself into?" She quietly whispered to herself.
---
Downstairs, Leonardo was waiting at the foot of the marble staircase with his arms crossed and sunglasses on.
"You're late."
"It's eight."
"I don't have time to argue with you."
He turned and began walking.
Mia followed.
They passed by the grand dining hall, several rooms that looked like museums, and a glass garden that made her feel overwhelmed with warmth.
"Where are we going?"
"To meet the rest of the family," he said. "And to show you where your lessons begin."
"Lessons?"
He didn't respond.
They exited the villa and entered the courtyard, where a sleek black SUV was already waiting for them. Luciano sat in the front seat, playing a video game.
When he saw Mia, he grinned. "Damn, sorella. You looking like revenge in red."
(Sister)
She smirk at him. "That's the point."
Leonardo rolled his eyes. "Let's go."
The drive to central Florence was silent, but Mia couldn't take her eyes off the scenery. The old buildings, the river, the streets all looked so rich with history.
But nothing hurt more than the realization that this all of it somehow belonged to her.
They stopped in front of a white five story building with black-tinted windows and no name on the building.
Leonardo pushed the door open for her.
"Welcome to the Florence headquarters."
Mia raised a brow. "This doesn't look like a fashion empire."
"That's because it's not."
The temperature inside was very low.
Security cameras in every corner of the building, inside out following every movement. Armed men in suits nodded at Leonardo and Luciano as they entered.
Mia caught sight of a tall man in a perfectly tailored charcoal suit with silver hair, scar down his chin, phone glued to his ear.
"Who's that?"
"Carlo Vitelli," Leonardo muttered. "Our legal fixer."
"What the fuck does a legal fixer even mean?"
Luciano snorted. "It means if you accidentally shoot someone, he makes it go away."
Mia blinked. "That's not funny."
"It wasn't a joke."
They led her up three flights of stairs to a private floor. Dark wood walls that hung black-and-white portraits of men holding cigars.
At the end of the hall was a glass-walled room filled with monitors and blinking red lights.
"This is the surveillance room," Leonardo said. "We watch everyone from here. Our allies, enemies and traitors."
Mia stepped in slowly.
It felt like stepping into a room of danger.
And in the corner of the room stood him.
Dante.
"God!! Why does a handsome Greek god always have to look so grumpy all the time." She said in her mind while slightly biting her lips.
He wore black on black again, his sleeves rolled to his elbows, arms crossed over his broad chest. His jaw was tight and had an unreadable expression. His eyes shifted to hers slowly.
Her heart skipped.
"I thought you were avoiding me," she said, trying to keep her voice cool.
"I was," he replied. "Then the Don gave me a new job."
"Which is?"
He stepped forward, slowly, like a predator stalking his prey.
"To protect you."
Mia scoffed. "I don't need a bodyguard."
"You don't know what you need."
Leonardo cleared his throat.
"This is Dante Moretti. Our father's second-in-command. And now your shadow."
Mia folded her arms. "Great. A human leash."
Dante stepped closer, so close she could smell the faint scent his minty breath and his cologne.
He didn't touch her. But fuck, he didn't have to. It was embarrassing to know that just his scent could turn her on.
"You'll get used to me," he said, voice low. "Whether you like it or not."
A beat of silence passed between them, thick with challenge and something dangerously hot.
Leonardo turned and walked out. "Training begins tomorrow."
Luciano gave her a small knowing wink and followed behind Leonardo.
Mia turned back to Dante. "You think you can scare me?"
"No," he said. "I think I already do."
She stepped even closer, refusing to back down.
"You're arrogant."
"You're a chaotic beauty."
Her breath caught.
He smiled.
"See? Dangerous."
Then he walked away, leaving her heart pounding and her world tilted.
Florence was no longer just a city of art and wine.
It was a battlefield.
And she was already bleeding.
---