Lucrezia woke up to the harsh splash of water on her face and when she opened her eyes, she saw Carla standing before her.
"Our sleeping beauty..." Her words were laced with sarcasm and Lucrezia almost rolled her eyes on seeing her.
She looked outside to see that the sun was out and the day was bright.
Usually, when her life was still normal, she would have been prepared to head to the hospital by now.
But now that everything had spiralled beyond control, she found herself wondering—would anyone at the hospital even notice she was gone?
The nurses who whispered whenever she passed. The interns who avoided her eyes and the patients who looked at her with a strange mixture of gratitude and fear.
They all knew who she was. The infamous daughter of the Don.
No one in Montoverra was ignorant of its underworld, and certainly not of the man who ruled it. Her father had guarded her like a fragile heirloom and that had perhaps been the problem.
"Will you stand up now or shall I force you up myself?" Carla's voice rang.
Lucrezia stood up immediately, apparently not in the mood for girl drama as she rushed to the bathroom to shower.
Carla glared at her as she walked, noticing she was wearing Maverick's robe which she guessed was from their time last night.
Her fists clenched for a second, the memory of how she had been ignored flashing in her mind.
She was yet to understand what Maverick suddenly found so exciting about his enemy's daughter. She'd thought this was a plan to get back at the former Don since they clearly had a history of their own but somehow, she suspected there was more to it.
By the time Lucrezia was done and stepped out of the bath, she was met only with a maid no much older than herself; Carla was nowhere in sight.
Both of them stared at each other for a moment and Lucrezia was even more curious because she noticed there were only older women serving within the mansion. This was the first time she was coming across a young person like her.
"Do you know where I could...get a new dress?" Lucrezia asked the girl shyly, feeling her face flush at the thought that the reason she couldn't wear her former dress was that it was torn.
The girl paused for a moment, slightly raising her brows before walking to one of the wardrobes and picking another dress out for her.
"Thank you," Lucrezia said in relief as she collected it, even though curiosity still flickered in her eyes.
The lady didn't seem to entertain conversations as she quickly vanished from the room and shut the door.
Strange.
Gliding down the stairs, Lucrezia was greeted with Maverick seated at the dining table which was full of extravagant meals.
Seated across from him was Carla with her face pancaked and her lashes done. The blouse she wore was a bit below her cleavage, seductively exposing her boobs, not to mention the short pencil skirt she wore beneath, exposing her legs all the way.
Lucrezia saw how she smiled every now and then at Maverick who seemed uninterested in whatever she was saying as he continued stuffing the meat in his mouth.
By the time he saw her some meters away, his expression changed, noticing how she immediately looked in a different direction, avoiding his gaze.
"Malviero has requested a meeting, boss." Gavin who had been behind cleared his throat, drawing the Don's attention as he brought his phone forward for Maverick to read the information.
Maverick furrowed his brows at the message for a moment, dark eyes scanning the phone longer than needed before he sighed,
"Let him state the location," His eyes hurriedly returned to his attention to the figure that appeared not long ago in the room.
Carla saw this gesture and frowned, slowly shifting in her chair to block his view of her.
Lucrezia kept her head low, not wanting to meet anyone's gaze. However, her ears stood when she heard a familiar roll out of Gavin's lips.
Malviero.
She would be lying if she claimed she didn't know the bastard.
Her father's most rival enemy and another deadly member of the crime world.
If Maverick hadn't already been her prime suspect, she might have convinced herself he was the one responsible for the attack—the one that had reduced her father to ruin just two days ago.
She had never once involved herself in her father's operations. She only knew the outlines and never the details.
Now, however, that she understood Maverick had been aligned with Malviero, the realisation burned behind her eyes.
This was the man she had admired from a distance.
The man her father had placed under his roof.
Her thoughts drifted back to the first day Don Santiano had brought him home from the streets—narrow, bruised, clothes torn and hanging off him like they barely belonged to him. He had looked feral and guarded but even then, unbreakable.
Maverick had just been fourteen.
She was eight.
While other girls played with ribbons and storybooks, she had watched her father take him to closed-door meetings, late-night trainings and operations that required silence and steel.
By the time she turned thirteen and entered high school, her father had formally charged him with her protection.
It had not been a symbolic gesture but a transfer of trust.
Maverick learned the underworld with alarming speed. Faster than even Don Santiano anticipated. Within a year, he handled multiple calibers of ammunition with precision.
He stood by the rule of omertà, negotiated under threat without flinching, orchestrated discreet operations, and managed the movement of contraband across borders without attracting heat.
His efficiency allowed Don Santiano to consolidate power—to step forward and claim the title of kingpin without resistance.
That kind of ascent required competence and loyalty.
So her father had vested her safety in him again when she left for college. Not with bodyguards or a squad.
Just Maverick.
Lucrezia barely knew him then. She'd only observed his presence most of the time and heard whispers about him within Alexandro's estate.
Now that he'd been assigned to guard her, she slowly began to see the man he had become…
And fall for it.
Someone nudged her arm suddenly, pulling her from her thoughts.
"You shouldn't just stand when others are working,"
Lucrezia stared at the girl from earlier, as she had just seen a ghost.
She looked around, noticing the Don had left the table, leaving just Carla.
She watched the others disperse slowly and chose to do the same, finding something to do outside where Carla wouldn't get to see her.
.
Circolo Della Nera II
Maverick and his men had driven their way out of the mansion, stopping at a social club.
"Was this the location?"
"Yes, boss," Gavin replied behind the steering wheel, waiting for orders.
Maverick did a double-take at the black building, searching for something others couldn't see before he pulled the car knob, "Be on guard." He warned his men and they nodded immediately before leaving the car.
Corona Della looked nothing more than a clubhouse for aging cartels.
Inside it was another world. The air reeked of cigar and alcohol, and frosted windows and heavy burgundy curtains covered the atrocities inside.
Maverick reached the front door that had a brass plaque near the door engraved with a simple crest– a black crown pierced by a dagger.
The moment the door opened, he didn't hesitate to pull out his gun, passing the two men who stood by the entrance, dressed in suits.
He stepped in first and his men followed, their shoes clicking silently as heads turned in their direction, the tension in the room shifting.
Maverick didn't look around or acknowledge any of the capos around. He simply walked toward the private back chamber, pulling the curtains open and strolling in as if he owned it.
"Oh! Eccoti!"
He heard a voice and paused, facing the sound.
"There you are!"
Inside was Don Malviero, a middle-aged man, clad in a slightly loose and just white shirt, holding onto a small half-naked girl on his lap who looked like she wanted to vanish from his presence as his hands roved her body endlessly, grabbing and squeezing in every direction.
Maverick went to sit on the couch beside him without question, crossing his legs and placing his gun on his lap as he watched the scene before him.
"I had expected you sooner," Malviero stated, grabbing the girl's behind and placing a harsh slap on her bare skin.
The girl yelped and tried to move away, her bottom turning red but he pulled her closer, landing another slap on the same spot.
"I was busy." Maverick replied, looking uninterested.
"I see." The grumpy man paused for a second, smiling brightly at him.
"Busy with your two hundred million worth of goods," he shrugged. "Can't fault you on that," he was back to touching the girl.
"Why did you call me here?" Maverick asked stoically, not interested in the banter.