Chapter 1

When Renata, the matriarch of our Family, learned that her husband, the old Don, had been broken in the crash they staged to look like an accident, her heart gave out. The only pair of hands that could pull her back from the dark belonged to my wife, the Family's back-room surgeon.

I called her, again and again, until the line finally opened. It was not her voice that answered. It was his.

"Adriana's tied up right now. What's the urgency?"

The taste of copper filled my mouth. "Put Adriana on the line. It's a matter of life and death."

There was a pause, the clink of a glass somewhere behind him, and then her voice, bored, edged with irritation. "Can you chill? I've been slammed all day. Can't I catch a break and have a drink in peace?"

The line went dead.

I called back. Her phone was off.

An hour later, both Renata and the Don had passed.

……

"Renata's situation is critical. You need to get Dr. Ricci. She's the only one who can handle this."

One of the Family's own, a surgeon who owed her father his life, found me standing frozen outside the infirmary door and grabbed my collar. "What are you waiting for? Move it."

I was torn in two. The old Don lay broken on one table, Renata's heart failing on the other, and I could be in only one place. I had already called. No answer.

My hands would not stay still. I kept redialing her number.

Finally, it connected.

"Adriana, get to the infirmary now. Both your mother and your father... they're fading fast."

The call cut off.

I tried again. Her phone was now off.

Rage and terror rose in the same breath, and I drove my fist into the wall of the corridor until the plaster cracked.

They had taken me in when I was nothing, an enemy's orphan with no blood worth claiming, and raised me as their own. There was no way I could just let go.

When the Doc finally came out from behind the doors, I gave him what he needed in a few clipped words and told him to send word the moment anything changed. Then I went to find Adriana.

She had let it slip once that her old flame, Enzo Barone, had taken rooms near Harmony Gardens, close to the neutral edge of our territory.

On the drive there my grip on the wheel was the only thing holding me together. Twice I nearly put the car through the one in front of me.

I reached the complex and saw them at once, stepping out of a corner shop near the curb.

Enzo carried takeout and a few bottles of beer. Adriana walked at his side, the two of them laughing low and close, like a couple on a first night out.

A delivery bike tore past. Enzo's arm went around her on instinct, his voice dropping. "Careful there."

Adriana laughed and looked down, shy.

My heart sank. But there was no time for what that arm around her did to me.

"Adriana, thank God I found you."

I crossed the space between us.

Her smile vanished. Her brows drew together in displeasure.

"Salvatore, what's this about? Are you tracking me now?"

I had no time to waste. I closed my hand firmly around hers. "We need to go. Now. Your parents are in dire straits."

She pulled her hand back sharply, her face hardening. "Why are you being so dark? Don't make up terrible things about my parents."

I understood her disbelief. News like this does not land clean.

There was no time for a gentle path to it. "Your father was in an accident. Your mother's heart gave out from the shock. We need to move. Now."

"I was just on the phone with my father. He's fine, playing cards two doors down at the neighbor's. How could he be in an accident? Mother's check was clear last week. No way she had a heart attack. You'll have to do better than that if you're going to lie to me."

She looked at me as if I had lost my mind.

"I'm not lying. Please. Just trust me."

As I spoke, Enzo shifted, sliding half a step in front of her, as if I were the one who came to do her harm. There was a beat, and then he laughed, a shade too soon, and let his hand drift to the back of his neck.

"Salvatore, why go to such lengths? Adriana wanted an evening with me. Why put such ugly words on her mother and father?"

Before I could set him straight, he pressed on. "They loved you like their own son. And this is how you pay them back? That's low. Even I'm losing respect for you."

He took Adriana's hand and drew her away.

"I'm out of patience. Get back home already."

Adriana waved me off, cold, dismissing me like I was nothing more than an annoyance in her path.