Chapter 5 5

Alessa POV

The heavy oak doors of the main house yielded to the guards as I approached. I walked alone down the dimly lit corridor leading to Don Alfonzo's study. The thick, deep-red Persian carpet absorbed the sharp clicks of my heels, swallowing the sound just as this house swallowed secrets. On either side of the walls, massive oil portraits of past Moreno Dons stared down at me. They wore the tailored suits of different eras, but their painted eyes shared the same cold, judging weight.

Let them judge.

Three years ago, I had walked this exact path after shoving Elizabeth Shields into the freezing, black waters of Lake Michigan. The entire Chicago underworld had trembled at the sheer audacity of it. The traditionalists in our ranks-men like Capo Vario-had celebrated my subsequent exile to a remote Sicilian convent. They thought the nuns and the isolation would file down my claws and teach me a lady's manners. They thought the Moreno Family was finally rid of its most volatile problem.

They were wrong.

I was only back because my grandfather, Consigliere Felton Moreno, had orchestrated the absolute destruction of the Vaughn family's border smuggling ring. He had bought my return with blood, profit, and undeniable leverage. I hadn't brought back repentance from Sicily. I brought back hellfire, and I was ready to watch them burn.

I pushed open the heavy mahogany doors to the study without bothering to knock.

The air inside was thick with the scent of expensive Cuban cigars, aged whiskey, and the suffocating weight of absolute power. Don Alfonzo Moreno sat behind his massive marble desk like a king on his throne, his face an unreadable mask of weathered stone. To his right stood my grandfather, Felton, his sharp, calculating eyes softening the fraction of a second they landed on me.

And pacing before the desk like an enraged bull was Capo Vario. With his silver hair and rigid adherence to the old ways, Vario was the loudest voice of the family's traditional faction.

"...a reckless, brutal stunt!" Vario was shouting, his face flushed purple. "She will bring the wrath of both the Blairs and the Vaughns down upon us! She is destroying the peace you built, Don!"

I ignored the tension crackling in the room. Bypassing Vario entirely, I strolled over to the crystal decanters on the side table. I poured myself a generous measure of the Don's prized Macallan. Vario's rant ground to a sudden halt. He stared at me in sheer disbelief as I sank into the plush leather sofa opposite the Don and propped my boots-still dusted with the slush and grime of the Gold Coast-right onto the center of the priceless antique coffee table.

I swirled the amber liquid in my glass, taking a slow sip. "Keep going," I drawled lazily, waving my free hand. "Don't stop on my account."

Vario trembled with rage. He spun back to the desk, his voice cracking. "Don! Look at her! No remorse! She has absolutely no respect for you, or for the laws of this Family! She needs to be disciplined!"

Before the Don could speak, my grandfather stepped forward. Felton Moreno was a man who commanded armies with a whisper, but his voice now held only a grandfather's fierce, blind devotion.

"Lower your voice, Vario," Felton murmured, though the threat beneath the words was razor-sharp. "You're startling my sweet granddaughter."

I almost laughed. Instead, I offered a theatrical, exaggerated yawn. "It is awfully loud in here."

Vario looked like he might have a stroke. He pleaded with the man behind the desk, his hands gripping the edge of the marble. "Don Alfonzo, I beg you. You must teach her a lesson. For the sake of our survival."

Don Alfonzo finally moved. He leaned forward, his dark eyes locking onto mine. There was no fury in his gaze, only a calculating, terrifying calm. He spoke in a voice so quiet it commanded absolute silence.

"I will, Vario," the Don said, the words dripping with a dismissive edge that stripped the Capo of all his dignity. "I will 'teach' this brat a lesson."

Vario's face drained of color. He wasn't stupid; he heard the mockery in the Don's tone, the unspoken confirmation that my actions were already sanctioned. The trial was over, and the verdict was absolute indulgence.