Chapter 1

Tony drove the car towards the LeTale estate, the silence seemed to be cutting into him somehow. 

"You probably don't remember me, but I met you before you left for England," he told her, in the tone adults tend to use on children they didn't really know. Maria's eyes glanced over him, the way he was shifting slightly in his seat showed that he felt nervous somehow. She wondered if he felt bad because of what she was here to endure if he felt worried that she'd seen his eyes trail up her body earlier. "I was just advancing from a soldier then, I drove you to school a couple of times" he pressed on, almost desperate to defuse the air between them. His steely eyes darted to her leg again as he very carefully attempted to ensure he didn't touch it as he changed gears.

"And tell me, Mr Calcolo, when you were driving me to school did you also have a fascination with my legs or is that a privilege saved for me now that I'm a big girl?" her eyebrow arched, her teeth grazing her lip as she watched his ears slowly tint a deep red colour. 'Excellent', she thought, 'Some entertainment for the next week or two.'

You could sense his rising panic as the once stern bodyguard began to stammer a little. "Apologies, Miss LeTale, I was just trying to...your leg is near my stick you see" he started. Tony gulped, if letting slip that the boss was in a meeting at the warehouse got you killed, he doubted there would be any evidence of himself left to find should the boss find out he was staring at his prize beauty, virgin of a daughter.

With a smirk, Maria gently laughed and murmured, "Would you like my legs to be near your stick, Mr Calcolo?"

'She's trying to kill me. She is LITERALLY trying to have me killed.' Tony's head damn near exploded. He laughed a little, shaking his head. 

"Very clever but you know I've put people in hospital for fewer remarks 'bout someone that isn't the Don's pride and joy" he tried to come off as casual, breezing through the comment but his teeth were on edge. 

She was beautiful, she had the kind of hair that seemed to know exactly which way to sway to give her the best angle. The kind of body that a real man craved, plump in all the right places and soft in a good way. Maria seemed to know she was attractive, who could blame her? But she was also deathly off-limits and Tony didn't want to insult her or get his cock chopped off.

Maria found his anxiety amusing, it was a little bit of power she didn't have back in England. The guys there didn't know that she was so well protected, that her family could literally have them killed. That's the way she liked it most of the time. However, seeing Tony squirm the way he was currently whenever she teased him was the most fun she'd had since she heard about her father's accident and what that meant for her.

"You need to relax, Mr Calcolo, or it's going to be a loooooong few weeks" Maria drawled with a smile to herself. She leant back in her seat, watching as the houses grew fewer the closer they got to the LeTale estate. 

Her mind seemed to begin to drift away and Tony could tell she was distracted by her own thoughts, triggered by the view outside. She looked so much younger when she wasn't paying attention to herself, there was a vulnerability in her that Tony couldn't quite tear himself away from for a few moments. It was the same look her father got, although nowhere near as serene or beautiful, when he was seriously considering something he had a ‘soft spot’ for. Tony felt a twinge of guilt that when looking at a young woman with a face and body like Maria’s, he was thinking of her father. Don Damon had started shutting off streams of information to over half of his Capo's, bringing only entrusted blood-family relatives in on his schemes with the exception of Tony who was considered to be like blood and possibly more trustworthy than half of those actually related to the Don. ‘Had the Don known something more?’ he pondered for the hundredth time since his accident. ‘Should we have known more?’

Tony felt like, being the older one with more mafia experience, he should say something reassuring, potentially upbeat but he was no wordsmith. He had a drawl that showed his education had been minimal. Whilst he wasn't dumb by any means, he knew that Maria was educated to the highest standard. He had joined the family at 18, it was all he had wanted to do - be a part of something bigger than himself. That's what he'd felt joining the mafia had done when he was younger.

Some days now he wasn't so sure.