Chapter 2

"Sophia, don't throw your spoiled-princess tantrum at a critical time like this."

Enzo strode after me and grabbed my wrist in the dim stone corridor of the old castle.

The firelight from the hearth cast his hard silhouette onto the ancient stone wall, like a black panther about to tear its prey apart.

His grip tightened until the bones in my wrist nearly cracked, irritation churning in his eyes.

"Putting the Genoa port in Gina's name helps us evade the European money-laundering investigation. Can't you understand even that much?"

I lowered my eyes and looked at the Vacheron Constantin on his wrist, still smelling of gun smoke.

"Enzo, three years ago, when you washed up on my estate's beach like a dead dog, you didn't talk to me about strategy."

My voice was soft, like I was telling someone else's story.

That year, the old Don died suddenly, and Enzo, his illegitimate son, was hunted by every branch of the Corleone family with nowhere left to run.

To beg for my protection, he knelt outside my estate gates for three full days and nights.

He let me complain that his blood had dirtied my most expensive rug. He let me throw red wine in his face because it was the wrong temperature.

In the pouring rain, he kissed the top of my foot, his eyes full of obsession and devotion.

"Sophia, as long as you'll look at me, you can torture me however you want.

"The more arrogant you are, the more I feel like I'm the only king in the world who can provide for you."

That was the oath of loyalty he'd sworn to me.

Back then, my willfulness and extravagance were badges he wore to prove his strength as a man and his appetite for conquest.

But now, he ruled Sicily's underworld.

So my willfulness had naturally become a burden he no longer wanted to carry.

For the briefest moment, Enzo wavered.

But he quickly recovered the cold-blooded arrogance of a Don.

"Things aren't what they used to be, Sophia."

He let go, took a cigar from his silver case, and lit it.

Blue-gray smoke rose in front of his chiseled face, veiling his eyes.

"Back then, all we had to do was survive. But now more than 10,000 families in Sicily depend on me to put food on the table.

"I don't have time to play this spoiled-brat game with you every day.

"Gina's been shot 19 times. She has no connections. She's risked her life for this family. I won't let you look down your aristocratic nose at her!"

I looked at his cold face, and the whole thing struck me as absurd.

"I'm humiliating her?

"Enzo, she's the one who provoked me tonight, in front of every capo.

"You're the one who gave someone else the docks you promised to put in my name.

"And in the end, I'm the petty one? I'm the one being unreasonable?"

Heavy boots echoed on the flagstones at the end of the corridor.

Gina hurried over with Enzo's black wool coat in one arm.

She stepped behind Enzo as if it were the most natural thing in the world, and even overstepped by reaching up to drape the coat over his shoulders.

"Don, the sea wind's strong at night. You don't want the cold aggravating that old gunshot wound."

She turned and swept a wary, contemptuous glance over me, then lowered her head.

"Sophia, stop using the past to hold the Don hostage.

"If this is about the docks, I can formally give them up in front of the family tomorrow.

"All I want is to help carry the load for the Corleone family. When I was ten, I was fighting stray dogs for half a piece of dark bread in the slums. I know better than anyone how hard it is to hold on to all this!

"While the Don was risking his life against state-backed arms dealers, you were having a crown custom-made at a private salon in Paris. While the Don was losing sleep over the family's cash flow, you were throwing a fit about blowing up a cruise ship to watch fireworks."

Gina sniffed and lifted her chin, every inch the noble martyr.

"Sophia, nobody was born to pay for your endless vanity!

"Loving someone means being the gun in his hand, not clinging to him and sucking out his last drop of blood!"

Every word rang with conviction. How very moving.

Then, from around the corner of the corridor, Luca strolled out with his bodyguards, leaned against a Roman column, and clapped mockingly.

"Hear that? A real warrior and a dead weight who does nothing but spend money. There's no comparison.

"Don, if you ask me, someone should've been put in her place a long time ago."

Enzo didn't stop Gina's lecture. When she fastened the collar of his coat, he even lowered his head to let her.

That kind of indulgence and favoritism from a man in power was deadlier than pulling a gun on me.

To these desperate men, the political protection my powerful family quietly provided wasn't worth mentioning.

I had always hidden my real hand behind a spoiled, outrageous facade, so these blind fools had come to see me as worthless.

I pulled my white fox stole tighter and looked coldly at the three smug "pillars of the underworld" in front of me.

"That rags-to-riches speech of yours is really touching, Gina."

I smiled, but my eyes stayed ice-cold.

"Since you care so much about the Don, he won't need the bulletproof Rolls-Royce in the motorcade anymore. Why don't you just carry him on your back? Wouldn't that show off your unbreakable loyalty even better?"

Gina went pale, then livid, her hands clenched into fists.

Enzo ground out his cigar, and his expression went cold.

"Sophia, cut out that nasty tone.

"I think you've lost your mind. You're moving back to that old apartment at the port in Palermo tonight. Stay there and think about what you've done."

That run-down apartment had been one of his abandoned safe houses back when he was first starting out. It was dark and damp, with no heat at all.

In the past, Enzo couldn't bear to let even a drop of muddy water touch the tip of my shoe.

Now, he was trying to punish me for "disobeying" by taking away my comfortable life.

"There's an emergency arms meeting at the main castle tonight. Gina's in charge of the security setup. It's not safe or convenient for you here."

With that, Enzo walked off toward the council chamber without looking back.

Gina followed close behind. As she stepped through the stone doorway, she looked back at me with a mocking, superior smirk.

The heavy oak doors slammed shut.

Luca walked past me and spat with pure malice.

"Run back to your little apartment, canary. Without the Don, you're lower than a stray dog in Sicily."

I stood in the drafty corridor with the cold wind howling around me, neither angry nor panicked.

I took an encrypted satellite phone out of my handbag and dialed a private line I hadn't used in three years.

The call connected instantly. An elderly voice, deeply deferential, answered.

"Your Grace, I'm at your service."

I looked at the ruby ring Enzo had given me and spoke calmly.

"Calculate the current market value of everything from the past three years: the offshore money-laundering channels under Enzo Corleone's name, the southern European smuggling routes, and the European arms quotas held in trust by my family."

On the other end, the senior actuary typed rapidly at his terminal, then drew in a sharp breath.

"Your Grace, at a conservative estimate, seventy-two billion euros.

"If we activate the special exit mechanism and immediately pull the funds and freeze the routes, every cent of the Corleone family's cash reserves will be wiped out within 48 hours.

"And NATO and Interpol will list them as top-priority wanted smugglers."

I hung up and, in my red-soled heels, walked gracefully toward the bulletproof car waiting in the rainy night.

Who says a high-maintenance woman doesn't understand the rules of the underworld?

A man's blind arrogance and hunger for control were the easiest weaknesses in the world to monetize.