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PROLOGUE

SCARLETT

After a long, dark winter, spring arrived. When I opened my windows that morning and saw the cloudless blue sky, I knew the warmer season I craved had arrived. Instead of wearing a sweater and jeans, I opted for a springtime dress. It was a little premature for that, but I didn’t care.

I left my apartment and drove down the quiet streets to my father’s home, a large estate that took up an entire corner of the block. It was one of the few properties that had spacious outdoor terraces, shielded by high gates with fine greenery. I pulled up to the gate, and the guards let me pass without a single glance.

It was the place where I’d grown up, the historic Duomo in sight, the markets just blocks away, the streets heavy with the past that was still a part of our present. I walked by the large fountain in the center of the courtyard, the shadows long across the ground because the sun was already setting when it had only risen to its full height hours ago.

I entered the house, finding my father sitting in the parlor, comfortable couches across rugs, an enormous hearth against one wall that was already lit. He sat at one of the small tables, wearing a navy-blue suit with a shiny watch on his wrist. He was on his phone, his thumbs typing against the screen like he was writing an email. On the surface, it was a relaxing scene, but his men lingered in opposite corners of the room, blending into the gray-wallpapered walls and the artwork that hung there, always hovering over the man they served.

He must have heard the sound of my heels on the hardwood because he immediately slipped his phone into the inside pocket of his jacket and stood up to greet me, a nice smile on his face, a dimple in each cheek. Whenever he saw me, he had this brilliance in his eyes, this unspoken affection that he reserved for only me. “Sweetheart.” He circled his arms around me and hugged me hard before pressing a kiss on my forehead. “You look lovely.” He pulled out the chair for me like he always did.

I sat at the table on his right and hung my purse over the back of the chair. “Thank you. I like your suit.”

He looked down at himself as he brushed away a nonexistent piece of dust. “I can’t take credit for any of this. If Hannah didn’t dress me, I’d probably be in sweatpants.” He grinned as he smoothed out his jacket.

Hannah was his assistant, but I wondered if she was more than that. He kept his personal life a secret from me. I’d never met one of his lovers, and he never acknowledged if he ever had a girlfriend. I was a grown woman, but he still hid that part of his life from me. My father was fit and very good-looking, having become a father when he was very young, so he was still young now that I was an adult. My friends always told me how hot they thought he was…which disgusted me.

“Ramon.” My father didn’t turn his head to address him. “A bottle of red for the table. Barsetti Vineyards.” He looked at me again. “Are you hungry, sweetheart?”

“Maybe for something small…”

He gave more orders. “A charcuterie board.”

His men immediately got to work and, a moment later, brought everything he requested and disappeared as quickly as possible once the job was done.

My father poured the wine for us and took a drink.

I did the same.

“So, how’d it go?”

I reached into my purse and withdrew the ring. It was a glorious white diamond, one of the rarest in the world, flawless and whole. Historic and old, it was a one-of-a-kind piece, and I wasn’t sure the owner even realized it was missing yet.

My father smiled, pride in his eyes, and then took the ring to examine it himself. “Good work, sweetheart.”

I took another drink of the wine.

He dropped the ring into the pocket that held his phone. “I’m expecting company for dinner.”

“Yeah?”

“The new prime minister isn’t exactly agreeable to our line of work, so he’s implemented all these nonsense regulations at every border. It’s becoming harder to get our product where it needs to go.”

“Are you going to kill him?”

He took a drink as he considered the suggestion. “He has two young kids… I’d rather avoid that.”

I’d rarely seen the violent side of my father because he purposely hid it from me, but I knew he ran his operation with an iron fist. He must because all his men ran around him like terrified rats about to get stepped on. When I was young and he’d assumed I was asleep, I’d seen him do horrifying things…stuff I would never forget. But whenever I was there, he was eloquent and soft-spoken, a permanent smile on his face, a completely different man.

“There’s a player in the game that intrigues me.” He spun his wine before he took a drink. “I’m normally dismissive of ambitious young men, but he seems different. They tend to burn hot and fast and quickly turn to ash—but not this one. He’s offered me a partnership because he’s exempt from the regulations.”

“What does he want in return?”

“A cut.”

“You never deal anyone in.”

“No, but I can’t keep killing prime ministers either.” Now that the conversation was strictly business, his infectious smile was gone and a seriousness spread across his face. “I can do things the hard way, or I can do things the easy way. He considers himself a liaison between business owners like me…and the forces that want to take those businesses away. I wouldn’t be his only client.”

I looked down at my glass as I swirled it.

“You aren’t happy about this.”

“You always told me to avoid outside relationships as much as possible.”

“Even with his cut, we would still be making exponentially more because this avenue is cheaper than the alternatives. Yes, outside relationships should be avoided, but the biggest priority is cutting costs wherever we can. With him, it’s two birds with one stone.”

I finally took a slice of baguette and spread the soft cheese over the surface. With a dab of honey and fig, it was scrumptious. If I were alone right now, I could sit there and eat the entire thing.

The corner of his mouth cocked in a smile, looking at me like I was a little girl who had smeared my ice cream cone all over my face. With just a single look, he could show me how much I meant to him, that I was the light of his life, the single most important person. “He’s coming for dinner in an hour. I’d like you to sit in.”

I finished the slice of bread then wiped my fingers on the white linen napkin. “That’s why you asked me to come over.”

“Now that the business is changing, you need to be aware of it. Maybe I’ll be around for ten more years. Maybe forty. I’d like to be prepared for whenever that happens. My men respect you, and even in death, they wouldn’t dare cross me because their loyalty is bone-deep.”

“You think I have what it takes…?” My father had an energy that I couldn’t emulate. The moment he stepped in the room, everyone noticed, even when they had no idea who he was. He was admired and respected, and he always seemed to be several steps ahead of both his contemporaries and his enemies. We might have the same blood, but I wasn’t sure if I inherited his intelligence and astuteness. He seemed to think I had.

His eyes remained on me, and slowly, the smile left his face as he turned serious. “Absolutely.”