Chapter Two: The Thorn Beneath The Silk

Kai didn’t flinch.

He never flinched.

But something about Gianna Moretti, her presence, her eyes, the way she stood like a blade wrapped in satin made the air feel… uneven. Off-balance.

She looked like a secret people died to keep.

Gianna’s gaze held his for a beat too long. Unbothered. Calculated. Kai could tell instantly she wasn’t just Alessio’s daughter. She was trained. Born and sharpened into something dangerous.

He forced his jaw to unclench.

"Are we conducting business or throwing parties now?" Kai said, finally looking back at Alessio. His voice was even, disinterested, but his mind wasn’t.

“She insisted on sitting in,” Alessio said smoothly, folding his hands over his stomach. “I don’t say no to my daughter. You’ll learn that soon enough.”

Soon enough? Kai’s eyes flicked back to Gianna.

She raised a perfectly arched brow. “I like to see the men who think they’re powerful up close. It helps me spot the cracks in their armor.”

Marsh muffled a cough behind his hand. “This’ll be fun.”

Kai didn’t respond. Instead, he moved to the long mahogany table and took a seat without waiting for invitation. Gianna sat across from him like it was a throne.

Alessio began speaking something about the casino incident, reparations, shared turf, but Kai wasn’t listening. Not really. His eyes were on Gianna, sharp and assessing.

She didn’t look away once.

She didn’t fidget.

She didn’t fear him.

And that was the part that set something electric crawling down his spine.

When the conversation turned to neutral territory agreements, Gianna spoke again. "You want peace, Castellano?"

Kai’s lip curled, just slightly. “I don’t want anything from your side. This meeting is to prevent war, not entertain fantasies.”

“Then lower your tone,” she replied coldly, “before you start one with me.”

The room went still. Even Alessio paused.

Kai leaned forward, elbows resting casually on the table. “I don’t take orders from people who wear perfume as distraction.”

Gianna smirked. “Who said I’m trying to distract you?”

A small silence followed. It wasn’t awkward.

It was a fuse being lit.

Alessio cleared his throat. “That’s enough, Gianna.”

She leaned back in her chair, relaxed, but her eyes never left Kai.

The meeting dragged another hour, details, paperwork, territories, alliances no one trusted, but by the end of it, no bullets had flown. For now, the Castellanos and the Morettis stood on a thin, trembling line of truce.

Kai rose to leave, buttoning his jacket. “This is the only meeting I’m attending. The next time your men step foot in my casino, I’ll burn their fingerprints off myself.”

“You’re just like your father,” Alessio muttered.

“No,” Kai said. “I’m worse.”

He turned toward the exit. Marsh followed, throwing Gianna a mock salute before trailing after his friend.

But as they passed the grand hallway, a voice rang behind them.

"Wait."

Gianna.

Kai turned.

She approached slowly, her heels clicking like clockwork death on the marble floor. She stopped just in front of him, barely a foot of space between them.

He could smell her perfume now. Vanilla and something sharper. Like blood and sugar.

“I don’t like you,” she said.

His eyes flickered with something unreadable. “Good. I’d be concerned if you did.”

She tilted her head slightly. “But I respect you.”

Kai’s face didn’t change, but something in his chest shifted. Just a little.

“Don’t mistake that for forgiveness,” she added.

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” he murmured.

A beat.

Then she stepped aside, brushing past him, deliberately letting her shoulder graze his arm.

She didn’t look back.

And that annoyed him more than anything.

Back in the car, Marsh glanced at him. “Well?”

“She’s trouble,” Kai muttered, staring out the window.

“Oh yeah,” Marsh grinned. “She’s also hot. Like... morally compromising hot.”

Kai didn’t answer. But the tight set of his jaw and the flicker in his eyes said enough.

She had gotten under his skin.

And she knew it.

Meanwhile, back at the Moretti estate, Gianna stood at her window, watching the taillights of Kai’s car disappear through the iron gates.

Her lips curled into a quiet smile.

“Let’s see how long you can stay cold, Castellano,” she whispered.