CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER ONE

If someone had told me this night would wreck my life I would've checked in sick today. 

That's how Sofia, me by the way, who had spent three years as Lead Accountant at De Luca Enterprises, suddenly found my life at risk. 

It all started when my supervisor, Mr Holt gave me an account to trace

He slides the folder across my desk on his way out the door, and the account is titled"Account 7-7-Alpha" 

Account 7-7-Alpha is not a normal irregularity like a stealing worker or bookkeeping error. 

This is not that.

The first thread I pull leads to a second and the second leads to four more, and I literally have to inquire from shell companies to figure out the direction of the missing money. 

But it's late and they wouldn't take calls by this time but what I found is already obvious, if money has to be transferred to various shell companies then the money was not purely. 

And impure money is usually from Drug Dealing or Money Laundering. 

I shuddered at the thought of my hot boss Lorenzo being a drug dealer, bad for work but I can't lie it's pretty sexy though.

I close every window without printing or saving anything then I sit in my chair for four minutes looking at a blank screen and breathing.

Then I shut down my computer, pick up my bag, and walk to the elevator. 

The first thing I do when I get home is tell Lucy, my bestie and roommate.

She's staying till her job as a news reporter becomes stable, but until then, we're thick as thieves. 

I know exactly what I am doing and I do it anyway because Lucy has been my best friend since the seventh grade and it is one-thirty in the morning and I have just mapped a criminal network from a folder my supervisor gave me by accident and I need to say it out loud to someone before it stops feeling real.

Lucy sits across from me at my kitchen table with both hands wrapped around a mug of tea and her reporter's eyesgetting wider with every sentence.

"You cannot tell anyone," I say. "Not a word and not even a hint. This stays between us until I figure out what to do."

"Of course," Lucy says. "Obviously, not a word."

She looks at me with the sincere expression of someone who absolutely means it at this moment.

The night proceeded smoothly only for me to wake up by 7 Am and Lucy had already gone to work. 

I wake up to my phone ringing.

Then ringing again and then a message and then three more. Then a notification from a news app I downloaded two years ago and have never opened.

 The headline is six words and they land like six separate punches.

I didn't need to look below at the credits to know that Lucy had done this.

Fuck!!! What is wrong with her??

I read the first paragraph and then the second then I stop at the sentence I feel would end my life

"According to a source working directly with the finance books at De Luca Enterprises —”

Lorenzo will fire me, fuck no..

I put my phone face down on the mattress to let it sink in.

Then I call Lucy, it goes to voicemail, I call again. Voicemail. call a third time and the line does not even ring it goes straight to a recording that tells me this number is temporarily unavailable.

I get up quickly rushing through my clothes to get dressed and finally I pick up my bag.

 The two men in the lobby of my building stare at me with interest but I thought nothing of it. 

I see them through the glass of the inner door before I push through it large, still, dressed in dark clothes that are not trying to look like anything except what they are. 

I turn around but to my horror there is a third man behind me.

He swoops down putting his hands on my feet and before I know it I'm on his shoulder going as he strides to the car where I saw the 2 men who had been at the lobby 

I scream but it only lasts for about a second after which one of the men run towards me and cover my mouth. 

At that point of danger I couldn't even draw the connection between the kidnap and the news Lucy revealed, I was simply scared for my life. 

And to make it worse the put me in the old car truck, tied my hands and shoved a dirty piece of clothes in my mouth to shut me up. 

The car drives for about 20 minutes and after they let me out they dragged me to an abandoned warehouse somewhere in the west side of the city. They take me inside and Lucy is already there, sitting on a metal chair, still in her coat, her press badge still around her neck like she thought it would help.

She opens her mouth.

"Don't,” I warn her. 

I sit in the chair beside her and I look at the men standing at the door and I feel it move through me the specific, cold shock of understanding that my life changed yesterday evening and I did not know it yet. That every decision between then and now was made by a woman who did not understand what she was inside.

I have been in this room for nearly two hours and in that time not one of the four men stationed here has spoken to us, offered us water, or acknowledged that we are human beings sitting in metal chairs in a warehouse.

When the door opens they straighten and all four of them stand up, the way people straighten when something more important than them enters the room.

Lorenzo De Luca walks in and immediately one of the men brings out a gun and points it directly at Lucy

“I've been given orders to kill them, Lorenzo. The bosses ordered me” he growled

“Let them go, or else you'll have me to deal with” he growled back while me and Lucy whimpered with fear. 

“I cannot, they will punish me Lorenzo”

“Which of the bosses gave you the order, call him now” he barked at him

The man hurriedly takes out his phone, dialled a number and handed it over to Lorenzo.

He talked over the phone with the so-called boss and he called him sir, there were some moments he sounded angry but he finally puts the phone down and gives back to the kidnapper.

He receives his own order and brings down his gun and in that moment I let out a breath of relief. 

He speaks to the man nearest the door in Italian, low and precise, and whatever he says makes the man take out his phone and leave the room immediately.

“You could've let it slide or reported what you found to me first thing today but you just couldn't, now we're all in a mess none of us wants to be in”

“I'm really sorry sir” I hurriedly beg

Lucy starts begging because he said the word “Mafia” and even me I couldn't help the fear crawling in. I thought it would just be drugs but Mafia, that's cold as fuck

 I begged again 

“No need to thank me Sofia, we'll all pay for it. First Lucy you're to take down the story and leave New York today or else I won't be responsible for anything that follows” he ordered.

“Thanks…”

“Don't thank me yet Sofia, for what you did if you want to live, uhhhm,” he coughed “We've been instructed to get married and we don't have a choice, either you go down and drag me with you or I ensure you never go down”

It all looked like we're on a show acting The Sopranos or something, and I've just been orderd to marry my boss if I want to live