Chapter 1

Chapter one : blood before breakfast

Raven's pov

Chapter One: Blood Before Breakfast

The smell of salt and rust clung to the morning fog, curling around the warehouse like a warning. Somewhere nearby, a seagull cried out. I pressed the cold steel of my pistol to the back of the target’s head.

He was kneeling,shaking, muttering prayers to a God who hadn’t stepped foot in this part of the city since before I was born.

“Got eyes on you,” Sienna’s voice crackled through my earpiece. “East side’s clear. But you’ve got maybe two minutes before company rolls in.”

“Plenty of time,” I murmured.

The man whimpered. I hadn’t even touched him yet.

“Please,” he rasped. “I’ve got kids.”

“So do cockroaches,” I said flatly. “Doesn’t mean I let them live in my kitchen.”

I pull the trigger.

The gunshot echos through the empty space, sharp and final. Blood splatters on the floor. I don't flinch.

Marco steps out of the shadows behind me, chewing gum like this was just another Tuesday morning. “Messy.”

“Efficient,” I said, holstering my gun.

He glances down at the body. “This one gave up quicker than the last.”

“They always do when they know who I am.”

Sienna’s voice pipes in again. “Raven, two SUVs just pulled into the west dock. Time to bounce.”

“Copy that.”

We moved fast, silent, professional. By the time the Moretti goons reached the warehouse, we were already ghosting through back alleys, slipping away like smoke. The Caruso name may not own the North,yet,but we sure as hell owned the shadows.

Back at the compound, I stripped out of my blood-smeared clothes and tossed them into the chute. The mansion was already buzzing with activity. Men in suits, soldiers in black, maids avoiding eye contact. Everyone had somewhere to be, and no one dared ask me where I’d been.

Marco peeled off toward the garage.

Sienna followed me upstairs, tapping away on her tablet.

“Two hits this week,” she said. “You’re setting records.”

“I’m not in this for trophies,” I replied, heading for my suite.

She gave me a side glance. “You’re not in this for anything except your father’s approval.”

I pause.

“You say that like it’s a bad thing.”

“It is when approval starts to look like a leash.”

I don’t answer. Sienna is my friend,maybe my only real one,but she’d never understand. She hadn’t grown up with Jack Caruso for a father.

After a hot shower and black coffee, I was barely settling into some quiet when one of the guards knocked.

“Boss wants you in his study.”

I sighed. “Of course he does.”

The Caruso estate was a sprawling beast of old Southern money and new blood.

Marble floors, gold fixtures, and the kind of opulence that smelled like danger. I walked through the halls like I owned them,because one day, I would.

My father’s study is dim and heavy with cigar smoke. Jack Caruso stood at the window, back turned, watching the grounds like a king surveying his empire.

“You’re late,” he says without looking at me.

“I was washing blood out of my hair,” I reply, a hint of laughter in my tone.“You know how it clumps.”

He finally turns. His graying hair is slicked back, his tailored suit immaculate. My father doesn’t believe in weakness. And he doesn’t believe in wasting time.

“You did well this morning,” he said. “Quick, clean. You’re becoming exactly what I raised you to be.”

“A ghost?”

“A weapon,” he corrected. “And it’s time I put that weapon to use.”

Something in his tone made my spine straighten.

Finally, an exciting assignment, I've been getting bored with these easy ones.

“I’m listening.”

He stepped closer. “The North is still Vitali territory. And Leon Vitali is a thorn I haven’t been able to pull.”

I tiltmy head. “Want me to take a trip upstate?”

His smile was razor-thin. “Not quite. There’s a smarter way to bleed him.”

I didn’t like the way he was looking at me.

“Spit it out, Jack.”

He took a breath, slow and deliberate.

“You’re going to marry him.”

The silence rang louder than the gunshot this morning.

I blinked. Laughed once.

“You’re joking.”

“I never joke about strategy.”

“You want me to marry Leon Vitali,” I repeated, like maybe the words would make more sense the second time.

“Yes.”

“And then what? Stab him at the altar?”

“No. You’ll marry him, bear his child, and when the time is right,we strike. The Caruso bloodline will control both sides.

His child, my grandchild, will inherit everything. And the North will belong to us.”

I stared at him. My hands curled into fists.

“I’m not a pawn,” I said, low and sharp.

“No,” Jack said, stepping forward. “You’re the queen. And this is the checkmate.”

I feel like the floor had dropped out from under me. Marriage. A child. With The Butcher.

I’d seen the man from afar. Cold. Calculated. Dangerous. He was the only man my father had ever admitted to respecting,and fearing. Now I was supposed to crawl into bed with him and smile?

I didn’t realize I was breathing hard until Sienna’s words from earlier echoed in my head.

Approval looks like a leash.

Jack placed a hand on my shoulder.

“You’ve always made me proud, Raven. Don’t stop now.”

I jerk away.

“I need time.”

“You have until tomorrow.”

He turns back to the window like the conversation was done. And maybe, for him, it was.

But for me?

It had only just begun.