Chapter 1

"Alessia, God teaches us to be generous. The children in the slums are suffering, and you are sitting on enough weapons to end the world. It's obscene."

Maria Rossi turned to look at me, her eyes brimming with pity, as if she were the only pure soul left in the world.

"Only when I've given every last one of them to the people who need protecting will God forgive this Family for the blood it has spilled."

Hearing that voice, my hand shook a little on the grip of my gun.

"Ottaviani, put the gun down. You are beyond saving!"

The man shielding Maria like a knight was Carlos Ricci, my childhood friend.

Carlos looked at me with disappointment and disgust all over his face.

"Alessia, enough with the reek of gunpowder you carry everywhere. Maria is trying to save your soul. Can't you see that?

"Those weapons will only drag you down to hell. She's turning them into a staircase to heaven. You should be grateful."

He turned to her, his voice softening instantly. "Don't be afraid, Maria. You did the right thing. God will look after you for your kindness, and so will I."

In my last life, watching this idiot hand enough heavy weaponry to reshape London's underworld to an enemy informant, I nearly lost my mind. I drew my gun, wanting to take back control before the disaster happened.

But in that same instant Carlos fired. The bullet grazed the web of my hand and knocked the gun loose.

He roared at me, "Alessia! You are a devil?possessed maniac!

"You were going to raise a hand to Maria over a pile of killing tools? Of course you were. A cold-blooded monster like you doesn't deserve to stand at my side!"

I looked at him, feeling hollowed out.

"These are my spoils. I paid for them with my life. What gives her the right to steal what's mine in God's name?"

When Maria heard that, the tears came on their own, and she sank to her knees, shaking, and began to pray under her breath, "Lord, forgive her greed... Alessia, if these worldly things matter to you so much, I'll give you my most precious possession to make up for it."

She pulled a badly worn wooden cross off her neck and held it out to me, her face full of devotion.

"The Mother Superior gave me this herself when I was baptized at the convent.

"It stands for eternal salvation. It's worth a million times more than those instruments of death. I'm trading it for your weapons. You should feel honored."

I looked at the rotten piece of wood, worth two pounds at most.

Then I thought of my arsenal, worth hundreds of millions. The absurdity almost made me laugh.

When I didn't take it, Carlos finally snapped and shouted at me, "Alessia, don't be so greedy!

"Maria just handed you the anchor of her soul and it still isn't enough for you? Take it right now and kneel to apologize to her!"

I looked at the two of them coldly.

There was a time Carlos was hurt on a job and I carried him ten miles out of a field of corpses.

And now he thought a rotten piece of wood could cancel out everything I had given.

I refused to let it end there, so I went to my older brother, Lorenzo Ottaviani, the current Don.

Lorenzo sat in the Don's leather chair, neatly clipping the end of a cigar without lifting his eyes.

"Alessia, you're too violent. The Family can't go legitimate while you behave like this.

"Go wash dishes in the red-light district for three months. See how the poorest people live, and learn what mercy is. That's an order from the Don."

I actually believed he was acting for my good and the good of the Family, so I obeyed.

It turned out to be where I died.

Remembering the pain of the blade going through my stomach in that life, I put the urge to kill away, and while Carlos was comforting Maria, I quietly called my mother, who was on holiday in Sicily.