Chapter 1 — The Package

"Who the hell leaves a baby on my porch?"

Dante Moretti didn't have an answer, and he really didn't want one. He had spent the last three hours in a damp warehouse on the east side of the city, playing peacemaker and executioner in equal measure. He'd managed to stop a war before it could start, though it cost him his patience and a few hours of sleep he’d never get back. Usually, nights like this left him wired, his mind racing through every possible betrayal, but tonight he just felt old. He wanted a drink, a shower, and ten hours of uninterrupted sleep.

He did not want a basket on his doorstep.

His driver spotted it first. As the car rolled up the gravel drive, the headlights swept across the marble entrance and caught something that didn't belong.

"Boss," the driver said, his voice cautious. "There's something at the door."

Dante was out of the car before it even came to a full stop.

Up close, it wasn't just a basket. It was a baby—tiny, bundled in clothes way too thin for the weather, and red-faced from a crying fit that had finally exhausted itself into little, shaky hiccups. Pinned to the blanket was a scrap of paper with a single word written in handwriting Dante didn't recognize.

*Luna.*

Dante stood there for a long minute, running the numbers like he was calculating an ambush. Nothing added up. There was no ransom note, no threat, no phone number for a frantic mother. Just a name and a child left at the door of a man who was essentially the city's most dangerous resident. It was a weird choice, assuming he was a "safe" bet.

"Get Salvatore," Dante ordered, not taking his eyes off the kid. "Now."

Salvatore arrived at a dead sprint, his hand already on his holster by instinct. When he finally saw what the emergency was, his face went through a dizzying cycle of confusion and panic in about two seconds.

"Boss, is that—"

"Yes."

"A baby."

"I can see that, Salvatore."

"On the porch."

"I'm aware of where we are."

Salvatore crouched down slowly, eyeing the basket as if it might be rigged with a pressure plate. He read the note. "Luna. That's it? No last name? Nothing?"

"That's it."

"Who in their right mind leaves a baby with *you*?"

"Someone who ran out of options," Dante said. It was the only thing that made sense, and it didn't make him feel any better about the situation. "Or someone who wants me distracted."

Salvatore looked up sharply. "You think it's a setup?"

"I think," Dante replied, "that I don't like things I don't understand sitting six feet from my front door."

Luna, apparently bored with the tactical analysis, decided to start screaming again. It was a full-throttle wail that seemed impossible for something so small, echoing off the marble loud enough to bring another guard running from around the corner.

"Pick her up," Dante said.

Salvatore went pale. "Boss, I don't—"

"I'm not asking you to defuse a bomb, Salvatore. Just pick up the kid."

"With all respect, boss, I'd actually know what to do with a bomb."

Dante let out a heavy sigh and crouched down himself. He realized with a flash of annoyance that he was going to have to do everything tonight. He’d never held a baby in his life, so he wasn't entirely sure where the arms were supposed to go. He slid one hand under her back and lifted her, stiff and awkward, holding her against his chest like she was something fragile and dangerous all at once.

The screaming stopped instantly.

It wasn't a fade-out; it was like someone had flipped a switch. She took one shuddering breath and stared up at him with wide, wet eyes, looking at him as if she were deciding if he was worth her time.

Salvatore stared. The other guard stared. Even the driver, still by the car, just stared.

"...Huh," Salvatore whispered.

"Not a word," Dante muttered, staring back at the damp, red-faced problem in his arms.

He carried her inside because leaving her in the cold felt wrong, even to him. He told himself this was temporary. He’d have his people find the parents by morning; this was just a glitch in his schedule, not a life-changing event.

He set her down on the leather sofa in his study, propping her up with a cushion, and reached for his phone. The second his hands left her, she started screaming again.

He picked her back up. Silence.

He tried balancing her in the crook of his arm while dialing with one hand. Silence held—until he actually spoke into the phone, and the sound of his own voice apparently offended her enough to trigger another meltdown.

By the time the sky started turning gray in the east, Dante Moretti—a man who could end a negotiation with a single look—was sitting in his desk chair with a baby finally, fitfully asleep against his chest. He sat perfectly still, terrified that the slightest move would ruin the three hours of peace he'd fought for.

Salvatore found him there at dawn. He’d spent the night chasing leads and had come back with nothing.

"Nobody saw anything, boss. No plates, nothing on the cameras. Whoever dropped her knew exactly where the blind spots were." He paused, looking at his boss. Dante was unshaven, still wearing his coat from the warehouse, looking like he was holding the baby as if the world would end if he breathed too hard.

"Keep looking," Dante said quietly.

"And the baby? Should I call social services when they open?"

Dante looked down at the small, warm weight rising and falling against his chest, then at the note on his desk. He felt something shift in his gut—something he didn't have a name for and didn't really want to figure out.

"Not yet," he said.

Salvatore blinked. "Boss?"

"I said not yet, Salvatore." Dante’s voice was flat and final. "Find out who she belongs to first. Until then, she stays."

He didn't explain it because he couldn't. All he knew, watching the sun come up over a night that had cost him more sleep than any war ever had, was that *not yet* was the only answer he was willing to give.