Prologue

Melody POV

‘‘Guys, I’m 21! You can’t keep me here for the rest of my life!” I hollered. “I want to live my own life! And I want to discover who I am.”

“I know, sweetheart.” My mom says, giving me her sweet smile.

“We want you to be safe. We want nothing tragic to happen to you.” my father paused.

“Again?” I quickly barked.

I almost died in a car crash when I was 17. My ex-boyfriend was upset with me about something and he had severe road rage. And he had a bad temper. We were upside down on the road. After that, though, I can’t remember much. I don’t remember going to the hospital or how we even got hit. When the officers questioned me, I told them I don’t remember other than the car being upside down. Along with some other stuff they questioned me about.

Ever since that day, I’ve had a super protective family. Well, more protective, I should say. It happened on the way home from somewhere in New York City, which is where I’ve lived my whole life. I don’t remember tons about that day, but ever since it happened, I’ve become a safer driver when I get to drive.

My mom smiled, holding onto my father’s arm. “We have to deal with some things in Paris.” My mother smiled. Her smile always made anyone give in to whatever she wanted.

My mother has Olive colored skin with neutral black hair. Sometimes her hair would match the night sky. Her eyes were a dark green color, which I have. I was even as tall as her. Lucky me, I guess.

The rest of my looks I got from my father. People say I look like him. He was a little pale but not like Bella Swan Pale. He had the darkest brown hair I've ever seen. And his eyes were almost like sea blue and had a tint of green surrounding the pupils. And fortunately for me I didn’t get my fathers 6’7 height.

“Fine, can I at least go out?” I asked them to follow them out to the car where Percy was standing by the car, waiting for them.

Percy was about 6’7 and had grass green eyes with dirty blonde hair. But Percy isn’t one of the… funniest guys to be around.

Mack is one of the funnier ones. Mack is a sweet guy, but I swear he’s two different people some days. I’m not kidding! One minute, he can be a super delightful guy. The next thing he’s a raging person, and grumpy the next day. I always tease him about his mood swings. He doesn’t enjoy that.

Over the years, I noticed something. One of them was people kept multiplying every day.

Sometimes I’d get sent to my room when specific people were over.

Do you know how bored I’d get?

Exceedingly bored.

I tried asking my parents why we needed so many bodyguards and guess what they did. They’d change the subject. After maybe a year, I stop asking questions like that. I asked them about their job and sometimes it was a touchy subject.

“Guys please, it’s for Thea. She’s having a hard time getting ready to move to San Francisco for her Marine Biology job.” I lied. They packed everything up. Some of her stuff was already in San Francisco. In two weeks, she’ll be there. I’m quite proud of her. She never wanted to do anything with her life. But once she did a Marine Biology class, that was what she wanted to do in life.

“Fine, but it will be here.” My father stated, pointing towards our home.

“We wanted to grab a drink,” I mumbled, staring at my hands.

“No,” my father shouted. “I do not want you leaving this property, and I do not want my daughter consuming alcohol of any kind!”

“Dad, I’m 21! I can make my own decisions!” I shouted back.

My mother stepped in front of my father, making him look at her, “Honey, she’s right. She could go out to one of our clubs and come home.”

I saw my father’s gaze come toward me. “Fine. But you will take Mack and Frank with you. And if you even think of saying no, then you’re not going.”

It wasn’t the thing I wanted to do, but at least I get to go out.

“Deal,” I said. I hugged them, telling them to bring me back something from Paris and to be safe.

Once They were out of sight, I ran to my room and immediately started calling Thea.

Her family and mine had even been friends long before we were both born. I finished high school because of her. She always told me I had a bright future. She said that she was super stupid and that she was going to drop out. And she almost did during our senior year. We argued about it at one point, but we both chuckle when we think of it. That and some other things.

“Hey what’s up, Mel?” her voice said, and I heard her listening to the backstreet boys in the background.

Thea has been calling me Mel since our freshmen year in middle school. I’ll be honest at first I hated it, but it grew on me over time.

“Wanna go out tonight? I got my parents to let me go out.”

“Wait actually?” Thea gasped at my words.

“Yeah, I told them you were having a hard time and all that.”

“Please tell me we’re going clubbing. I need a Bloody Mary right now.”

I chuckled at her.

“I could go for a margarita. See you around 8?” I asked.

“Definitely.”

“See you in about two hours, then.” She hung up the phone.

After that, I started looking for my outfit.

-----

Liam’s POV

I’ve been working on figuring out a way to make the guy in the basement help me figure out how to overload a very specific system. For that part, I had someone else translate for me in computer geek form.

“Sir, you’re gonna want to hear this.” someone said carefully, treading into my office. I looked up and glared at the person who came in without permission. Of course, it just had to be Wilson.

“Wilson...” I started.

“I’m sorry sir but I thought that you’d want to hear this.” Wilson quickly said.

“This better be good, otherwise we’re gonna have problems... again,” I warned him. This would be the third time he’s shown me something, and it’s been useless in the past and I’d previously put him on some of the stupidest stuff I could think of.

A few years ago, we were scouting a warehouse, afraid that our buyer was going to doublecross us, so I had Wilson do a little scan of the area. Once we got there, they ambushed us and barely made it out alive.

“We hacked into one of the Fawson’s cameras, but could only get sound.” Wilson pulled out an iPad and hit play.

It started all distorted and then someone started talking.

"We just have to deal with some work problems in Paris."

There was a pause of silence and someone else spoke up, “Guys, please, it’s for Thea. She’s having a really hard time getting ready to move to San Francisco for her Marine Biology job.” This girl sounded younger than the women who spoke before her.

“Fine but, it’s going to be here.” The man ordered. It was her father, the man who killed my parents.

“We were maybe going to go out and grab a drink,” she whispered innocently.

“No,” He shouted.

“Dad, I’m 21! I can make my own choices!” She shouted back.

“Honey, she’s right. Maybe let her go out to one of our clubs and come straight home.”

“Fine. But you will take Mack and Frank with you. And if you even think of saying no, then you’re not going.”

There was a slight pause in the audio. Maybe this was it? Perhaps this is all Wilson could get from them.

“Deal.”

Guess I was wrong.

We heard her say goodbye to her parents and heard footsteps rapidly running off to what I assumed was the front door. That’s when Wilson looked up at me.

“Worth your time, sir?” Wilson asked.

“Find out which club she and her friend are going to and follow her. Wait till she’s alone and grab her.” I ordered.

“Yes sir,” Wilson replied. He rushed out, and I sat back in my comfortable chair and waited for the meeting I had later to explain the plan to the rest of my mafia. And after that, she will stay here so I can destroy everything her father had so carefully built.

And fortunately for him, I was about to destroy it all. His mafia will burn to the ground along with everyone he cares about.

Starting with his precious daughter.