Chapter 2

Teeth clenched, Grant forced out the words. "Basement level two!"

I grabbed his hair and slammed his face into the marble floor.

"A liar doesn't need a tongue."

Grant finally broke down, his voice trembling. "Three days ago, Cecilia disappeared from the basement! The Don didn't want it to ruin today's engagement party, so he ordered everyone to keep quiet about it!"

Three days ago, a tearing pain had jolted me awake in the middle of the night.

With pain that bad, there was no way my sister had left on her own.

I flicked open the butterfly knife I always carried and pressed the cold back of the blade to Rosa's cheek.

"Who was the last person to see her?"

Rosa wet herself in terror and wailed, "Martha! It was Martha, the head housekeeper! She took people down to the basement to question Cecilia!"

The words were barely out of her mouth when footsteps clattered at the end of the hall.

Martha showed up with a dozen bodyguards and blocked the doorway.

She was carrying a custom-made leather whip.

I knew everything my sister owned, so I spotted it right away. Martha was wearing my sister's limited-edition sapphire hair clip.

The couture Chanel suit she had on was one I'd won at auction for my sister years ago.

The second Martha saw me, she raised the whip and lashed out at me without hesitation.

"Cecilia, you little bitch, what do you think you're doing?" she snapped.

I sidestepped it, drew my Browning, and pulled the trigger without even looking.

With a deafening bang, the bullet grazed Martha's wrist, exactly where I'd aimed.

"You're insane! You actually fired at me?"

She screamed. The whip fell from her hand, and its tail smashed an antique vase nearby.

Martha clutched her wrist, breaking out in a cold sweat, but she refused to back down.

"Oh, please. What have you got to be so cocky about? I bet you even stole that gun from the Don!"

I spun the butterfly knife in my hand and pointed the tip at her head.

"Is wearing my castoffs what makes you so brave?"

Martha gritted her teeth and sneered, "It's not just the jewelry. The Don transferred your trust fund and everything in your name to Ms. Isabella."

My eyes went cold. "And the security company I left behind?"

Martha's laugh got even more brazen.

"Mr. and Mrs. Payne tricked you out of the transfer papers ages ago and handed them to the Don themselves. Those stupid mercenaries wouldn't fall in line, so now they're either dead or scattered."

No wonder my sister had no one to help her.

I lowered my eyes and said nothing.

"What good will acting tough do you now? Have you forgotten how I've tormented you for the past six months?"

Martha licked her lips, making no effort to hide the malice in her voice.

"Down in the basement, I had them bring you moldy leftovers every day on purpose. When you wouldn't eat, I had them pry your mouth open and shove the food in!

"Isabella had me cut up your precious ballet dress and line the dog bed with it!

"And that piece-of-junk piano of yours, I took an ax to it myself!"

She gave an arrogant snort. "Ms. Isabella is Mrs. Payne's own niece. She grew up away from the family and went through hell.

"Mr. and Mrs. Payne adopted her to make it up to her. You wouldn't step aside, so you got what you deserved!"

So Isabella was my mother's niece.

No wonder my parents had taken her side so completely.

But why should making it up to her cost my sister her life?

"You know what?"

Martha reached out to grab my hair, a sick grin on her face.

"Ms. Isabella said you had thick skin, so she had me soak this whip in salt water and give you 199 lashes! The sound of that whip biting into you was so satisfying..."

Her uninjured hand was still reaching for me.

Then I moved.

I flipped the blade, grabbed her ankle, and used her own momentum to yank her sideways while I drove my knee into the back of her leg. Crack! Martha screamed and lost her balance. She hit the floor hard, and the bodyguards behind her didn't even have time to react.

I pinned the whip under my foot and gave it a hard yank.

It snapped tight around Martha's neck, and I dragged her like a dead dog all the way down the hall to the Steinway that had been hacked into kindling.

"Cecilia! How dare you touch me?! The Don will kill you!"

Martha clutched her throat, flopping around on the floor like a dying fish.

I flipped my grip on the butterfly knife and stabbed down without hesitating!

Thunk!

The blade went straight through the back of her hand, pinning it to a broken panel of the piano.

Blood poured down over the keys.

I brought the heel of my combat boot down on the fingers of her other hand and slowly ground them into the floor.

I could hear the bones crack. Martha nearly passed out from the pain.

I ordered a terrified maid to bring a bucket of ice water and threw it over Martha to wake her up. Then I reminded her gently, "Don't pass out. Every time you lose count of the lashes, I'll have someone break one of your bones and slowly set it again."

Martha completely broke down.

She wailed, "The Don and Ms. Isabella told me to do it. It wasn't my idea!"

I smiled and raised the whip.

"You get ten lashes today. We'll take our time with the rest."

There was a sudden commotion outside the hall, and then a voice called from beyond the door, "The Don is here—"