Underground Hearts Club

One There were two, tall, burly men standing outside my dorm room. “Um….” I stared at them. “I’m sorry about the hot plate?” One of the men glanced down at me. He pulled out his cell phone and looked at it. “Are you Emmilia Marino?” I raised an eyebrow. “Who wants to know?” “We’re security guards for your roommate, Laura Luna. She’s one of the heirs to the Luna fortune. The college had you sign an NDA, remember?” My eyes widened. “Oh. That. I thought that was just because she was going to the same school as me. Did I do something wrong?” The man shook his head. “No. Miss Luna is going to be your roommate. You were deemed the best possible candidate based on your background check.” I raised an eyebrow. “Background check?” He nodded. “You have a perfect GPA; you would have been class speaker in high school if not for the car accident that killed your father and put you in a coma for most of t

Three The nicest dress I had was a black, strappy dress. The same one that I’d worn to the welcome back party that I had gone to freshman year. The one that Cesare had noticed me in, and had so much fun tearing it off. The reason for my biggest mistake ever. I’d had to sew it back together when I got home. I had high-heeled shoes that I’d worn to my dads funeral years ago. I put on some makeup, and then grabbed my purse and cell phone. I met Laura in the living room of the apartment. She was wearing a red dress, with gold earrings, and Manolo Blahnik shoes. Her purse was a Saint Laurent, black, with a gold strap on her shoulder. Her blond hair was slightly curled and she had a red bow holding back some of her hair. She looked too pretty for words. I was aware of how simple I looked. Laura, to her credit, only smiled at me and looped her arm through mine. “Come on. Let’s go. I already told the boys. They’ve got the car ready for us.”

Five Someone was watching me. I knew it wasn’t Billy or Giovani because they were both with Laura at her art history class. I was sitting in the library when I felt the hair on the back of my neck stand up. I looked across the way, and I saw Cesare talking to the librarian. He had leaned up against her desk like owned it, said something that made her laugh, and then she pointed in my direction. Damn it. I had spent all of freshman year worrying that he would find me again. Now, I was a junior, and he would be graduating in the spring. Of course, he would find me in his last year… My eighteen-year-old self would have given anything for him to notice me. But my twenty-year-old self knew better. Cesare Luna wasn’t the kind of guy that you wanted attention from. He was the kind of guy you thought you wanted attention from and then when you got it, you regretted it immediately. Cesare strode towards me like he was the

Seven“Emmilia!”Outside of Laura, I had one friend, Gemma Blake. She was a pretty brunette with blue eyes. She sat up front in my International Business Class, and gestured to the empty seat next to her. “Hi, Gemma!” I smiled. Gemma smiled back at me. “Did you get the e-mail?” “What e-mail?” I asked. “We’re having a guest speaker today. The professor is apparently old friends with Octavious Luna. He’s going to give a presentation on his internship program and his life in business.” The hair on the back of my neck stood up. “Octavious Luna?” Gemma nodded. “Do you think I can convince him to get an internship?” I forced a smile at her. “You’re Gemma Blake. I’m sure that you could do anything you want.” She laughed. “I appreciate the vote of confidence. Why don’t you seem happy about this? I thought you wanted do something with international hotels or whatever. I would think this would be right up your alley.”

Nine My phone wouldn’t stop vibrating. That was unusual for me. I only had a few friends and my first thought was that maybe Gemma had been worried about where I was. I got up from where I had fallen asleep on my couch, my head in Laura’s lap. She had fallen asleep using the sofa armrest as a pillow.“What the hell?” I stared at my phone.The first few messages were from my cousin, Nero. The second was Gemma. And the third was my uncle, Titus. I also had a bunch of pictures from Instagram that I couldn’t understand. I barely posted on there.The first message from Nero said FUCKING CALL ME.If my older cousin, who was twenty-one, and lived in New York was calling me, I was in deep shit. He was an extension of my uncle. He handled the family business in the U.S. When I got into trouble freshman year, he was the one who helped me hide everything. He convinced my uncle to let me come to Italy and take care of the situation I had found myself in.I called him. “Nero, what’s wrong?”“Are