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“Especially because of that. I told Giancarlo to stop stealing the weapons from them. That it would only end in bloodshed. That we are better than thieves. But he wouldn’t listen.”

I scramble up off the floor. “I-I need to find my daughter.”

Two men run into the office, one with a medical bag. I ignore them as they try to save Giancarlo’s life.

Dante grabs my arm and drags me out of the office and down the hall into another room.

“I can have our men try to find her,” Dante tells me as he grips my arms.

I shake my head. “No, I don’t want to owe you a favor.”

“Mirabella, you are family, despite what my father says. You owe us nothing. Not for his mistakes.”

I can’t hold back the tears anymore. “She had to be taken by them.”

“By who?”

“The Partners.”

28

KILIAN

Iwalk down the hall to my father’s home office. Conveniently placed in a separate wing of the house. My poor mother has no idea the extent of what goes on in the secret rooms below. Or maybe she does and just keeps her mouth shut. She wasn’t home when I came storming through the front door. Probably for the best.

I push open my father’s office doors with aggression before slamming them behind me. “It’s done.”

He raises a brow from where he is looking at his computer screen. “The weapons?”

“On the way to their holding location.”

“Good. It seems like you can listen.”

I approach his desk but refrain from sitting, my agitation too high. “Why did you have Benito and Sofia Renzetti killed fifteen years ago?”

“It was just business.”

“I never knew. You had me fuck with that car in Venice that night while the owners were at the opera. I never knew it was the son of Francesco Renzetti.”

“You still haven’t learned to keep your emotions out of things,” my father says to me with disdain. “How does it feel to know you killed your lovers’ parents? She will never forgive you.”

She doesn’t have to know, I tell myself. But it’s a lie. I have to tell her. As soon as I know it’s safe to talk to her.

My father stares at me, an evil grin taking over his face. “Of course she won’t forgive you either when she finds out you let her daughter get taken.”

I blink several times, thinking I heard him wrong. “What?”

He laughs and sips his drink. “Or should I say your daughter?”

I clench my jaw, my teeth grinding so hard they may break. “What did you just say?”

“You think I didn’t know? That you could keep something like that from me. You are a disgrace to The Partners. Fucking a Renzetti. Getting her pregnant. That girl is a threat to us.”

“She’s a child,” I grit.

“And the Renzettis will do anything to claim her.”

“What did you do?” I say quietly.