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She should’ve stayed at home.

Should’ve lived a normal life and moved on.

But she loved too deeply for that. Cared too much. More than anyone in this room deserved.

The shorter man of the group, the one whose name I didn’t know, snatched the handbag that swung from her arm.

They were all still rattled from her sudden appearance, and fuck, it was a hell of a show.

“Hey!” she snapped. “That bag isChanel.”

“Shut up, stupid bitch,” the guy snarled.

“Oi!” Theo scolded.

Zarina fluttered her eyelashes up at him, giving him her best‘Thanks, Daddy,’wide eyes that should’ve been reserved for me and me alone—but that’s besides the point.

But all of the other men turned towards Theo then with looks of confusion, disgust, and irritation on their faces.

Fuck, I almost felt bad for the dude.

I knew what it was like to have a desperate hard-on for Zarina. I knew what it was like to be on the receiving end of those eyes, that pout, that smile.

The man emptied the contents of her bag onto the ground in front of them. A couple of kitchen knives clattered to the ground, along with a few rounds of loose bullets which were not accompanied by a gun, and a set of car keys.

“Jesus, Zarina,” Sammy tilted his head back to look up to the ceiling.

“A girl’s gotta protect herself.” She shrugged, pink cheeks pulling up into a look of feigned innocence.

“What are you doing here, sweets?” Theo asked finally, adding a bit of gruff to his voice and taking a step back from Zarina.

“I’m here to take my family home,” she sighed like it was a simple request.

They all laughed at her.

Chuckled and bellowed in her face.

Zarina stood and took it like a champ, even though I knew how much it hurt her to be laughed at constantly. I knew that she was leaning into the act, the ‘clueless heiress trying her best’ routine, but it still didn’t make my stomach hurt any less on her behalf.

“Look, we all know that you’re too much of a little bitch to kill anyone yourself, Willie. That’s why you’ve got your friends here,” she gestured to the gun-wielding men still surrounding her.

Rome and I shared the same exhale of dread.

Why was she egging them on?

“We don’t need to kill, Zarina. Because we’re smart.” Willie said with a tight-lipped smile. “You Santinos think that you’ve got everyone in the city under your thumb because they’re scared of you. Well, we don’t need that. We’ve got real power. Money.”

Zarina fluttered her eyelashes again. “You mean, yourdaddieshave money? Because I know for a fact that none of you have done anything of note since leaving school.”

William’s jaw ticked at that.

But Zarina took a step towards him, tilting her chin slightly to look up at him.

“That’s why nothing has changed for you since then. You still sit around, probably in a big house that your parents bought you, and jacking it to the thought of being like us. But you’re not. You’re still a scrawny little rich boy that’s gotta beg for pussy.”

“You have no ide?—”

“Oh, but I do. You want to know how I figured out that Theo’s shit attempt at an undercover mission was tied to you? Because you thought you could impress someone like Larissa Bianchi with your little gang of pals.”