Page 9 of Blood in the Water

“It’s almost time to do the cake. Then this party can be over, and everyone can go home.”

“Fuck, yes.” The cake was myfavorite. Vanilla with whipped chocolate hazelnut buttercream and strawberry filling. The fucking greatest cake ever invented. I stood on my tiptoes, trying to locate Dad among all the partygoers. “Where’s my father? And where’s Max? I haven’t seen either of them for a while.”

Cas shrugged. “I haven’t seen the Don. Max left to do something about twenty minutes ago. I think I saw him sneak upstairs.”

I pursed my lips. “Sneak? With someone?”

He rolled his eyes and dropped his arm from my shoulder. “Not with a woman, if that’s what you’re asking.”

“It was not, thank you very much.” It was, but I would never admit that to Cas. “Can you look outside for Dad? I can’t cut the cake without him. I’ll look upstairs in his study, maybe bring Max down too. Maybe they had to take some calls.”

He raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms. “Let’s go together.”

I scoffed. “It’ll be fine. Two minutes, then we’ll be back here. We’ll be eating cake before you know it. You know, Cas, youareallowed to relax a little bit.”

His eyes scanned the room as he considered letting me leave his sight. Finally, he huffed. “If you aren’t down here in two minutes, I’m going to come looking for you, and if you’re not where you said you’d be, there will be hell to pay.”

“Oh yeah?” I teased, backing up toward the stairs. “What kind of hell, Cas?”

His eyes went dark, but before I could even identify what emotion flared across his face, he shuttered it.

“You don’t want to know,” he called after me as I spun on my heels and started skipping up the stairs. My feet werekillingme, but I still looked stunning. Tomorrow, I’d get a pedicure and nurture these poor toes back to life, but tonight, the heels were staying on until after the party.

Besides that tense conversation with Cas and Max, everything had been perfect. Dad had been laughing earlier while talking to the other heads of the Five Families. Chiara was fantastic on the dance floor. The food was award-winning. All of my friends from college were here. Now it was time for cake to top off a perfect evening. The only thing missing was a dance with Max where I would get a real sense of where his head was, but I’d be sure to get that in before the end of the night.

I was tired of waiting. It was time to make my move. To convince him that things between us were inevitable, and I would be his perfect wife.

“Dad! Max!” I called out when I reached the second-floor landing. “It’s time to cut the cake!”

I waited for a second, but there was no reply. Huh. Maybe he wasn’t up here.

“Dad! Max?” I called again, but there was no response. Cas said he thought Max had come upstairs. Maybe Dad had changed his mind andwastalking to him about our future. If that was happening, it would be in the study where Dad conducted business.

I stepped into the hallway and saw the doors to the study once again slightly ajar. Hadn’t we closed them when Dad and I left the study earlier? My heart beat faster. Maybe theyweretalking in there.

I snuck forward as quietly as possible.

“Maximiliano Volpe,” my father said from inside the study.Eee!I almost squeaked. Was this really happening? I had to find out. “Stop this, now.”

“Your time is done, Luciano.” Max’s voice sounded cold,hard. I’d never heard him take that detached tone before. It sent shivers down my back, and not the good kind. What was going on? What did he mean?

“You don’t need to do this,” my father hissed. I peeked inside to see my father kneeling in front of his desk. Max held a knife in one hand and a gun in the other. The gun was trained on my father’s temple.

What the actual fuck is happening?

“You fucked up, Luciano. You’ve left me no choice,” Max said as he raised the gun and circled my father like a shark smelling blood in the water.

Fear rooted me to the floor, like cement had somehow found its way into my heels and attached to the ground beneath me. A chill rippled down my neck. I couldn’t control my extremities. I couldn’t even look away.

“Think about Leona,” my father urged, voice strangled. “She’d never forgive you for this.”

“I’m not searching for her forgiveness,” Max spit, contempt twisting his words. He stopped his circling to stand right in frontof my father. “I’m searching for my father’s. I’m purging this Family and eliminating anyone who stands in my way.Anyone.”

With a motion swift and practiced, Max plunged the knife into my father’s stomach.

Time slowed down. The world tilted on its axis as blood bloomed on my father’s starched white shirt. A scream built in the back of my throat, but no sound came out.

There was aknifesticking out of my father. He looked down with fear and surprise in his eyes, hands hovering around the weapon.