Page 27 of Broken Mafia Prince (His to Break #1)

GIULIA

I ignore the sound of my ringtone as I fly up the stairs to my bedroom, eager to be back in my sanctuary, and hoping the memory of Raffaele’s kiss won’t follow me there.

I don’t need to look at my phone to know that it’s my cousin calling.

While I’m usually eager to tell her everything—down to the very last detail—that happens in my life, this time around, I’m dreading having to face her and lie to her about this, because there’s no way on god’s green earth I’m telling her that Raffaele Gagliardi kissed me.

Barging into my bedroom, I bang the door as hard as I can behind me, waiting to feel some tiny bit of satisfaction at the childish move, but all I feel is a slight headache from the loud sound.

I let out a groan and jump face down into my bed, squeezing my eyes shut to block out the excruciatingly vivid memories of an hour ago.

What was I thinking, letting him kiss me in a place where anyone could have seen us? And what is worse was that I kissed him back. I can’t even accuse him of stealing a kiss because when he’d looked at me with those sharp blue eyes, I’d known exactly what was going to happen.

And I had let it.

I wanted it, in fact.

I roll over to my back, slapping my forehead with my palm over and over again. “So stupid, so damn stupid,” I mutter.

“It’s a one-off, it won’t happen again,” I swear.

Yes, it will , a voice in my head taunts.

“No way. I’m going to keep my distance from him. I don’t care what important information he has for me, I won’t be caught dead with that asshole again.”

The voice laughs, and I slap my head a little harder, trying to expel it. I’m now officially insane, and there’s one person responsible. I refuse to even think his name; instead, I allow my thoughts to shift from that kiss to the information I’ve just discovered.

A frown twists my face, and I jump out of bed, flying downstairs as fast as I’d gone up.

If what he said was true, there’s really no time to think on it and try to sugarcoat it for Father.

He needs to know what’s going on immediately.

Maybe this will be the thing that finally makes him quit his vendetta against the Gagliardis.

The door to his study is half open, and I give a courtesy rap on the door before barging in.

“How was your date with Luca?” Father’s words make me falter.

In the heat of all that has happened, I totally forgot about my disaster of a date with Luca and all my plans to make Father hate him. That’ll have to wait until some other time.

“This is more important than that date.”

At that, his head snaps up, green eyes narrowing at me. “What’s more important to you right now than spending time with the man you’re going to marry?”

Starting an argument about the fact that I have no intentions to marry that raging asshole will only derail me from the more important matter at hand, so I decide to ignore it. I slap my palms down on his desk and lean forward.

“What do you know about the Echelon Syndicate aside from general knowledge?” I ask.

His eyes widen. “Where’s this coming from?”

“Apparently, the Echelon Syndicate is trying to put discord between us and the Gagliardis, and god knows how long they’ve been at it,” I tell him. “Which begs the question why. Why would they have an interest in us?”

“Honestly, Giulia, I don’t understand what you’re trying to do here,” he scoffs. “This isn’t the sort of thing you’re supposed to even be aware of. This is none of your business. Stay out of it.”

“It became my business the moment someone shot at me,” I hiss. “And I’m not going to leave this alone until you give me some information. If you don’t, I’ll go digging, and trust me, you won’t like me digging.”

Our eyes clash and hold, hazel against green. His jaw clenches, and finally, he relents with a deep sigh.

“I have always known that the Echelon Syndicate was a part of this for a long time,” he informs me. “They like to play God, put their noses where they aren’t wanted and control everything. I know that they’ve been trying to mastermind this family feud and escalate things.”

I gape at him. “You knew all that, and yet this is the first time I’m hearing about it? And since you know all this, why are you still going after the Gagliardis? Doesn’t that make them exempt from all this? Innocent, in fact?”

“Innocent?” he sneers. “Nothing about those bastards is innocent. The Syndicate might be pulling strings, but that family has their share of the blame. I won’t be surprised if he gave them the idea since he is a member.”

I open my mouth to argue, but I have no idea where to even start.

Father is so blinded by his need for revenge that he can’t see past it to discover the truth.

His tunnel vision for the Gagliardis is frightening, and I’m starting to realize that Raffaele’s warning to be careful is more serious than he made it seem.

“But—”

He cuts me off. “How did you manage to come by your information?”

I freeze, my heart giving a sudden kick in my chest. In my haste to find out the truth, I failed to factor in that my father would be curious about my source. My hands turn clammy, and I drag them down the material of my pants, swallowing.

“It’s c-complicated,” I stammer.

He doesn’t give an outward reaction, but I can feel the suspicion radiating off him. “Complicated sources are equivalent to untrustworthy sources. I hope you know that, Giulia.”

“Untrustworthy? You mean the same source that revealed to me something you’ve been hiding from me for who knows how long?” I throw my hands into the air.

“I did it for your own good,” he points out. “The cost of knowledge in our world is steep, and only one of us should have to pay it. Be careful, Giulia, you can’t trust anybody, no matter what.”

I stare at him for a long moment, allowing his words to soak in, before turning around and marching out of the office.

I know that in our world, trust is something so scarcely found, it’s almost become a foreign concept.

Of all people to trust, Raffaele shouldn’t even make the top one hundred list. And yet, I went running when he called, and didn’t feel the tiniest flicker of alarm during the time I was with him.

Thinking about him now is like opening the floodgates, and the memory of that illicit kiss comes rushing back.

It takes me hours of tossing and turning to finally fall into sleep. Unfortunately, not even in my unconsciousness am I safe from Raffaele’s piercing blue eyes and the dark promise in them. In my dream, when he goes to walk away, I pull him back to me and kiss him again, and again and again.

The kiss is so good that it feels like the earth is rolling and rumbling beneath me. It takes my brain a moment to realize that the loud bang I’m hearing isn’t a part of my dream, and I shoot up in bed, eyes wide.

Outside the window, the world is vision of orange as fire licks up from an explosion nearby. I can hear the sound of heavy footsteps and men’s voices.

What the fuck?

Without another thought, I jump out of the bed and pull out my Glock from my bedside table drawer, racing out of my room in my thin sleeping shorts and oversized shirt.

The cold night air whips against my body, causing goosebumps to rise up on my arms. Ignoring the cold, I remove my gun from safety and dash down the hall to my father’s room.

I run into him in the hallway, wearing khaki pants and holding his gun. As soon as he spots me, something like relief crosses his eyes. It’s the first sign of care about me that I’ve seen on his face in years, and it makes me feel suddenly warm.

“I hope you won’t hesitate to use that thing.” He motions at the gun in my hands.

Before I can give him a reply, I spot a man creeping up behind him. There’s no hesitation as I raise my hand, aim, and fire, half his head blowing out. “Is that a good enough response?” I ask easily, but on the inside, my stomach tumbles.

“I have strong reason to think these are the Syndicate’s men,” he tells me as we fall into step, headed downstairs.

Anger bubbles through me and my hand around the butt of the gun tightens.

I can’t believe that these bastards really sent people to shoot us in our sleep.

Haven’t they done enough damage? The feud between the families has already cost so many lives and products, and yet they still have the guts to pull this move.

The sound of a gunshot pulls me out of my thoughts, and I sight another man clutching his chest, red blooming across the front of his shirt.

“Where’s your head at? You’re going to get yourself killed,” Papa hisses at me.

I grit my teeth as we continue down the stairs.

The metallic scent of blood thickens in the air, and when we reach the living room, the sight waiting for us is worse than I imagined.

Several of our security guards lie lifeless on the floor, their bodies riddled with bullets.

My father’s face hardens, but he doesn’t pause.

We step over them and barely make it another step before seven armed men emerge, blocking our way.

Father and I exchange a glance, and in that moment, I’m more connected to him than I’ve ever been in my life.

A flick of his eye tells me exactly what he plans, and I shoot him a curt nod before we spread out.

The first man charges at me, and I manage to shoot him, but not before the second guy knocks the gun out of my hand.

As he lunges for me, I sidestep, raise my elbow, and smash it into his windpipe with everything I’ve got.

He staggers back, crashing into the glass table behind him, shattering it into jagged shards.

The whole floor becomes a treacherous minefield.

Ignoring the sting in my palm, I grab a piece of glass, feeling it slice into my skin as I drive it into his chest—deeply—until he stops moving.

A sharp blow slams into my stomach, knocking the air from my lungs. I double over, and before I can react, the third guy sweeps my legs out from under me. I hit the ground hard, shards of glass biting into my skin. Pain flares, but I grit my teeth and try to push myself up.

Before I can regain my footing, a rough hand grips a fistful of my hair, yanking my head back. I barely register the burn before he shoves me toward the wall, aiming to smash my face into it.

I hold out my hands to stop my face from smashing into the wall, and slip under his arm, grabbing it and twisting it behind his back. He lets out a scream as his shoulder pops. The man steps back, and we tumble to the ground, his weight dropping on me.

I cry out in pain, but before the man can slip away, I wrap my legs around him to lock him in place and slip a hand under his jaw, tightening with all my might.

The man begins to choke, fighting for air, hands flailing and trying to claw at my face, but still, I hold on.

From the corner of my eye, I see Father snapping the last man’s neck.

He picks up his gun from the floor and looks over at me. “Need help?”

“I’ve got it,” I grunt.

The man in my arms shudders one more time and then goes still. I check his neck for a pulse, and when I don’t find one, I fall back onto the floor, panting, my heart pounding in my chest.

“We can’t stay here tonight,” Father points out the obvious as soon as he steps back into the house after doing a sweep of the yard. “We don’t know if more of them are on their way.”

“I’ll go get dressed and stay at Isa’s.” I climb to my feet.

“We should go to my penthouse in the city.”

“That place looks like the Bat Cave, Father. It’s creepy. I’ll just stay with Isa instead.”

He glances over at me, taking in the cuts on my body. “Get those cleaned up first.”

Over an hour later, I’m stumbling into my cousin’s apartment, ignoring her horrified stare. I make my way to her kitchen and pull out a bottle of whiskey, opening it and gulping down some of it, enjoying the burn that spreads down my chest.

“Start talking now.” When I peek over the bottle, I see Isabella with her hands parked on her waist and looking less than impressed by my sudden presence.

“First, you go off to meet with that man, and then you ghost me, then show up here looking like something the cat dragged in. You’d better start talking, Giulia. ”

I sigh, rubbing a hand over the back of my neck to suit the tension building there. “You might want to sit down for this.”

She obediently takes a seat on one of the stools, and after another gulp of the burning whiskey, I give her a detailed recap of everything that’s happened from the moment I left her apartment until now. I carefully exclude the kiss, deciding that part is best kept to myself.

“I don’t trust that Raffaele one bit,” she tells me after I’m done. “But it seems he has access to a lot of information that you might need. Information that can help you.”

“What are you suggesting?”

“I say you use him.” She shrugs. “He has what you want, and he doesn’t know what you’re capable of. Why not pretend to be his ally in this fight against the Syndicate and get what you want?”

“But…” I trail off. The truth is that it’s a brilliant idea, except for the brief problem that is the fact that I’m supposed to be avoiding him so as not to have a repeat of that kiss. I can’t tell my cousin that since she doesn’t know about the kiss.

“What do you say, Giulia? This is your chance to be a part of whatever is going on instead of just being a pawn or an afterthought. Do you really trust your father to keep you in the loop?”

No, I don’t. If I want to be in the loop, I have to put myself in it, and what better way than an alliance with Raffaele.

I’m about to make the biggest mistake of my life .

“You’re right, Isa.” I nod resolutely. This affects my life, and I can’t continue letting Father make decisions for me while driven by his revenge. “It’s time to take control of my life.”