Page 1 of Sins of the Orchid

Prologue

“Fire one bullet, and I’m throwing a grenade into the bunker.” My chest constricted at hearing the familiar voice. “And throw your weapons onto the ground.”

My eyes searched frantically. This was like my worst nightmare.

“I’m waiting,” he taunted. “Tick, tock. Tick, tock.”

My brother threw his gun to the ground.

Holding my breath, I watched as a man descended the stairs with five men behind him and two at each side, protecting him. It hardly seemed like a fair fight. So many of them against just the two of us, weaponless.

“Hello, Orchid,” he drawled, his voice toneless. His cold, unflinching dark stare met mine and images from the last time I saw him flashed in my mind. Blood, screams, betrayal, death.

I never knew this man, I realized. His thin lips curved into a grimace, a taunting smile. He despised me, his hate gleaming in his eyes. It couldn’t be more evident.

This was like my worst nightmare. He was supposed to love me, cherish me. Protect me. Yet, he lurked in the shadows of my life for years hunting me, waiting to kill me.

He betrayedus. Hurtus. Leftusto die.

“You’ve given me a run for my money,” he said with menace in his voice, then flicked his gaze behind him. “Hasn’t she? Come here so she can see you.”

I watched as a pair of black combat boots descended the stairs, revealing more and more of a man’s body. My mind revolted against recognition, and my stomach churned.

No, no, no, no.

My heart shattered and a piercing pain followed deep in my chest.

The worst betrayal.

Were the men in my life always destined to betray me?

CHAPTER1

Amore

THIRTEEN-YEARS-OLD

New York.

Concrete jungle.

Home of La Cosa Nostra.

New York was unlike any other city I had ever been to. Sensory overload. The smells of exhaust fumes. The frantic energy. Constant ear-splitting sounds of police cars, ambulances, and car horns.

The streets werealwayscrowded. Some places smelled, while others looked pretty on the outside and hid the ugly truths lurking within. It had only been two weeks since I’d arrived, and already, I hated being here. I had no friends, nobody to talk to, and the family I didn’t know existed were complete strangers to me.

My biological father, who I just met two weeks ago, was some kind of mobster. A don. The head of the Bennetti family. At least that was what I’d been told.

In the span of two weeks, I learned that my whole life was a sham. I had no idea who I was anymore. I was no longer Amore Anderson or Amore Regalè, the fashion heiress to the Regalè family. Instead, I was Amore Bennetti, daughter to the notorious head of the Bennetti crime family, Savio Bennetti. One of the five families of Cosa Nostra.

On the surface, Cosa Nostra etiquette very much resembled the world I grew up in. Impeccable manners out in the open. A white-picket-fenced home surrounded by guards. But behind closed doors, men in this world carried guns like an everyday accessory and women viciously gossiped and attacked if they despised you.

Like my stepmother despised me.

My heart constricted at the thought of spending another day under my father’s roof. I wanted to run away, go back to three weeks ago when everything was fine. When my mother was alive. When we were happy.

Up until a month ago, I traveled the world with Mom and the man I believed to be my father, George Anderson. Mom worked for my grandmother Regina, who was the owner of one of the greatest fashion empires. George was a textile biologist, trying to find new organisms that had the potential to be turned into bio-fabric, like some spider silks. They were out not only to engineer the next best material in the fashion world but to help minimize the damage being caused to the environment thanks to some of the ways textiles were currently being manufactured.