Page 9 of The Boss

Ellie puts a hand on Mia to rein her in, “Take your time, Lu. Tell us what’s going on.”

“He knew. Papa knew all along what I wanted. I was so careful, so secretive but he knew. My training, my spying, he thought…” I have to take a breath. “I think he thinks it’scute.Ugh! It was so humiliating. He sat me down and basically turned me inside out, laughed at my goals and then shut down all my hopes.”

“Oh, Luna, no,” my sweet friend’s eyes burn with tears.

“Yeah. I found out about the marriage through the vent like I always find out everything, and I had a plan to tell Papa the truth, show him my work, all the inefficiencies I’ve found, and explain my vision for the future. He shut me down. Hard. Said no red-blooded mafia man would ever follow a woman. End of discussion.”

“Fucker!” Mia spits in the background.

“Mia! That’s her papa you’re talking about,” Ellie glares at her younger sister, who just shrugs, then turns back to me. “I’m so sorry.”

“I stand by what I said! This sucks!” Mia carries on.

I snort. “I haven’t even gotten to the bad part.” Both of them freeze and wait. “The marriage. My husb…I…it’s Skulls Qu—”

“No!” Ellie gasps and drops a bowl with a clang before I can finish saying his name.

“Skulls, likeSkullsSkulls? The lunatic head basher guy?” Mia squeaks.

I squeeze my eyes shut and nod, fighting off tears and nausea.

“This can’t be right. What is your father thinking?”

“Well,” I open my eyes to study her as I reply. “I think it’s about the kidnapping. Sealing the deal once and for all that the Irish weren’t trying to frame us for it, that Quinn wasn’t trying to start a war between your family and mine.” I think I see her eye twitch as she frowns and nods, processing what I’m saying. But just barely. If sheisin on the whole fishy ordeal, she’s a damn good actress.

“Okay, but marriage? The Irish and the Italians together? I mean, is that normal?” Mia asks, disgusted.

“Not normal,” Ellie mutters. Now it seems her mind is spinning.

“No, it’s not.”

“And to that guy? I mean did you piss off your dad? Because Skulls is known in our world as a total barbarian and, like, they’re all barbarians! He must be really, really bad, Lu! This can’t be happening.”

“It is happening. Paper signed, date set.”

Ellie snaps back to our conversation, “Date set? For when?”

“A month.”

“No. We will get you out of this,” Ellie says, shaking her head.

“Who will?” I say at the same time that Mia asks her, “How?”

Ellie stammers a bit, like she didn’t mean to say that. “I…I’ll talk to my uncle, see if he can reason with your dad, don to don. Mark can talk to him too. And you,” She locks eyes with me on our devices, “You’re Luna Mancini. You’re not going to just take this lying down, fight him on it.”

“Fight him how? Two of the four most powerful men in the country, if not the world, have signed a contract, two different clans coming together in agreement. It’s almost historic. And you think there’s something I can do? What? What can I possibly do?”

“Run,” Mia says, serious as ever.

“Oh, Mia, it’s not that simple.”

She doesn’t even hear me. “What about that Vix girl, the Russian hacker, she’s your friend, right?”

“More like business associate.”

“Still, you can contact her. Surely she candisappearyou. Isn’t that what mob hackers do? Make up identities and kill people off with fake death certificates, that kind of thing?”

“Maybe if I was a distant cousin or a business associate. Someone low profile who could slip away. I’m a don’s daughter. There’s no way out for me.” I see disappointment crash over Mia’s face and I know it’s not just about me. Maybe she held out hope she’d escape this life. I wince. Still, better she face the truth. She’s a don’s niece, her fate will be no different.