Page 4 of The Empress

Once she’s quiet again, my thoughts return to my life, and for the millionth time, I wish I could’ve been born into a regular family like Diego’s.

“Carina,” Mrs. Messina calls out, and we hear her walking toward our room.

Carina takes a breath to reply, but the sound of a gunshot has her screaming with fright instead.

Intense ripples of shock vibrate through me while Diego shouts, “What the fuck was that?”

The door slams open, and not thinking, I grab Carina and toss her over me so she lands on the floor at the side of the bed.

Just as I sit up, one gunshot after the other fills the room with flashes before the light is switched on. At the same time, I roll off the bed, falling over Carina, my mind racing to process that we’re being attacked.

I’m being attacked.

My guards are stationed outside the house, and I can only hope they heard the gunshots.

Diego! Mr. and Mrs. Messina!

“L-Leo,” Carina hic-cups with terror darkening her eyes.

Just as I’m about to react, a bullet slams into my back, the pain more intense than anything I’ve ever felt.

“Leo!” Carina screams, her hand grabbing my shirt as I fall over her.

My eyes lock with her frightened ones. “Shh.” I pray they don’t see her beneath me, but I’m grabbed by the arm and hauled off of her. As I stagger backward, I watch in horror as a man grabs Carina.

“No!” I shout, then another bullet hits me in the chest, and it feels as if my entire torso is split wide open. As I fall onto my back, I can’t do anything but watch as the man carries her out of the room.

No.

“Leo. Diego,” she sobs, then she cries harder. “Mamma!”

Droplets of blood fly from my mouth when I try to call after her. A man crouches beside me, and my eyes are wide on him. “Your father should’ve backed down, little boy.”

His arm lifts, the gun pointing at my head, and as a gunshot fills the air, I expect to feel the bullet, but instead, the man falls over me, his eyes frozen.

“Leo!” Massimo, one of my guards, shouts while he shoves the body off me. “Cazzo!”

I open my mouth to tell him to go after Carina, but only blood comes out.

My vision blurs, and when it comes into focus, I glance at the bed and see Diego. He’s been hit in the head and chest, and the unbearable fact that my best friend is dead is my last thought before I pass out.

Chapter 1

LEO

Leo Toscano; 33. Haven Romano; 23.

Sitting at a table in Nicolo Romano’s backyard for the man’s sixtieth birthday, I’m tired as fuck. Everyone’s dressed as if they’re attending a fucking presidential ball.

“Just another thirty minutes, then we can head home,” Massimo, my right-hand man, murmurs beside me.

Letting out a huff, I glance over the guests. I recognize most of the people, most of them giving me cautious looks. My gaze comes to a stop on Nicolo. Watching him laugh makes the urge to kill him grow deep inside my gut.

I’ve hated the man since I was sixteen because my gut tells me the fucker played a role in the attack that changed my life for the worse. But, I can’t kill Nicolo until I have solid proof, and it grinds against my soul that I haven’t been able to find any.

After I survived the assassination attempt, it was to learn my father had been killed. Just like me, my mother survived the gunshot wounds meant to kill her.

While I suffered a crippling blow, Romano tried to take over the organization, but Massimo was a powerhouse none of the fuckers saw coming. My guard ran the organization and taught me everything I know until I was able to take over as the head of the Italian mafia. Now he’s my right-hand man and the only person I trust one hundred percent.