Stephan

I sat in my father’s office next to Nino, with Alessio on his right, all of us waiting for the old man to speak. He folded his hands on top of the wooden desk, glaring at me with a look of pure hatred in his eyes. My dad was furious with me for seeing Isabella behind his back, even after he told me to stop. I was forced to listen to him yell for over an hour after I’d arrived at his house that morning.

The Senator had shared our tense conversation with my dad, the one where he threatened me. He reminded him of the repercussions of me dating Isabella. We weren’t dating. Fucking didn’t count. The wording I had used didn’t matter. Because Isabella Parisi would marry Karl Vos, and a criminal like me wasn’t going to get in the way of the Senator’s plans. He made that crystal clear. So did my father.

The office was located in the unfinished basement below the main house, disconnected from modern technology and encased in enough cement to make it impossible for the Feds to get a tap on us. We had complete privacy down here.

Leaning back in his leather chair, my dad loosened his black-and-red pinstriped tie and tugged on his collar. He pinned down Alessio with his cold gaze. “I need you to do something for a client. It’s a delicate matter.”

“What do you need us to do?” Alessio never said no, always did what he was told.

To some extent, so did I. But Isabella was an exception. My weakness.

He removed a brown box from the bottom drawer of his desk and slid it toward Alessio. “I need you to plant a device on a car. It will be parked in the garage on 10th Street. Be careful. Make sure the driver doesn’t see you.”

Without hesitation, he said, “When?” Alessio lifted the box and glanced inside, before closing the lid. He balanced it on his knee, with his hand on top to hold it in place.

“Tonight. At the benefit. The make, model, and license plate number is on a piece of paper inside.” He glanced at me, his eyes burning a hole through me. “Alessio can handle this job alone. I shouldn’t have to remind you, but I will anyway. Stay away from Isabella tonight. We’re there to assist Senator Parisi and help influence a few people for him. Do. Not. Go. Near. Her.”

He annunciated every word to the point my anger shook through me. I wasn’t a fucking child, even though he insisted on treating me like one.

“I got it,” I shot back, irritated.

He folded his arms across his chest, his jaw clenched. “Good.”

From across the rooftop, I nursed a glass of scotch. Leaning against the wall, I stared at Isabella’s tight ass. She had her back turned to me, engaged in conversation with Karl Vos, heir to the Vos shipping fortune and her soon-to-be husband. It turned my stomach to let her go, all because of the Senator’s pull over my family and me.

Rage bubbled inside my chest, my skin on fire from the adrenaline coursing through my veins.

Nino tapped me on the shoulder to gain my attention. I looked at him out of the corner of my left eye.

“You should stop being so obvious.”

I cocked an eyebrow at him. “What are you talking about?”

“Isabella. You haven’t stopped looking at her since we got here.”

“It’s hard not to stare. Look at her in that dress.” I tipped my glass in her direction and took a long sip. “She’s fucking killing me.”

“She’s hot but not worth getting on Dad’s bad side. Senator Parisi already threatened you. He has enough power to have you sent to prison for the rest of your life. What is it with you and that girl? You’ve been obsessed with her since we were kids.”

How I felt about Isabella was none of his business. “I don’t care what he does to me. It’s what he has on Dad that bothers me most. Rizzoli knows something we don’t. Why is it such a secret? Why does the Senator want him dead? And how did he find out?”

He shrugged against the wall, his shoulder grazing mine. “Don’t worry about it. Dad will tell us if we need to know.”

“I need to know. Whatever he’s hiding is the reason you were held at knifepoint by Carmine and why Rizzoli defected from the family. It’s the reason we’ve been indebted to the Parisi family for years.”

He tugged on my shoulder. “C’mon, let’s take a walk. I hate these stuffy events.”

“Don’t change the subject.”

“We’re at a party. Would you lighten up for a second and try to have a good time?”

I finished off my glass and set it on the high top table next to me. “Fine. I hate coming to this shit. We don’t fit in with these people, never did.”

“Dad doesn’t seem to have a problem.” He pointed at our father who was with Alessio. They were talking to the CEO of Vos Shipping, blending in with the aristocrats, as if they belonged here. “While they’re busy, we should go downstairs and smoke a joint.”

I rolled my eyes at him. “You think that’s the best thing to do with so many people around? Dad’s been on the warpath lately. Maybe save that for later. We’re in the middle of the city. The last thing we need is to give the Senator another advantage over us.”

We were on the rooftop of a building, which had an incredible view of Central Park. It was the perfect setting for the charity gala. The space was decked out for the occasion with strings of white lights hanging above us, intertwined with fresh flowers. Round, high top bar tables were interspersed, with a small makeshift dance floor at the center of the roof. Servers walked past us with trays balanced in their hands, carrying the finest champagnes and hors d’oeuvres I couldn’t pronounce.

This was Isabella’s life, and I was stupid for believing I could find a way to fit into it. She was part of the one percent club, the daughter of one of the most respected men in Congress, and never mine to keep. I couldn’t stop myself from taking one last look at her as we shuffled through the crowd.

Nino walked with me to the edge of the roof. He clutched the side and leaned over to get a better look at the people below us. “They really do look like ants from up here. Must be nice to have this kind of wealth.”

I nodded, following his gaze. From this height, the people below us were tiny specks, so small I had to strain to make out their shapes. “One day,” I told him. “One day, we can have this, too.”

He laughed and nudged me in the arm with his elbow. “Yeah, right. We were never meant for this life.”

“If we want it, we have to take it.” A wicked smirk turned up the corners of my mouth. “We could have this someday. You just have to want it bad enough.”

He returned my expression, recognition lighting a fire in his eyes. We stood at the ledge for a few minutes, taking in the scenery. The air was cold but dense, filled with exhaust fumes and smoke. Manhattan was crammed with hundreds of cars, lights shining as far as I could see. It wasn’t often that we were invited into the city, not unless it was to handle a job for our father.

The sound of women screaming pulled my attention from Central Park to the scene playing out below us.

“What the fuck?” Nino leaned forward, half of his body over the ledge. “Dude, someone jumped.”

Not until I turned around did it register that the person jumped from this roof. It was someone who was at this party. And Isabella was holding herself, shaking with tears in her eyes. A sick part of me hoped it was Karl Vos, face down and flattened like a pancake on the sidewalk.