I pulled Bianca out of school as soon as it opened in the morning. Then I went to my penthouse and hid out like a coward, because I knew she’d be coming for me. Angry about the choice I made for her, instead of with her. Faced with the murder of our father and attack on us, I felt it necessary. She likely disagreed.

My phone rang shrilly through the echoing loft. The walls were bare. Everything had been packed. The movers were taking loads to storage and Pierce’s house over the next couple of days. I glanced out the window at the skyline beyond. I’d miss it here. I couldn’t sell it, but renting it out still hurt just as much. I ignored the angry ringing.

Maybe I could convince Pierce to move closer to the city, offer me a house with a view. He’d likely consider every lit window an opportunity for a sniper and move us out as a fast as we get in. The man had a preoccupation with my safety, but after yesterday, I couldn’t be annoyed with him for it any longer. He’d likely saved us. After the assassination attempt on me, Bianca and I both took self-defense classes, at our father’s insistence, for years. I’d never used what I learned before.

A box marked clothes tumbled off a stack, and I studied Patton, yet another of Pierce’s crew, as he skirted through box columns to the main room. His buzzed head, leather coat, and scuffed up boots, the same as most of his other guys. “Everything okay?” he asked, Irish accent thick and deep. “Boss is calling, and you aren’t answering.”

I pointed to my phone across the room. “I’m avoiding it.”

He snagged it off the table and brought it to me. Not two seconds after it hit my palm, it lit up again, Pierce’s name flashing across the screen.

“Hello?”

“Are you okay? Why didn’t you answer before?”

I stifled the sigh. “I’m fine. Why do you all keep asking me that? Patton is standing over me as we speak. About the worst thing that can happen to me here is suffocation by cardboard.”

“Or your sister when she finds you.”

Shit. “She called you?”

“Called, yelled, threatened. Sounds eerily familiar.”

I could hear the smile in his voice. At least he wasn’t angry for having to deal with Bianca. But, I should deal with it before she popped a gasket and made things worse. Neither of us were known for our level heads. “I’ll call you later. I’ll go over and speak to her now.”

“See you soon.”

We both lingered on the line. The words hung in the air, but neither of us said them until, finally, I murmured goodbye and clicked off.

Fucking coward, I admonished myself. He’d all but said them. I hadn’t even come close to telling him.

I stood, pulled down my black sheath dress, and snagged the leather jacket of Pierce’s I’d taken to wearing. Since winter still fought spring for control.

Patton led me to the door, checked around every corner, and then out to the waiting car. I didn’t need to tell Holt where to go. He drove me straight to Bianca’s building.

When we parked, I looked up at Patton. “Any chance you can stay here?”

He answered in a short, cut off laugh. “Not a chance, love.”

I let Holt open the door and talked myself through all ten floors to Bianca’s apartment. The one my father bought her outright when she got into NYU, his Alma Mater. As I walked the long hall, I kept trying to reframe my reasons so she would understand them, but I couldn’t wrangle them in a way to keep her from being mad at me.

I knocked on the door and waited, my insides pulled tight. She didn’t answer.

A sound cut through the door, so I knocked again. No answer.

Was she ignoring me now, or trying to piss me off? I dug into my bag for a set of keys and found the spare she gave me last year when she changed her locks. It fit in easily, and I pushed the door open, Patton right on my heels. I scanned the room, and immediately, my eyes hit on why she didn’t answer.

My sister, naked, straddled an equally naked stranger in the middle of her living room floor.

I spun around as she scrambled and squealed behind me to find clothes. Once she seemed to be reasonably covered, and so did he, I turned back. “Sorry to, uh…interrupt.”

The young man couldn’t be older than her, with dark Italian features. Immediately, the events of the attack flashed in my head. “Who are you?” I demanded.

Bianca threw him a boot which he shoved his bare foot into. “Ignore her,” she said.

He glanced up at me and quickly away while he hunted for his shirt.

“Then you tell me who he is,” I asked Bianca.

She didn’t answer, only went into her kitchen and poured a cup of coffee. Her damp hair hung over her shoulders, and I looked back at the kid, finally clothed. “Are you going to tell me who you are now?

“Rodrigo,” he supplied, holding out his hand to shake mine.

“Don’t shake hands with her. My sister is currently enemy number one around here.”

He dropped his hand. An interesting development. My sister didn’t often date, and when she did, it was never casual. “You can leave now, Rodrigo,” I told him.

He cleared his throat and dropped his gaze. My sister laughed and climbed up on her counter to sit on the edge. “You’re the one who sent him here. He’s the bodyguard supplied by the Cambio family.”

I caught Patton stiffen out of the corner of my eye. No doubt he didn’t approve of the kid cavorting with his charges. Neither did I. “Fine, go stand over there until I can call someone about this.”

He took up space near Patton who glared. I rolled my eyes at them before stepping around dirty clothes and stacks of books to join Bianca. “Can we please talk about this?”

“If you think unenrolling me from school will mean I’ll move in with you and Pierce, you’re an idiot. I’m staying right here whether in school or not.”

“And food, how did you plan to pay that? Last I heard, your inheritance is still locked up.”

She shrugged and pulled the edge of a cardigan up one shoulder. “Like the rest of the world, I guess. I’ll find a job.”

“Doing what exactly? You don’t have a lot of work experience.”

My phone chimed. Pierce. I clicked the text.

Did you find her? Work things out?

I jabbed the reply button and typed out a quick response.

Found her. Not exactly. Will text you when I’m headed home.

“You should probably run back to your little puppy now. I think he misses you.”

Anger bubbled up too fast for me to moderate my response. “Hey, he saved your life. Show some respect,” I snapped.

My sister’s eyes flew wide and guilt chased the anger down. I’d yell at everyone except her. “Look, I’m sorry. It’s been a crazy week, and I’m stressed and…” I stepped forward so the guys couldn’t hear me. “I’m scared.”

Something softened in her face. “Do you promise to put me back in school the second everything is cleared up? I’m supposed to graduate in a couple of weeks. I will not retake any of those science classes because you screwed up.”

“I promise.”

She nodded, picked up an envelope from the counter near her butt, and tossed it to me. I dropped my bag and caught it before it veered off at a strange angle across the room. The cardstock felt thick and heavy. I checked the address.

No. It couldn’t be.

Peeling back layers of paper and vellum, I caught the familiar gold script. It was an invitation to a party. The traditional one which accompanied a change in leadership in any of the five families. Except this one had my name on the bottom. “Why haven’t I seen this yet?” I asked her.

She shrugged, and I dug into my bag again to call Pierce. “Did you get a heavy invitation today, addressed to me?”

Papers shuffling came through the line, and then he answered. “Yes, it’s addressed to Katherine Minola, but I guess I can overlook the error, since they probably had these made before we married.”

“Thanks.”

“Wh— “ I hung up and placed my sister’s invite on the countertop. “This isn’t good.”

She sipped her coffee, and I finagled myself up to sit beside her, my bag abandoned on the floor near our feet. Once I settled and my dress didn’t pull anywhere, I took her mug. “Got anything stronger?”

“There’s a bottle of whiskey behind you.”

I canted backward and snagged it off a little ledge, gave her back the mug, and cracked the cork on the mostly full bottle.

“Drinking before noon, huh? Setting an excellent example, sister mine.”

I flashed her a finger and took a drag from the amber liquid. It burned a trail down into my belly. “Pierce thinks one of the five families is making a power play for leadership right now. The attack on us was paid for by the five, not by anyone on his side of things.”

Fidgeting came from the door. “Hey, pretty boy,” I called at Rodrigo. “What do you know about it? Anything.”

He swallowed so heavily, I could hear it from across the room. “I don’t have any information, but I can ask.”

“You do that.”

I focused on my sister again. “So what was that about?”

She shrugged, folded her legs up on the counter, and wrapped them in her arms. “Mostly about pissing you off, but he’s cute.”

“You met him like five minutes ago. Try to be careful, okay? If you aren’t moving into my house, I’ll need to get more protection on you.”

“Says the woman who didn’t even want to look at a bodyguard two months ago.”

I threw up my hands. Guilt, anger, fear all swirling together in a noxious cocktail inside me. “What do you want me to say, Bianca? I’m trying to keep you safe. As both the head of our family, now, and the five families, it’s kinda in the job description.”

She scowled and rested her chin on her knees. “Fine, I’ll be careful.”

“And stop sleeping with your guards. It’s probably not conducive for a great working environment, for either of you, unless you plan to keep them around.”

“Fine. Any other directives for me today? Want to take my cell phone and ground me too?”

I pushed off the counter, collected my bag, and stared her down. “Now you’re acting like a child. Knock it off. For the record, I don’t want you at the party, but I can’t tell you what to do so, be careful.”

She didn’t say anything as I walked out, casting one final glare at Rodrigo. I planned to find out as much as possible about him the second I returned home.

Holt opened the door, and I tossed my purse in first and scooted in after. Patton entered last and sat as far from me as he could get. No doubt feeling the waves of anger radiating off me.

What kind of bodyguard sleeps with his charge? I shook my head and leveled a stare at Patton. “You better make sure everyone in Pierce’s crew knows I will gut them if they touch my sister.”

He didn’t answer until we made it home. Stopping me gently as I got out of the car. “None of us would ever do that, I hope you know.”

I sighed and pulled away from his grip. He didn’t need to confirm it. I’d already known, my anger got the best of me. As usual.

Pierce met me on the sidewalk with the invitation. “What does this mean?”

I took it and stared down at the same gold foiling. “It means you need to get your tux back out.”