The front door opened just as I reached the bottom stair in the entryway and my father walked in and shut the door behind him.

"What's going on?" I asked as I walked towards him. "What are you doing here?"

"Is that any way to greet your father?" he asked with a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. In fact, his stare chilled me to the bone. "I heard we might have a little bit of a problem."

"What do you mean? What kind of problem?"

"Don't play games with me, Adrian. Do we have a problem? I'm not going to ask you again."

"I'm not aware of any problem," I said, not backing down.

"Where's the transaction I'm having you handle? The Pierce girl," he asked as he slowly walked in a circle around me.

"Her name is Brooklyn. And she's not a transaction, she's a human being," I said as I turned my head to follow his movements.

"That's exactly what I thought," he said with a laugh. "She's got you wrapped around her little finger, doesn't she? Okay, what does she want?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, obviously she's trying to manipulate you to get something. Maybe she's trying to get on your good side so that you let her go. Or has she asked you for money? They always want money."

"No, Dad it's nothing like that. I'm taking care of her, all right? I'm just going about things a little differently than with the others."

"Differently how? From what I understand, she's been living in the house with you. That's pretty goddamned different if you ask me."

"I'm taking care of it. That's all you need to know."

"Don't you dare tell me what I do and don't need to know, son," he said as he rushed toward me and grabbed the collar of my shirt. "I've had a feeling for a while now that you haven't been as interested in the training end of the business and I let it slide because you're very good at networking and keeping our clients happy. You're a member of this family that people naturally trust, which is just as valuable as being feared.

But I'm very disappointed in what you've let happen here. I've been grooming you to take over and I need to know that you're going to come through on this. That you are going to do your job and that I can trust you. That I can hand everything over to you when the time comes. I thought I could trust you but now I'm not so sure.

I'm going to have to start grooming Lucas to take over even though he's never been able to show as much restraint as you. And in this business restraint is just as valuable and powerful as force."

I couldn't have cared less if my father told me he was making me the janitor at that point, I was done with the business and as far as I was concerned Lucas could have it. I just had to figure out a way to stall him until I could get Brooklyn out of there safely.

"I still don't see why this account is so important. Why can't we show a little leniency on this one? Or get the money out of his estate. There are other ways to do this besides ruining someone's life who isn't even responsible."

"What the hell is wrong with you, Adrian. You know how we do things. You know how important it is for us to set an example to everyone. We absolutely cannot let any of our accounts slide. John Price owes us an enormous amount of money and he has nothing in his estate that even comes close to what his daughter is worth to us now. We are going to get our money back one way or another. It's how we survive. It's how our family has survived for generations."

"Don't give me that bullshit. We have enough money in investments in offshore accounts to not only keep four more generations of Bellinis afloat but to keep them living in the lap of luxury. We don't need the goddamned money anymore. We have so much money we don't even know what to do with all of it. We each have our own private jets and garages full of cars and limos. We have estates in ten different countries and fully manned luxury yachts to sail around the world in indefinitely. And you're telling me that we need to collect money from this man to survive? It's fucking ridiculous."

"Are you questioning my authority, Adrian? Are you questioning what I'm telling you to do? Because if you are you'd better be very careful. You don't want to wind up out on the street when I have every member of the Italian mafia in my back pocket. Oh, you think you're gonna run to New York? Good luck trying to find a cop there that isn't on the payroll of one of the companies we work with.

The same goes for Dublin and Bucharest and Hong Kong. Go ahead and try to find a place where this family doesn't have ties, where this family's name isn't feared. If you're blacklisted, you will have nowhere to go and nowhere to hide.

So don't even think about fucking with me, Adrian. This is the family business and you're family. Now shape the fuck up and train that little bitch. If I don't see some movement in the right direction soon she's not even going home to see her father. She's getting shipped straight to fucking Siberia where she'll be chained up in the basement of the goddamn prison with a sign over her pussy that says "fuck me" in Russian. Do you hear what I'm telling you?"

"Yes."

"Yes, what?"

"Yes, sir," I said, my eyes burning a hole in the floor in front of me.

"Look, son, I don't want there to be any bad blood between us," he said as he put his hand on my arm. "I know what it's like when one of the girls seems special. I've been there. But they're all the same, Adrian. One girl is just like the next.

They're completely interchangeable and eventually they just become one giant pain in the ass. You'll figure that out one day and then you'll regret ever having given me shit over this. And I swear to God we will laugh about it," he said as he patted my arm.

"But this transaction is important. I told you that. I fucking told you that from the very beginning, Adrian. So just get this shit done and then you can find yourself a nice girl, all right? I'll even help you. There are plenty of girls that are just as beautiful as the Pierce girl, even more beautiful. Now go put her back in the training grounds."

I stared at the floor without moving. I just couldn't bring myself to do it. I couldn't bring myself to put Brooklyn back down there. Not after all the promises I had made her and after everything that had just happened between us.

"Adrian, did you hear me? Go get the goddamned transaction and put her where she belongs!"

"I'll do it! What do you want from me? I'll do it! Just go and I'll take care of it!"

"Who the hell do you think you're talking to? I don't want that little slut walking around my house for one more second, now go up there and get her right now!"

"This is my house! Isn't there a single thing in my life that belongs to me? Or is everything, including my cock, the property of the goddamned family. This is fucking ridiculous!"

"No, what's ridiculous is how you're behaving. I don't think you have any idea how much trouble you're in right now," he said as he walked to the front door and opened it. He motioned something to the driver then turned and started up the stairs.

"When I get my hands on that little bitch you're going to wish you had kept your mouth shut, Adrian."

"Where the hell do you think you're going?" I yelled as I followed him up the stairs. "Just leave her the fuck alone. Why is she so goddamned important?"

"Why don't you ask John Pierce that question if you're so curious. I'm sure he could tell you a thing or two," he said as he turned and glared at me. I could see the hatred in his eyes and I knew this wasn't going to end well. Just then that asshole Mario pushed me aside and the two of them went up to the second floor. When they got to Brooklyn's room Mario kicked the door in and I heard Brooklyn scream.