Chapter 1

VALERIE

I had been planning for this moment for years. I could not screw this up. Not now. Not after being so close.

Life as the daughter of the Vitallo family had prepared me for many things. I knew how to negotiate with powerful men, how to walk into a room without flinching, how to hide fear with a smile. But it had never prepared me for this. Not the reality of standing inside enemy territory, my body tense and armed, a blade hidden against my thigh.

Despite growing up surrounded by crime, I had been surprisingly sheltered from the worst of it. My father wanted me educated, cultured, refined. Homeschooled until I was old enough for university, groomed to pursue clean ambitions like music and art. Even now, as a freelancer producing small projects, I lived a life that looked untouched by the blood running through my family name.

That was exactly why I was not equipped to handle this. I had not been prepared to infiltrate the home of my father’s greatest enemy. And I was certainly not prepared to take the life of their heir.

The thought made my stomach twist. Murder.

Maybe I did not really have to kill him. Perhaps kidnapping him would work just as well. A hostage could be just as valuable as a corpse, maybe even more. A living bargaining chip could cripple the Reveros just as effectively as vengeance. But even that idea was far from comforting. I had never held a man’s fate in my hands before.

You may be wondering why I am doing this. Why would I, Valerie Rianne Vitallo, risk everything—my safety, my future, even my sanity—to bring down the Revero empire? The answer is simple, though it is not easy. It is not just me who wants this. My father does too.

For him, it is not business. It is blood.

It is retribution for what they did to Valentine Vitallo, my mother.

Growing up, I always knew the Reveros were dangerous. My father made sure of it. “Stay away from them,” he warned me, a rule that echoed in our house like a curse. I never asked why. I did not need to. Father’s rules were truths carved into stone.

But as I grew older, curiosity sharpened, and so did his willingness to explain. He painted the Reveros as monsters dressed in silk suits and polished shoes. He told me about their betrayals, their cruelty, the debts soaked in blood that had scarred our family. And when he finally told me the truth, that they were responsible for my mother’s death, something inside me shifted.

Hate. Cold and unrelenting.

So here I was. The daughter of Vitallo Tech’s empire, standing in the heart of a gathering filled with the very men who had destroyed my mother’s life.

For over an hour, I watched Xander carefully without being obvious. He sat like a king in exile, shoulders squared, his dark scowl pulling his features into something devastatingly handsome. Too handsome. It was infuriating that the son of my enemy looked like sin wrapped in steel.

I studied him relentlessly, waiting for him to move, for an opening that would pull him away from the protective circle of his father’s men. Patience was part of the game, but every passing second wound my nerves tighter.

Finally, after what felt like forever, he rose from the table. At first a lean forward, then the scrape of his chair. My pulse leapt. He pushed himself to his feet, tall and sharp, and for the first time all evening he left the safety of his circle.

He headed toward the bar.

I clenched my glass, forcing myself to remain composed. Should I approach him now? Out in the open, where dozens of eyes could watch? Where one wrong word could expose me?

No. Too reckless. Too dangerous. If my cover slipped even for a second, it would not only mean my death. It would ignite a war. Vitallo against Revero. A mob war that would stain the streets with blood from both families.

I shuddered at the thought, remembering the stories I had heard as a child, the tales of vendettas that left children fatherless and mothers widowed. Entire bloodlines erased in a single night.

No. The ballroom was not the place. I needed him alone. Vulnerable.

My heartbeat thundered as I watched him at the bar, the amber light catching in his glass. My target. My enemy. The man fate had placed in my path.

And tonight, one way or another, I would have him.

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