**“GIVE ME THAT HOUSE KEY, SOPHIE. YOU DON'T GET TO WALK IN HERE WHENEVER YOU WANT ANYMORE!” THE MAFIA BOSS'S FIANCÉE HUMILIATED HIS 12-YEAR-OLD DAUGHTER IN FRONT OF THIRTY DINNER GUESTS—BUT WHEN THE GIRL WHISPERED, “DADDY, I DIDN'T KNOW I NEEDED AN INVITATION TO COME HOME,” LUCA SLOWLY PUT DOWN HIS GLASS.**

The heavy steel door of our bedroom shuddered violently as a barrage of bullets hammered against the outside metal.

"Get down!" I screamed, grabbing Sophie and pulling her off the cot, dragging her under the heavy metal frame of the bed.

The sound of the gunfight in the hallway was deafening. Men shouted in Italian and Russian. The heavy thud of bodies hitting the concrete floor vibrated through the ground beneath us.

I pulled Sophie tightly against my chest, shielding her with my own body, praying the reinforced steel door would hold.

"Hannah!" Sophie sobbed, burying her face in my shoulder. "Who are they?"

"I don't know, baby. I don't know," I lied, my voice shaking.

My mind was racing a mile a minute. The safe house was a closely guarded secret. Only Luca’s most trusted inner circle knew this location. How had the Bellinis found us so quickly?

I looked down at the pink cell phone still glowing on the concrete floor.

Sophie, baby. I am so sorry. I love you so much. But you can never trust your father.

Rachel’s text message.

It hadn't been a warning.

It had been a tracker.

Don Bellini didn't just have Rachel's phone to taunt us. He had forced her to send a message to Sophie so his tech guys could ping the GPS location of Sophie’s phone the exact second it received the data packet.

We had led them right to us.

Suddenly, the gunfire in the hallway abruptly stopped.

A terrifying, suffocating silence fell over the bunker.

I held my breath, squeezing my eyes shut.

Heavy footsteps approached our door.

Click.

The heavy deadbolt turned. Someone had the override keys from one of the dead guards outside.

The steel door slowly creaked open.

I braced myself, ready to fight with everything I had.

But the man who stepped into the room wasn't wearing a Bellini family suit. He wasn't a Russian mercenary.

It was Marco.

Luca’s cousin. The man who had humiliated me at the dinner party just weeks ago.

He was holding a suppressed pistol, his hands shaking slightly. His designer suit was splattered with blood.

"Marco?" I whispered, complete shock paralyzing me.

Marco looked under the bed, his eyes locking onto me and Sophie.

"Get out from under there, Hannah," Marco ordered, his voice tight with adrenaline. "We don't have much time."

"What are you doing here?" I demanded, refusing to move, keeping myself firmly between him and Sophie. "You’re Luca’s cousin!"

"And Luca is a dead man!" Marco hissed, stepping into the room and checking his corners. "Don Bellini tipped off the feds about the meatpacking plant. It was a trap, Hannah. Luca walked right into an FBI ambush."

My blood ran cold.

"Luca is arrested?" I gasped.

"Worse," Marco sneered. "He engaged the feds. He’s pinned down. He’s not coming back."

Marco pointed the gun at us.

"Now get up. I’m taking the girl."

"No!" Sophie screamed, clinging to me. "I want my Daddy!"

"Your Daddy is gone, kid," Marco said callously. "And if you don't come with me right now, Don Bellini is going to kill your mother."

I stared at Marco, the puzzle pieces finally slamming into place with horrifying clarity.

"You betrayed him," I whispered, the realization making me sick. "You told Vanessa’s father about the safe house."

Marco let out a harsh, bitter laugh. "I did what I had to do to survive, Hannah. Luca was weak. He was willing to burn our entire empire to the ground over a twelve-year-old girl and a broken engagement. Don Bellini promised me Luca’s territory if I delivered the kid to him."

"You sold your own cousin’s daughter for power," I stated, pure disgust dripping from my words.

"It's just business," Marco said coldly. He racked the slide of his pistol. "Get up. Both of you."

I slowly crawled out from under the bed, pulling Sophie with me. I kept her behind my back, my mind frantically searching the sparse room for anything I could use as a weapon.

There was nothing. Just a cot, a metal folding chair, and the concrete walls.

"Walk," Marco commanded, gesturing toward the door with the gun.

We stepped out into the hallway.

The sight was horrific. The ten heavily armed guards Luca had left to protect us were dead, lying in pools of blood. Marco had let Bellini’s men inside.

We were marched through the warehouse bay and out into the cold night air.

A black unmarked van was idling in the alleyway. Two Bellini thugs were standing by the open sliding doors.

"Get in," Marco ordered, shoving me roughly toward the van.

I stumbled, catching myself on the side of the vehicle. Sophie was crying hysterically, gripping my hand so tightly her nails dug into my skin.

As I climbed into the dark van, pulling Sophie up with me, I noticed something glinting on the floor of the vehicle.

It was a small, ornate silver lighter.

The same lighter Vanessa had been flicking nervously at the dinner table.

Vanessa was sitting in the front passenger seat.

She turned around, looking through the metal grate that separated the cab from the back.

Her flawless makeup was ruined, her eyes wild with a manic, terrifying energy.

"Hello, Hannah," Vanessa smiled, a cruel, predatory expression. "I told you Sophie didn't belong in that house anymore."

I glared at her, my fear momentarily eclipsed by a burning hatred.

"You orchestrated this whole thing," I said, pulling Sophie tightly against me on the metal bench. "You manipulated Sophie. You made her pack her bags. You knew Luca would blow up the engagement."

Vanessa’s smile widened.

"Luca was never going to marry me," Vanessa laughed softly. "He was stalling. He was looking for weaknesses in my father’s business. We needed a reason to break the truce without the Commission turning on us. So, I gave him a reason to attack us first."

"You used a twelve-year-old girl as bait," I whispered in horror.

"She’s a brat," Vanessa shrugged carelessly. "And now, she’s our insurance policy."

Marco climbed into the driver’s seat, slamming the door shut.

"Drive," Vanessa ordered. "My father is waiting at the docks with her mother. We make the trade, and then we put a bullet in both of them."

Sophie let out a muffled scream, burying her face in my shoulder.

The van lurched forward, speeding into the dark Chicago streets.

I held Sophie, my mind racing. Luca was trapped. Marco had betrayed him. We were driving to an execution.

But as the van turned a sharp corner, the small silver lighter slid across the metal floor, bumping against my shoe.

I looked down at it.

I remembered something Sophie had told me on my second day of work, when I knocked over the vase.

Don't worry. Daddy breaks stuff all the time.

I slowly reached down and picked up the silver lighter.