SixNiccolo Capaldi Alessandro Romano knew his daughter was back in town. He also had no one stopping him from contacting her. Not his father, not her mother, not even Niccolo’s own father had that reach anymore. Not with him in the hospital, barely able to move, and the doctors certain that he wasn’t going to last long. “Luca!” he called out to his brother. The two of them lived in the same, large Beacon Hill mansion that had been in the family for as long as anyone could remember. He made his way from the office, to the hallway, looking for his brother. “Luca!” he called again. “Hey, hey, hey!” His brother came out of his room. “What’s wrong?” “Romano.” Luca’s face paled. “What about Romano?” “The old don is dead. Alessandro’s taking the throne. He just called me to invite us to the funeral and he wants us to bring Daniela.” Luca’s gaze narrowed. “Well, that’s not fucking happening. Her
SevenDaniela Berni “I’m sorry, we’re going where?” I stared at Audrina in shock when she got home. “Italy!” she smiled brightly at me. “I know it’s kind of last minute, but I don’t want to travel alone. And I’ve got to meet with some suppliers. Come on. You’re not employed right now, and you’ve never traveled. Just let me treat you to this trip, okay?” I blinked. “I really think that if I’m going to be living here, I should be looking for a job. I already put some applications out and if I’m not here for interviews, it’s going to take longer for it.” “Look, I’ll give you some tasks if you want, make you like my assistant.” I rolled my eyes. “Audrina, you already have an assistant.” “I’m the CEO. I can make up something for you. Just please, come with me. This is a really big deal and I don’t want to go alone. I need my best friend there! If this goes through, I’ll be able to go global. Well, even more than I alr
EightNiccolo Capaldi The call came at lunch. It was from one of my men. Marco. “Hey, boss?” he said. I was sitting in my office at the club, going over some paperwork. In the afternoon, the club was closed, meaning I got to work on the day-to-day minutiae of owning it. It wasn’t until night that the club truly came to life. Now, it was empty, and depressing. “Hi, Marco,” I said, “what’s up?” “I know that you’re working. Normally, I wouldn’t have bothered you. But uh, you remember that girl you went to school with?” I froze. “Which one?” “The one that lived with you for a while. Dani, I think it was?” “Daniela,” I corrected. Dani was too familiar. I didn’t like the idea of anyone, particularly Marco, thinking they were friendlier with Dani than I was. And Dani was what Daniela allowed her friends, the few that she had, to call her. Marco wasn’t her friend. “Right. Daniela. I’m down here at
NineDaniela Berni There was no way any of this was a coincidence. I didn’t believe for one second that Niccolo had ever stepped foot into Revere’s. When I had worked there in high school, he had called the place, “a shit hole.” No, Niccolo had found out about me meeting Alessandro somehow and had timed this perfectly. I had always wondered if there was someone from Boston watching me. Now, I knew for sure. Niccolo Capaldi was never going to let me go, or let me be happy. He knew that I could never say no to anything involving Giuseppe. Mr. Capaldi had always treated my family like his, even though my mom was just his maid. We never felt like staff with him. I hadn’t even known that Giuseppe was in the hospital. I’d been so startled when I saw Luca the other night, I had no idea if he had mentioned anything about his dad. Still, I had just met my father for the first time. Even though I knew everything my aunt had said about him, I was still curious. I had so
TenNiccolo Capaldi I knew that she was going to be difficult. That was why I had brought the knock out serum I used when I was having to fight off drunks in the club. Or anyone that might not be too excited about Capaldi family business practices. She didn’t even notice when I stuck her with the needle, knocking her out. “Rick!” I called. “Yes, boss?” my driver said. “Open the door for me, please. I’m going to be escorting Miss Berni to the plane, personally.” Rick glanced behind me to see me throwing an unconscious Daniela over my shoulder. “Jesus, Mary, and Joseph! What the fuck are you doing, sir?” “I’m getting her out of Boston, safe,” I said. “Really?” he said. “Because it looks like you just drugged her.” “Relax. It’s nothing that will hurt her. It’s the same stuff I use to knock out drunks at the club when they’re getting a little handsy.” Rick rolled his eyes. “That makes me feel
ElevenDaniela Berni I woke up with a pounding in my head. There was something soft underneath me, and I couldn’t figure out why. The last thing that I remembered was being in the car with Niccolo after he had…what had he done? My vision was a little blurry and I forced myself to sit up. I blinked a few times, and then my vision cleared. But the headache remained. I saw someone sitting in a chair across from me. “Good. You’re awake.” It was a deep, male voice that spoke. I froze at the sound of his voice. I would have recognized it anywhere. Niccolo. It took me a moment to recognize where I was. I was in my old room, in the Capaldi summer home in Tropea, Italy. “What the hell did you do to me?” I demanded. He grinned. “I knocked you out with a sedative. It’s something that I use when there are people that are being too difficult at the club.” I frowned. “You mean, the stuff that your father used to knock people out that he
TwelveNiccolo Capaldi I was out on the veranda looking at the ocean. The summer home had been in the Capaldi family for generations. My great-great-grandfather, who had started out as a merchant, had bought the villa as a wedding gift for my great-great-grandfather. It had been built in the fifteen hundreds and was rumored to have originally been a vacation home for the Medici family. Daniela was inside. I had been in there when she woke up. But I didn’t know what she was doing. It had been a day since we’d arrived in Italy and she finally woke up. I was smoking a cigarette when I heard the back door open. “Did you have to knock her out?” Luca asked. I smirked as I glanced over my shoulder at him. “Who told you?” “Rick,” he said, “and then Daniela when I came here. I gave her my phone number when I saw her that first night. She texted me so many times I am surprised my phone didn’t somehow break from the amount of vibrating
ThirteenDaniela Berni “There’s got to be a way out of here.” I watched Audrina wander around the house, looking for some kind of window or door that wasn’t blocked by a guard. I laughed. “Audrina, just drop it. You’re not going to find a way out. You know how men like them are. They’ve got the entire place covered with body guards.” Audrina took a deep breath. “I wasn’t even kidnapped. I just followed you here. How am I the one that’s more freaked out than you?” I sighed. “Because I know them. I knew the minute that I stepped foot into Boston, somehow, they would find a way to pull me back into this mess. My mother was in it. My father’s in it. You’re in it. I don’t think there’s a way to get out. I think something like this---it’s always going to touch our lives, like a shadow. You can’t shake this kind of darkness no matter how hard you try.” My best friend let out a shriek. “I’m the goddamn CEO of an upscale, fashion bra