Chapter 5: You’ll Wish You Were Dead
1184 Words
Sophia Santos
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Bad blood. That’s the only way Sophia could describe her history with Romano Renzi.
It was like destiny designed their paths to cross, but both paths were littered with dead bodies. A bloodbath.
Sophia stared at the red dress on her bed.
He expected her to wear this to a sit-down.
He was bound to humiliate her.
Like hell.
She picked it up and ripped the seam at the sides.
Sorry, Don. Your little gown tore while I was putting it on.
Next time don’t try to dress me like a teenager, you sick f**k.
Memories of the previous night flooded her head.
The way he looked at her breasts. The way her body betrayed her and her n*****s hardened.
Did he see that?
No way he saw that.
After the dream she’d had, she thought it was about to come true.
A part of her dreaded it. Another part was… curious.
Sophia shook her head, dislodging the thoughts.
Sex wasn’t her priority. It hadn’t been for three years.
She’d been too busy preventing an empire from collapsing.
Dimitri.
That dickhead was really dead.
Sophia didn’t feel remorse.
If anything, she felt cheated that she didn’t get to do it herself.
Memories of how she ended up with a spineless prick flooded back.
Seven years ago, an alliance between her father, Viktor Santos, and Romano’s father, Rektor Renzi, turned into gruesome warfare.
But before the fallout, it had been the most profitable relationship in the entire syndicate.
Her father supplied. Renzi distributed.
It worked—until it didn’t.
One shipment vanished. No answers. War broke out.
Viktor had more guns, but Rektor had guns and the streets and the money and local authorities—and he used all of it.
Her father lost more than his territory. He lost his respect, his fortune, and his armory—all claimed by the Renzi Familia.
Then Dimitri appeared.
Smiling. Calculating.
He offered protection in exchange for her.
Her father agreed. Then he left.
Sophia never saw him again.
She was only eighteen. An only child.
Dimitri must have known her father taught her the business—Viktor had no male heir. Her mother had died in childbirth.
His guess was right. Her father had taught her everything.
Dimitri was a coward, but a cunning one.
The following years, Dimitri used Sophia’s intelligence as a weapon.
She orchestrated the rival gang raids, planned the routes, devised the counter-attacks.
Sophia mapped out the financial networks, recruited businesses for money laundering, and founded the stash houses.
All the while, Dimitri took all the credit, lived a lavish lifestyle, and even flaunted his “intelligence” to the mafia world.
For years she ran the syndicate from the shadows. He accumulated more wealth than he could manage. Wealth she had to hide through elaborate networks to keep safe and hidden from the authorities.
Safes. Bribed officials. Long payrolls.
Things he knew nothing about.
When she tried to oppose, he always said the same thing:
“The syndicate won’t take instructions from a female.”
Female?
The word still infuriated Sophia.
She’d been planning to kill him and escape when the war with Romano Renzi broke out.
If there’s one thing she and Romano had in common, it was wanting to have personally seen to Dimitri’s death.
Romano.
Sophia had warned Dimitri against the attack that killed Romano’s sister.
But he didn’t listen and went ahead.
They botched it.
She’d seen the pictures. Bodies spread across the ship like forgotten cargo after a wreck.
Romano’s younger sister lost her life that night. He’d been hunting Dimitri ever since.
If he discovered she planned—
He’d never believe she opposed the attack.
She had to plan her escape fast.
She could be out of here in a week if she wanted.
The only problem was she could taste the sweetness of revenge on the tip of her tongue.
The son of the man who destroyed her family.
The same family she’d loathed for years. The same one she’d indirectly been at war with for seven months.
He had no idea. He thought she was some housewife.
He’d locked her in the same building as him, where she could destroy him from the inside.
His first mistake was not killing her.
Sophia walked around the room, scanning for cameras.
Just one in the corner. It covered the whole room. She’d noticed it before.
Damn it.
She went to the bathroom.
There was another one there.
Of course there was.
Freak.
She’d stashed the piece of paper she saved from the raid between the sheets. She just needed a glance to memorize it.
She’d had no idea Romano was going to tell her to strip, but she’d moved it anyway.
Imagine the horror if it had fallen out as he took off her bra.
Sophia remembered his hand brushing her breast. She remembered his look.
Goosebumps rose all over her body.
Stop reacting. He ruined your life.
Think.
She lay on the bed like she was about to sleep.
In one swift move, she turned and pulled out the paper.
Her back was to the camera.
Sophia unwrapped the paper and quickly scanned it.
She tucked it back into the sheets.
Sophia knew if she ran away or killed Dimitri, she would need protection.
She’d made contact with the Triad Faction—an independent corporation that moved in the shadows.
They laundered money for the biggest fraudsters, politicians, and drug dealers. All the rotten ones.
They had guns and money. All she needed.
They’d promised to help Sophia for twenty percent of Dimitri’s assets. She’d convinced them to take ten. They agreed. All she had to do now was meet at the location tomorrow.
First, she had to find a way out of here. Or find a way to make Romano let her out.
Think.
The door opened, and she jerked upright.
It was Romano and Jugger, the giant bodyguard.
Romano just stood there, looking at her. His eyes were cold and calculating.
He nodded to Jugger.
Jugger approached the bed. He lifted the sheets and pulled out the piece of paper she’d hidden.
Sophia’s stomach dropped.
Jugger handed it to Romano.
He started unwrapping the paper.
You should have chewed it.
You should have swallowed it.
Her pulse spiked.
She watched the whole sequence like a horror film unfolding in slow motion.
She was frozen.
Romano looked down at the paper. Then up at her.
She could see him processing—putting pieces together in his mind.
“You plan on betraying me?”
Her breath caught.
“I’m guessing these are the rest of Dimitri’s men.”
His expression shifted to something cold. Something inhuman.
“They’re all going to die.” He paused. His voice dropped lower, quieter—more dangerous. “And you. You’ll wish you were dead.”
Oh f**k.
What had she done?
Romano thought it was Dimitri’s men.
He was going to kill them.
The Triads would think she’d betrayed them.
Her life would be in danger.
And worse.
That could start a war.
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