{DeLuca}

Mistakes irritate me.

Not because mistakes happen—they always do, but because mistakes usually mean someone stopped paying attention… and when people stop paying attention in my world, the consequences tend to become expensive.

Tonight’s mistake stood in the middle of my meeting room, rubbing her wrists where the tape had been cut and looking around like she had wandered into the wrong building.

The target had been the Viper’s daughter but the lady in front of me was not his daughter. Which meant something had gone wrong.

I watched her quietly.

She was studying the room, the long table, the men sitting around it, and the guard men along the walls. Most people reacted to rooms like this with fear or desperation, but this one reacted with an odd curiosity.

And curiosity was unusual.

She lifted her gaze back to me.

“Okay,” she said slowly, “I’m starting to get the impression that something has gone extremely wrong tonight.”

Her tone was cautious now, though the sarcasm from earlier had not completely disappeared. It was still there, hovering beneath the surface like a reflex she couldn’t quite control.

Hmm.

Around the table, my men from the primary line waited. I frowned and shifted my attention to one of my men, Fritzo.

“Explain.”

He straightened immediately, his posture stiff with dumb tension.

“We..we followed the information exactly as it was given, boss,” he said quickly. “The target was supposed to leave the building at eight-thirty. Female. Dark hair. Same height.”

I said nothing.

Silence has a useful effect on people; it forces them to keep talking.

Fritzo swallowed.

“The vehicle arrived at the correct time,” he continued. “She exited alone and the team secured her immediately.”

I glanced at the girl again as she looked between us now.

“Secured,” she repeated quietly. “That’s a fun word for kidnapping.”

No one acknowledged her. Fritzo continued speaking.

“Our sources confirmed the target would be the Viper’s daughter and this girl appeared with similar characteristics.” He said and I realized the name meant nothing to this girl.

I could see that from the way her expression remained blank. She was the wrong person… but then that name meant something to everyone else in the room.

The Viper.

A man who ran one of the few organizations capable of challenging the DeLuca empire— the man who killed my mother and the man whom I’ll not rest until I bury his body and crush his soul.

I turned back toward the girl.

“What is your name?”

She hesitated for a moment before answering.

“Daisy,” she said. “Daisy Bennett.”

I studied her now.

“You are not connected to the Viper,” I said.

She stared at me.

“I have absolutely no idea who that is. But I still want to confirm; are you talking about an actual person or a snake?” She asked pointlessly in her response but then her confusion looked genuine.

She then glanced around the room again, seemingly trying to understand the situation.

“Just to confirm,” she added, “the reason I’m here is because you thought I was someone else?”

“Yes.” Someone responded to her and she exhaled slowly.

“Well,” she said, “that’s comforting in a deeply unsettling way. And also dumb of you guys.”

Several men around the table shifted in their chairs at that. I ignored them and assessed her instead.

She was young, early twenties. Around my age, while her clothes were simple and inexpensive: worn sneakers, a campus hoodie, and faded jeans. There was nothing about her appearance that suggested wealth, influence, or connection to Viper. I grew distasteful at that.

Everything about her suggested the opposite.

“How did you arrive here tonight?” I asked now and she raised a brow.

“I didn’t arrive, sir,” she said. “I was kidnapped.”

I waited.

She sighed.

“I was leaving the library on campus,” she continued. “I work there in the evenings because tuition doesn’t pay for itself.”

Her tone carried a trace of bitterness now.

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify