"Where did you come from?" I demand once we're alone. "Are you following me again?"

He doesn't answer. Just looks over at me, gives me a onceover as if to make sure I'm in one piece, then turns on his heel and walks away.

"Jas!" I call out after him, but he there’s no reply.

I watch his retreating back until he disappears around the corner.

I just know we'll both end up in trouble.

29

Jasper

My head spins with a thousand scenarios as I make my way back to my apartment.

After I left my little Petal’s side, I’ve been running a background check on the locations she’s been in for her whole life. I did that before, but I didn’t have the current information back then.

Her moves have been strategic even though she didn’t know it. Sarah always played her magic in the background, making sure my little Petal changed foster homes fast enough to not trigger any type of familiarity. It’s not a coincidence she didn’t keep any friends from the system, she was thrown out every so often, she went completely solo as soon as she was legal.

From what I gathered, she never crossed paths with Lucio or Paolo. She did work as a waitress in one of the restaurants owned by the Costas in college, but it was only part-time, and she didn’t stand out at all.

Thank fuck.

Now that Sarah’s gone, Lucio can run an extensive background check on her and might come out with crumbs that will lead him to Petal’s doorstep.

The only solution I have that won’t end with me killing her or with Lucio finishing me, is to come up with a ploy.

If I kill someone and frame him as Joseph Costa, Lucio will stay down.

The downside is that I can’t keep her, not when her mere existence is a ticking bomb. The Costas are old-fashioned and won’t let a woman rule, but Paolo can easily marry her off to one of his most trusted men and continue his legacy.

My fist clenches at the thought. There’s no way any other motherfucker is claiming her as long as I live.

Perhaps I can hide her somewhere, keep her on the side and –

I run a hand through my hair. Lucio and everyone in the Costa organization knows I don’t keep women, I don’t fucking hide them either, so the moment I do that, their interest will naturally pique, and it’ll put her in danger.

Anyone who has a beef against me –and there’s many of them– will use her to threaten me. Worse, Paolo and the older servants might recognize her if she looks like her mother.

My head is still buzzing with chaotic thoughts when I open the door to my apartment. The moment I close it behind me, I notice the chair has been moved a bit to the right. It’s fleeting and could’ve been a play of my imagination, but it fucking isn’t.

Being immaculate about details, I notice the things others don’t pay attention to.

I reach for my knife just in time as someone attacks me from the side. It’s pitch-black so I don’t see them, but I feel their movements in the dark like they’re cloaked in it.

My knife slashes at his arm the moment he punches me. I’m about to slash him again when another blow comes from my other side and another from the front.

Fuck.

I focus on the first man and stab him in the chest. The other one kicks me in the chin and I nearly lose balance. I grunt as I get to my feet and punch the one about to hit me in the stomach.

Although I try to hold on, it doesn’t take them long to gang up on me. Three to one is not only unfair, but it’s fucking exhausting. Instead of focusing on three at once, I keep slashing and re-slashing the other one until he drops to the fucking ground.

For every one of my hits, I get punched and kicked. No weapons, which means this is a warning, not an actual attack to kill me.

Lucio.

I knew he’d make me pay for that punch, but I never thought it’d be this fast.

My rib aches with the last shove of shoes against my chest. I groan as I stab the knife on the ground and use it to stand up.

“Paolo found his son,” Marco’s voice echoes in the darkness as I rise to my feet, panting. “Either kill him before he brings him to the general meeting, or we’ll come back to finish the job.”

“I’m so looking forward to fucking up your face,” Stephan snarls.

They grab their injured henchman and drag him out of the apartment, leaving a trail of dark blood in their wake. Marco stops at the entrance and throws over his shoulder, “Lucio sends his regards for the last fucking time.”

I slide to the ground, my back against the wall and the knife lying by my side. Reaching into my pocket, I wince, as I retrieve a cigarette and light it, absorbing the nicotine.

My breaths come hard and unhinged as I think about the words those fuckers said.

Paolo found his son.

He couldn’t have. She’s been well hidden for twenty years, and as a boy for most of her childhood, so no one could’ve figured it out.

Unless Paolo Costa knows about the boy disguise. Didn’t Georgie say her mother started dressing her as a boy after her father ordered to hide her?

Change of plan. Leaving my little Petal alone is out of the fucking question. The Costa family will eat her alive before spitting her out.

Paolo is no different than Lucio. He didn’t care for her for twenty years and when it’s about his legacy, he converted back to his old selfish ways and dragged her to a war she didn’t need in her life.

She was supposed to stay hidden until her last fucking days.

A shadow spills from the still-open door. I grab my knife and get to my feet, hiding in the dark. I kill the cigarette on the ground, ruining the wood.

If Stephan and Marco returned, I’m going to fucking murder one of them. Let it be a war announcement on Lucio.

“You’re slow,” a slightly Italian accented voice muses as he strides inside. I pounce on him the second his foot steps in.

He pushes me against the wall with a gun to my chest.

Fuck.

I continue pointing the knife at his throat, anyway. If he shoots, I still have the fraction of second to cut him.

He steps back, letting the gun dangle from his forefinger as he puts both hands up. “I’m not here to kill you.”

“Enzo.” I step back, hitting the light switch.

“Jasper,” he echoes.

I eye the businessman closely. “What the fuck are you doing here?”

Enzo Morelli is one of the Costas biggest partners, they handle their shipments from Sicily and back. They’re the business arm of the Costa empire and since most of it is legit, I have absolutely no contact whatsoever with that side.

I’ve met Enzo countless times at banquets Lucio had me attend, but we kept contact to a minimum. Besides, Enzo is an office man, and I never once saw him carry a gun. He always jokes that they aren’t for him. What’s the fuck with his sharp reflexes just now?

“Is that a way to greet an old friend?” he asks.

“We’re not old friends.”

“We share Costa love, yes?”

He readjusts his tie. Enzo is always in sharp elegant suits that complement his whole Italian upbringing. His dark hair is styled back and his shoes are Italian, Sicilian, locally made as he likes to brag.

His eyes are weird, they have heterochromia so you never know if they will change to green or gray.