Vengeful Mafia Prince (Vicious Heirs #2)

Chapter One—Giovanni

I straighten my tie as the elevator slides smoothly up the building. It's my first day at Carter Enterprises—and the first day I'm going to be working alongside Elena.

I've done my research on this place, of course. I've been asking around during my college classes, learning as much as I can about how it functions. I was the first one to put my application in for the internship position this semester, and I knew it was going to be mine from minute one. I'd worked my ass off in the access courses and made sure I was top of the class. Well, I might have encouraged a few students to keep their heads down in the process, too.

I spent most of my evenings looking up every little detail that I could get my hands on. Jacob, who runs the place, uses the name "Carter" to hide the Westbrook connection—it's the name he gave his daughter, too, probably to protect her.

From men like me.

The thought draws a brief smile to my face. Yeah, they have no idea what they're up against here, but I sure as hell can't wait to show them.

The elevator slides open, and I step out into the bustling open-plan office that I'm going to call home for a while. I roll my shoulders back and paint a smile on my face. I might be the first in my family to ever take a job like this, but that doesn't mean I can't convince everyone I belong here.

I head toward the main boss's office. Kyra Langdon, the head of the advertising department for this so-called tech firm, is waiting to meet me. I know I have to make a good impression on her. I have no clue how knowledgeable she is about what's going on in this place, and I don't want to risk letting her see through me this early into my stay here.

I'm about to lift my hand and knock on the door when it opens—and there, standing on the other side, is Elena.

"Oh, hello!" she greets me. "You must be...?"

"Johnny," I reply calmly, extending my hand to hers and taking it. She smiles as she shakes my hand, completely oblivious. "I'm the new intern from the university."

I know all about her, of course. She's the main reason I'm here. In all the work and research I've put into finding a weak spot in this family, she's the one who stood out. The youngest daughter, just 23, and she's just taken on an internship here under her father—not as though he couldn't have just opened the doors for her and let her in, but clearly, he wants her to work for it. With her long blonde hair and bright blue eyes, she has the look of some naive fairytale princess.

And I know for a fact that she isn't exactly big into the dating scene. She's never been spotted out with anyone. I assume that her father is holding her back, making sure she saves herself for a man he can marry her off to. That's usually the fate of women like her—not Valentina, who would have dug her heels in if I'd even tried to mention it to her, but for someone like Elena, this is probably natural. This is the life she's always lived. She's never known anything different.

"Great to meet you," she tells me. "Kyra is just getting out of a meeting, you want to come in and I can introduce you...?"

I nod, and she leads the way inside the large, airy office that Kyra works in. She's an older woman, close to 50, her hair streaked with some gray. Her smile seems warm when she holds her hand out to me.

"Glad to have another assistant around here to keep things ticking," she tells me briskly as she sinks back down into her seat. "Much as Elena tries her best, there's so much going on—"

"I really do try," Elena echoes, sounding a little hurt. My ears tune in to it at once.

So, she's worried about people who might think she's not good at her job? It wouldn't surprise me, given that she's only here because of her father, but it's good to know what I can and can't use against her if I need to.

"I know you do," Kyra replies, an edge of impatience to her voice. Perhaps she's less than happy about having to work with her boss's daughter. Perhaps that's why she brought in someone else to help, a ringer to make sure the work actually gets done.

"Anyway, Elena is going to show you around today," she continues, turning her attention back to me. "And that's about it. Is there anything else you need explained?"

I shake my head. "All clear to me."

"Good," she replies, clapping her hands together. "Well, Elena, I won't keep you two any longer. Off you go."

She waves her hand, slightly dismissively, and Elena parts her lips for a moment as though there's something she wishes she could say. But whatever it is, she soon thinks better of it and nods.

"I'll see you later," she mumbles, and she turns to head out of the door. I almost feel sorry for her. But I push that down quickly. I can't be feeling bad for this girl, not when I know what I have to do to her.

I head out of the office with her, and she puts a smile on her face and turns to me.

"It's good to meet you, really," she tells me, lowering her voice. "I feel like I've been falling behind with everything here. I need someone to help me keep up with it."

"That's what I'm here for," I reply, leaning in a little closer than I need to. I let myself linger there for a moment, just a few inches away from her face, before I pull back, and her breath catches slightly.

"Anyway, so," she breathes, turning her attention to the open floor in front of her. "This is where you're going to be working. Here, let me introduce you to everyone..."

She leads me around the place and takes time to introduce me to everyone who happens to be in today. She seems to know so much about everyone, and it surprises me. I thought she was meant to be Kyra's assistant, but she seems to be best friends with everyone who works here.

"Paula, how are things going with your daughter?" she asks sympathetically as we arrive at the desk of another woman around our age.

"Oh, she's doing a lot better," Paula replies with a nod. "It turns out she just had an ear infection. She's going to be back at school in no time."

"You send her my best, okay?" Elena replies before she moves on to the next desk. "Oliver! Oh, I tried that coffee shop you told me to check out, and I love it!"

She chats with everyone, and I hang back and take in the way she interacts with them. This is a good chance for me to get a feel for what she likes, how she prefers to be spoken to, how she likes to carry herself. The more I know, the easier it's going to be to get under her skin when the time comes.

Once she finishes a round of the working space, she glances down at her watch.

"I guess it's time for lunch," she remarks. "You want to go out and grab something?"

I nod, looking forward to some alone time with her, but before she can reply, her phone buzzes. She pulls it out of her pocket and then scrunches up her face in irritation.

"I'm sorry, I just got a message from Kyra that I need to come sit in on a meeting and take minutes," she tells me, shaking her head. "Can we take a rain check on that lunch? There's this really nice place down the street that does wraps. If you show your employee ID, I think you get some money off."

"I'll try them out, thanks," I reply, and she manages a quick smile.

"I promise I'm going to be better at this the longer you're here," she remarks, mostly joking, before she shoots off for the stairs.

I head to lunch at the place she suggested for me, and the food is great. I'm already imagining how I'll bring her here, flirt with her over the table, watch the way those pale cheeks flush pink when she looks at me. It's almost fun, in a way. I haven't been doing a lot of dating since my parents passed last year, but having someone to focus on like this, someone I know I can get wrapped around my little finger in no time, that's going to be entertaining.

When I return to the office, she's in the midst of transcribing notes from the meeting that Kyra just had. She glances up when she hears me coming, and I sink down into the seat next to her.

"You need a hand with that?" I ask, shifting closer to her so that my shoulder is pressed against her. She holds herself there for a moment before she pulls back, as though trying to get some sense through her brain.

"Uh, yeah, that would be great," she replies, and she pushes the laptop toward me. "So, we need to fill out this spreadsheet covering everyone she's spoken to and where we're at with various projects."

As she speaks, it strikes me that she might not be entirely aware of what her family does for a living. It's clear from how she talks about the products that she really believes these are real—that they're the focus of her father's work. It's... interesting, to say the least. My own parents never really tried to keep it from me, but it seems as though the same can't be said for her.

***

"So that's it?" I ask her as we finish.

She nods. "Yeah. And I think you're probably done for the day. I'll see you tomorrow, okay? We can go out for lunch."

"Sounds good."

My phone buzzes, and I check it. There's a message from Valentina, so I pull out my phone to read it. It's quick, but it worries me.

Need to talk. Tell me when you're free.

Couldn't she have been a little more specific? I push the phone away and let out a sigh. I can feel Elena staring at me.

"Is everything okay?"

"Everything's fine," I assure her. "Nothing to worry about. I'll see you tomorrow, okay?"

And with that, I get to my feet and head for the door. I can feel her looking after me, probably wondering what has got me on my feet and out of there so quickly, but that's for her to linger on, not me. Maybe she'll wonder if I have a girlfriend—and if she does, she might start thinking about what it could be like to date me.

Yeah, let her think on that all night, and hopefully, she'll be a little closer to seeing me as an actual romantic prospect in the near future.

I pull my coat on as I step out onto the street outside, a grin spreading across my face.

I'm doing it. I'm really fucking doing it. I'm going to take revenge on the people who killed my parents, and I'm going to do it through their sweet young daughter.

And she doesn't know a damn thing about what I have planned for her.