"Don't tell me you can't even afford to pay!"

"Oh, what a shame. You know what happens when someone can't settle their bill, right? They get detained and hauled off to the station. Sound familiar? You did the same thing to me once."

Adriana pulled a slim cigarette from her clutch, placed it between her lips, and lit it.

She blew the smoke straight into my face, that smug expression so insufferable that I swung my hand at her before I could stop myself. The table between us went crashing sideways, silverware scattering across the marble floor of the private dining room, the sound sharp enough to make two soldiers near the entrance reach inside their jackets.

Rocco rushed to shield Adriana, barking at the enforcers behind him. They charged forward and threw me aside.

"Bianca, knock it off!"

"What's the matter? You're allowed to toy with people, but nobody's allowed to hit back?"

I glared at Rocco, my eyes burning red. The Ricci Family's meteoric rise through the territory rankings in just three years had been built entirely on my back.

I had leveraged my family's power to clear every obstacle in the Riccis' path. Even the rival crews who wanted to cause trouble for the Ricci operation backed off out of respect for me. Capos from neighboring territories who would have bled the Riccis dry had swallowed their grievances because my name, the name I had never spoken aloud to Rocco, carried enough weight to keep them quiet.

I had planned to tell Rocco the truth tonight, on my birthday. That I wasn't some nobody.

That I was the heir to the most powerful of the Four Founding Families.

I had planned to bring him home to meet my parents. I just never expected a person's heart could turn this fast.

I had misjudged him. Overestimated who he was.

"Rocco, are you really going to make me walk out of this club covered in humiliation?"

Rocco let out a scornful laugh. "What did you expect? You think I set all this up just for decoration?"

With the enforcers at her back, Adriana stepped forward and punched me square in the face. "You cheap little tramp. Either you sit here broke and get hauled off to a cell, or you strip naked, get on all fours, bite down on this steak, and bark your way out of here like a dog."

"Oh, and just so we're clear, the difference between the two options is simple. The first one, you get to keep your clothes. The second one, no clothes and no dignity. Ha! Hurry up and pick. I can't wait."

Dozens of eyes watched the show with undisguised glee. I clenched my fists until my knuckles went white, and looked at Rocco without a shred of emotion.

"Fine. Since this is the path you've chosen, when the Ricci Family goes under, that'll be on you."

The words had barely left my mouth before Adriana's laugh arrived, bright and brittle, a fraction too quick, and the rest of the room followed.

"Ha! Did she really just say that?"

"Has this woman been reading too many novels? Does she think she's some secret Donna?"

"She must be so desperate she's lost her mind."

Rocco glared at me too, fury in his eyes. He was certain I was bluffing. His hand dropped to his cuff and he jerked the watch straight with a hard tug.

He grabbed a plate of food off the table and hurled it at me. "Save the big talk. You think you can bring down the Ricci Family? You're not worth that much."

"Worry about how you're going to get yourself out of this mess."

"Manager!"

The manager caught the cue and walked over with security flanking him. His voice was cold. "Signora Moretti, will you be paying in cash, or would you like someone else to cover the bill?"

Professional courtesy on neutral ground was the only reason he hadn't made it worse. Even a club manager knew better than to lay hands on a woman whose last name still carried weight in certain rooms, no matter what her husband's people were saying tonight.

I scanned the room and locked onto a woman I recognized, a protected associate I'd worked with before. I had met her while closing arrangements on behalf of the Ricci Family.

I walked toward her. The moment she saw me heading in her direction, she shot to her feet and backed away.

"Bianca, don't come over here. I can't afford to pay for you..."

"Relax. I'm not asking you to pay. I just need to borrow your phone."

"Please?"

"I'm just going to call a friend to bring money and settle the bill."

"Ha! She's still keeping up the act! Who in this entire city would dare bring money here to bail you out?"

"Go ahead, let her make the call. We'll give her another half hour. If nobody shows up with the cash by then, I'll have every man in this room rip that dress right off her. If she was good enough for the most powerful heir in the city, she can't be half bad, right?"

Adriana turned toward the group of eager, bloated men. They'd been eyeing me like wolves circling a lamb.

At Adriana's instruction, the associate handed me her phone.

I grabbed it and immediately called my friend, begging her to get the money here within thirty minutes.

The minutes bled away, one by one. Ten minutes left.

Adriana couldn't wait any longer. She stood up.

"God, I'm such an idiot. I actually believed this tramp? That some friend of hers is going to waltz in with cash to cover her tab?"

"Exactly! She was just stalling for time."

"Manager, have your men break her hands and feet first. Nobody's stupid enough to cross the Ricci Family by bringing her money. Stop wasting time."

The manager advanced with his crew of soldiers, their faces twisted and menacing. I raised my hand to block their path.

"Wait. There's still ten minutes."

"When those ten minutes are up, someone will be here with the money."

"Pay my ass. When those ten minutes are up, or hell, even if I give you an extra ten minutes and nobody shows up with cash, I'll bite that raw steak myself and crawl out on all fours like a dog."

My eyes lit up. "Those are your words. Remember them."

"Damn right they are. Everyone here can be my witness."

The back room erupted again. "This is too good. I don't even want to go home!"

"Who knew coming here for dinner would include dinner theater?"

The ten minutes were almost up. One of the fat men lost patience and reached over to grope me.

"Don't touch me!" I slapped his hand away.

"Heh heh heh. That chest, that figure. I didn't even get a proper feel and I can already tell. Not bad."

"Mr. Ricci, why don't you just give her to me?"

Rocco laughed, drained his glass of red wine, and flicked his lighter open and shut.

"Why not? If she can't pay the bill, you're all welcome to do whatever you want with her."

"Ha! Then I'm going first."

Every person in that room was certain I couldn't pay. They stopped caring about my protests and closed in.

My voice dropped cold enough to kill, but those men couldn't have cared less about my fury.

Adriana watched with mocking amusement and snapped at Rocco's soldiers.

"Hold her down. Pin her so those pigs can have their fun."

"Yes, ma'am!" The soldiers surged forward, surrounding me.

I looked at Rocco. Every last shred of feeling in me went dead.

We were still bound by alliance, husband and wife before God and the Families, and he was handing me over to other men. The disgrace was his as much as mine.

He didn't care. "Stop looking at me like that. I'm not going to help you."

"All I need is for Adriana to feel better."

With that one sentence from Rocco, the pack of them grew bolder.

"Come on, sweetheart, come with me!"

"I've got money, babe. I'll cover your tab!"

"No, no, no, come with me. I've got more cash than him, and I'm thinner too."

They barked orders at the soldiers pinning me down while reaching over to tear my clothes.

I fought with everything I had. The men in the room roared with laughter.

I memorized every single face. "You think this is funny? In a few minutes, you'll be the joke."

"And you."

Adriana spat at me. "Rip her dress off. Time's up. No reason to let her keep stall—"

She never finished. The doors burst open and a squad of enforcers in black suits poured in, moving with military precision. One by one, they threw off every man surrounding me.

The laughter died. Not gradually. All at once, the way sound leaves a room when a gun is drawn.

Right behind them walked Sofia D'Angelo, caporegime of the Moretti Family's financial arm and the most feared fixer on the East Side.

She strode in carrying a briefcase, her expression carved from stone.

"Mrs. Moretti, I've brought your money. Looks like I made it just in time."