Yours (The Godfathers #3)

Chapter 1

CHAPTER 1

N ew York City, New York

Kiera Delaney

In retrospect, I probably should have never opened my mouth.

But hindsight was a luxury I didn’t have that night. All I’d had in that moment was the sting of cheap vodka buzzing through my veins, and Marco Benedetti being exactly the kind of dirtbag who deserved to be told off.

So…

I did exactly that.

At the time, I didn’t know his name. To me, he was just some arrogant rich asshole in an expensive suit prowling the club like a wolf sizing up its prey. Someone who thought the flashing lights and pounding bass gave him the right to put his hands on whomever, wherever he pleased.

It wasn’t something I could just let go… right?

It had begun like any other Friday night at our favorite club, Velvet, in Manhattan, crowded, loud, and beautifully chaotic. Leena had dragged me out for a much-needed break from our college senior year, claiming I needed to ‘live a little.’

Honestly, I thought she was probably right. I spent too much of my time curled up in books and studying to really be any fun, so this was a nice change of pace.

The plan had been simple: drinks, dancing, and forgetting, at least for a few hours, that we were college seniors teetering on the edge of graduation and the scary thing called adulthood and the even more terrifying thing called a career.

And for the first hour or two, it had worked. We’d laughed over overpriced cocktails, dodged a couple of bad pickup lines, and found a corner of the bar where the crowd was thin enough to breathe and chat a little bit.

Leena had even managed to flirt her way into a free drink from a guy who’d seemed harmless enough, his goofy smile more endearing than threatening. Truthfully, he seemed kind of wholesome. I sipped my drink watching the whole thing with a smile plastered all over my face.

But… then I saw him .

At first, Marco Benedetti didn’t seem any different from the other cocky Wall Street asshole types who crowded the club. He was tall, broad-shouldered, with slicked-back hair and a suit that probably cost more than my entire college tuition.

His grin was wide, his teeth white enough to glow under the black lights, and he moved through the room with the swagger of a man who thought the world existed solely for his benefit.

But it wasn’t just the way he walked, or the way people instinctively got out of his way each time he took a step.

It was what he was doing that really got under my skin.

The first girl he moved in on didn’t even see him coming. She was dancing with her friends, her arms up in the air, her head tilted back in a laugh, when Marco slid behind her and put his hands on her hips. She flinched, twisting away from him, but he just laughed like she was playing hard to get.

Then he moved on.

The second girl was even more taken aback by him than the first. She was on the edge of the dance floor, looking down at her phone, when Marco reached out and tugged on the strap of her top. She startled, clutching it to her chest, but he just grinned and leaned in to say something I couldn’t hear over the music. Whatever it was, it made her face go deathly pale, and she disappeared into the crowd without another word.

I felt my grip tighten on my glass.

By the time he got to the third girl, I couldn’t look away. She was dancing near the center of the floor, her curly blonde hair bouncing with every sway of her hips. She was completely oblivious to Marco until he grabbed her wrist and spun her around to face him. Her smile faltered, confusion flashing across her face as she tried to pull away, but Marco just laughed and tugged her closer, his free hand sliding down her back all the way down to cup her ass and squeeze it tight.

She shoved at his chest, but he didn’t budge. He leaned in close, his lips brushing her ear as he whispered something that made her freeze. She wasn’t dancing anymore. She was just… standing there, rigid, her eyes darting around like she was looking for the first opportunity to escape.

And Marco just kept smiling.

I felt something hot flare in my chest—anger, instinct, maybe both—and before I even realized what I was doing, I was weaving my way toward the dance floor, toward him, my drink clutched in my hand.

“Kiera!” Leena called from somewhere behind me, but I ignored her.

Marco didn’t notice me at first. He was too busy gripping the girl’s waist, his fingers pressing into her skin like he owned her. I shoved past a guy in a leather jacket, stepped around a couple grinding on each other, and stopped just short of Marco’s shoulder.

“Hey!” I snapped, my voice loud enough to cut through the music.

The girl looked up, startled, her wide eyes flicking to mine with a sort of fear I didn’t understand at the time. Marco, on the other hand, turned slowly, his expression morphing into one of amused disbelief as he looked down at me and took me in.

“And you are?” he drawled, his tone so condescending it made my teeth grind.

“Someone who knows a dirtbag when she sees one,” I said, planting a hand on my hip. “Let her go.”

He laughed, low and dismissive, like I was a minor inconvenience at best. His hand slipped off the girl’s ass, but his focus was entirely on me now.

“Relax, sweetheart,” he said, spreading his hands in mock innocence. “We were just talking. No harm done.”

“She doesn’t look like she was enjoying the conversation,” I said, holding my ground and lifting my chin. “So maybe you should learn to take a hint.”

The girl slipped away while Marco and I stared each other down, her absence leaving a charged silence between us. Around us, people had started to notice, their curious glances catching like sparks to a tinder fire.

But Marco didn’t seem to care. If anything, he seemed entertained.

“You’ve got a mouth on you,” he said, his smirk widening.

“And you’ve got hands that don’t know how to stay to themselves,” I shot back. “Maybe keep them in your pockets before someone teaches you some manners.”

His smile faltered, his eyes narrowing just slightly, and the air between us felt heavier. But then, just as quickly, his smirk returned, colder this time. It enraged me.

And then he spoke.

“You’re bold, I’ll give you that,” he said, his tone amused. “But you’ve got no idea who you’re messing with, sweetheart.”

And then I stopped thinking entirely and threw what was left of my drink right in his face.

Marco froze, cranberry juice dripping down his jaw and soaking into the pristine white collar of his shirt. For a moment, the club felt quieter, like the music had dipped just slightly in volume, giving the whole room time to register what had just happened.

I didn’t move. Didn’t flinch even a single inch. I just stood there, my now-empty glass still clutched tightly in my hand, my pulse pounding in my ears as Marco blinked, his expression shifting from disbelief to something darker.

The smirk was gone now.

He was silent then, and all I could focus on was the slow clench of his jaw and the deliberate way he wiped his face with one hand and turned back toward me.

“Big mistake,” he said softly, his voice low and cold enough to make the hairs on my arms stand up.

“Kiera!”

Leena’s panicked voice pulled me out of my head. She was suddenly at my side, her hand gripping my arm hard enough to make me wince in pain.

“What?” I asked, glancing at her.

She didn’t answer right away. Her gaze flicked between me and Marco, her face turning white and her expression tightening with something I couldn’t quite place.

“What are you doing?” she asked, her voice shrill and urgent.

“Stopping this guy from?—”

“Stop,” she cut me off, her nails digging into my arm. “Do you know who he is?”

I blinked at her. “No. Why does it matter?”

Leena let out a short, frustrated breath.

“Marco Benedetti,” she hissed. “As in the Benedetti family. As in one of the most powerful men in the city.”

The blood drained from my face.

Marco’s grin widened like he could taste my fear. He stepped forward, and Leena immediately shifted between us, her body tense.

“There we go,” he said, his voice slow and deliberate. “Looks like your little friend gets it now.”

My stomach started to churn as what I’d done finally started to sink in.

The Benedetti family wasn’t just some rich New York dynasty. They were one of the most notorious crime organizations in the city. And I’d just called one of them a dirtbag and threw my drink in his face in the middle of one of the most popular clubs in New York City, with a whole fucking audience to see exactly what I’d done.

Fuck me…

Marco leaned slightly to the side, meeting my eyes over Leena’s shoulder. “Let me give you some advice, sweetheart,” he said, his voice dripping with menace. “Next time you want to embarrass someone, maybe pick a target that can’t ruin your life.”

“Kiera,” Leena murmured urgently.

I swallowed hard, my pulse roaring in my ears. Slowly, I nodded and took a step back, dragging Leena with me.

“Let’s go,” I muttered, my voice tight.

Leena didn’t argue. She just kept her hand on my arm as we wove our way toward the exit, her grip tight. But even as the cold night air hit my face, Marco’s voice lingered in my mind.

I didn’t know it at the time, but I was royally fucked in more ways than one.

And I was just about to find out exactly how much.