Broken Crown (Gilded Empire Book 1)

Chapter 1

There was nothing worse than a project behind schedule. Time was money, and losing it wasn’t acceptable. Not in my world. Not in my city. Not in my club.

Or what would be a club. The walls were bare, the subfloors visible, the liquor shelves not even hung. Boxes leaned precariously on plastic-wrapped booths that should’ve been installed weeks ago. My second-in-command and I were alone inside the scraped-out hull of what should have been my dream come true. Instead, all I saw was a mile-long list of projects that needed to be done.

Designed as a luxury speakeasy, Gilded leaned heavily on the myth of Hades and Persephone. Deep pomegranate red and a heavy charcoal gray were featured everywhere, while snakes hid themselves in the dark walls, the edges of the booths, and the ornate light fixtures.

I’d always been drawn to the Queen of the Underworld. To the idea that she who ruled the land of the dead also brought life to it. Not to mention balance, harmony, and even love. After finding myself on my own deadly throne, I wasn’t sure it was even possible to have a life like that, but I appreciated the hope it represented.

That life could flourish even in the darkest places.

I needed things to come together flawlessly. I’d ascended the throne in the midst of a citywide territory war, and now that we’d rebuilt, Gilded would keep us together. Every plan we’d spent six bloody years working toward was counting on it. But with seven days until opening, things weren’t looking good.

This can’t be happening.

I tapped my fingers along my thigh, trying to dispel some of the frustration running through me. “You’re telling me that the flooring isn’t in, the bar’s not ready, the bartenders aren’t trained, and the opening night’s entertainment just backed out. Is that right?”

“That’s correct.” Anyone else would rightly be terrified of giving that answer, but not Grey.

Greyson Andrews was the very definition of a cradle-to-grave friend. He, my twin, and I were born less than a week apart and had been practically inseparable since. The boys had been closer than brothers, but Grey had always been something else to me. Something more.

For most of our lives, he’d been a lighthouse in the chaos of our childhoods. A life raft when I was drowning in nightmares of blood and pain, the currency of our lives. He kept me tethered to the ground when I was falling apart under my father’s expectations of me, when I couldn’t stand being the perfect mafia princess anymore.

He’d kept me whole when I lost my brother Antoni, and he’d stayed at my side to watch over me when life had thrown one curveball after the next. And somehow, he’d become my everything.

My best friend, my second-in-command, my bodyguard. My savior.

We’d been bound together since birth and would remain so until we left this life behind.

But at the moment, he was the bane of my existence.

“Are you fucking kidding me, Grey?”

He peered over the top of his tablet, dark-brown eyes watching me pace with a slight furrow between them. Despite the utter disaster zone around us, Grey still looked incredible in a black suit that fit the muscles he worked for in the gym perfectly. I doubted he even had plaster dust on his perfectly shined shoes. The entire ensemble was a mix between stylish and dangerous, and I wasn’t too proud to say it did things for me.

Then again, he always had.

I looked away, determined to pretend I didn’t notice. It was easy to do, surrounded by chaos. “What happened?”

“Things got a little off schedule, Mari. It happens, but everything is taken care of.”

“Ha. I’ll believe that when I see it.” I groaned. “We need this club to work, Grey. The city needs it. It needs peace.”

My heels clicked on the temporary plywood floor as I walked in agitated circles. How can I fix this? Who can I call? How many favors can I cash in to make things right? Solutions whirled through my head as I sorted and discarded them one by one. There had to be a way to make it happen. There had to.

“It’s going to work out, reina,” Grey soothed.

He’d been calling me queen since we were children, but neither of us had ever expected it to become our reality. We’d learned, though. The Seattle underworld waited for no woman, and after Antoni died, I’d claimed the crown before I’d even realized what had happened.

Pinching the bridge of my nose, I took long, slow breaths.“It’s not going to be fine. We have every high roller and boss in the city scheduled here for the opening, and nothing is ready. Do we even have security assigned?”

I was spiraling, and I couldn’t stop.

I’d slaved over the opening night guest list for weeks, refining it to include every crooked politician and cop, as well as the heads of Seattle’s gangs and made families like ours. It was a logistical nightmare, but we’d created Gilded to be neutral ground. The first of its kind in the city.

No grudges, no assassinations, and no death would be allowed on the property, and everyone who was coming had agreed to follow my rules. Those who broke them would be dealt with swiftly and severely. I gave no second chances to oath-breakers.

The club’s purpose was two-fold. We’d give the high-flying denizens of the Seattle underworld a place to relax and enjoy themselves without risking a knife in the back, while also securing my place at the top of the food chain. As with Greyson’s nickname for me, I’d earned my place as the city’s queen, and Gilded would be my crown jewel. If we could get it done in time.

My pacing continued, each footstep ramping up my anxiety.

Grey set down his tablet, reeling me into his chest when I got close enough to grab. I allowed it because we were alone, and I desperately needed the comfort of his touch. He was the only one who got to see the unpoised, anxious side of me. To everyone else, I was Marianna Marcosa, queen of the Marcosa empire. I was ruthless and cunning and strategic. Smart and beautiful. Deadly. I had no other choice. But with Grey, I was just me.

As usual, the moment I was wrapped in his arms, the world faded a little. His arms provided safety. Support and respect. Love in spades.

Three decades of friendship and I still got tingles when Greyson touched me, even though it was never more than a friendly hug. A press of lips on my forehead and a graze of his fingers against mine. Despite our lifelong connection, we’d never taken it further. I’d learned at my father’s knee that women in our lifestyle had to make sacrifices, love being the most common. You’d think that being queen would give me more freedom, but it was the opposite. It was even more likely that in order to keep the peace, I’d eventually have to marry someone else. When I did, Grey would be free to find his own partner.

I knew that having Grey and losing him for another because of my duty would be harder than not having him at all, so I kept things platonic. I had a feeling he did it for the same reasons, but we never spoke of it. It was our own personal elephant in the room. I’d accepted our fate years ago, but on days when he felt like the beginning and end of my universe, I found it hard to remember why.

Grey pulled me tighter against him like he could feel the turn of my thoughts, his lips whisper-soft on my hair. “Everything will be fine, Mari. Security is already on-site. Staff background checks ran long, but now that they’ve cleared, the bartenders are working doubles to learn what they need to know. Same with the servers. The painters will finish tonight, and the bar top and flooring go in on Tuesday, so we can put the booths in Wednesday morning. Nothing will be scratched or broken, and everything will be ready early so you can take another walk-through before Friday’s party.”

He pressed a kiss to my temple, there and gone before I could even blink. “I promise, I have it all taken care of.”

Hearing him list everything calmed me more than anything else could. If anyone had my trust, it was Grey.

“I know you do.” Carefully, I stepped out of his hold and stood next to the bar, surveying the room.

With the initial flickers of panic gone, I took a chance to really look at the room. The design wasn’t ready, so I focused on the potential. I could see the big booths along the walls, the singers onstage crooning over the low rumble of the crowd. I could hear the whispers of treaties and deals, and underneath it all, I could feel the hope.

We’d taken an abandoned mall, which had included a small bookstore, a gym, and a spa, and turned it into a hideaway for the powerful and those who wanted a walk on the dark side. Once the club was done and the room was filled with noise and people, it would look amazing.

Grey stepped next to me, the tip of his lips the closest thing to a smile he’d reveal while working. “It’s beautiful, reina. You did a good job.”

I sighed. “Tell me again on opening night, and keep me updated on the progress.”

I tapped my deep red nails on the makeshift bar top and frowned. I wanted to see the custom-made wood-and-resin top I’d commissioned from one of the city’s artists, not plywood. Annoyed all over again, I pushed away. “Let’s get out of here before I get stabby.”

Grey chuckled under his breath and steered us toward the door with a hand on my back, only for it to slam open just before we reached it. In a heartbeat, we both had guns in hand. I had no doubt that his was pointed steadily at the intruders, but I couldn’t see. The second a threat arose, he shoved himself in front of me like a human shield.

Memories of another man doing the same pressed against my eyes, trying to force themselves into the present, but I shoved them away. I had no time to fall apart. Besides, I preferred if the memories stuck to haunting my nightmares.

Greyson’s arms relaxed just enough for me to know he didn’t view whoever was in front of him as a major threat, but for my self-appointed bodyguard, everyone was a danger to me. After the assassination attempt two weeks ago, he’d been glued to my hip. Not that I could blame him, even if I was going a little stir-crazy.

“What are you doing here?” he asked.

“We found Zander for the boss.” The low rumble coming from Tennessee, one of my enforcers, was nearly music to my ears. I poked Grey in the back, but he still didn’t move.

“He’s still in one piece,” he noted, head tilted.

Someone else grunted, and I assumed it was Moore, Tennessee’s partner in crime and life. “We caught him off guard. One hit and he was down.”

Curious, I stepped out from behind Grey, who frowned at me, and took in the unconscious man drooped between their holds.

Zander Mason was a mid-level nobody in the city’s underground, a mouse who always had his ear to the ground. He generally gave good intel, but he’d been suspiciously absent when I called for him after the attack. We’d checked every hidey-hole he had, with nothing to show for it. It had taken my men ten days to find the little sneak, and now we would find out why.

Good thing we retrofitted the basement.

I smiled at the men, the mess of the day already forgotten at the promise of information and retribution. “Let’s take this downstairs.”