The Deal (The Beautiful Monster #1)

Chapter 1

Valentina

My heart pounded as I watched the velvet curtain come down, ending the final act of the opera. The audience burst into wild applause, but it took me a moment to remember to clap as well. Ordinarily, I would have been riveted by a performance that exquisite, but not tonight.

Tonight, I was on edge.

Sitting in my family’s private box, high over the entire audience, I didn’t feel the usual surge of power I had previously felt up here.

Instead, I could feel my nerves fraying.

That grip on power that I held so tight, felt tenuous at best tonight.

Still, I could see everything from up here.

My father’s henchmen blending in with the crowd.

Mostly the politicians and business elite that my father had in his pocket.

Anyone connected to the Romano crime family made appearances at locations that my father funded, including the opera house.

These appearances were a show of loyalty and goodwill.

But it was rare for me to make an appearance at our family’s opera house.

It had only happened twice before—each time I had been summoned by my father.

Being summoned was different from a regular meeting about our family’s day-to-day operations.

A meeting was routine. But a formal summons?

With a hand-delivered invitation for my eyes only?

That was another thing entirely. Even though I had suspected something was up for months, I had only gotten the invitation via my cousin Francesco just three days ago, when he arrived to inform me that I was to visit the opera house.

A signal that I’d been right to suspect. Something was about to change.

On the two previous occasions I was summoned to our family’s private opera box, I had been formally invited into the family business, and then years later, been ordered to take over our New York City operation.

A third summons could only mean one thing: That my father was going to formally make me his second-in-command over the Romano family business.

Not just over the New York City operation, but the entire North Eastern enterprise.

Boston, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York would all be under my control.

And yet, even though I was on the cusp of everything I had worked for all these years, I still felt ill at ease sitting in the large velvet chair of the private box.

Probably because I was surrounded by Romano family elite—an assortment of cousins, uncles, and family friends who were no doubt also vying for the second-in-command role.

As Umberto Romano’s only child and sole heir, the family business was mine by right.

But I was a daughter, and for the past hundred years, the Romano family had been headed at all ranks by men.

Any woman involved in the family business did so in an informal capacity—wives, mothers, sisters.

Ruthless in their own right, but not in charge of vast swathes of territory.

But I had no intention of being a mere mafia wife. Not that I even had time to seriously date. A fling every now and then reminded me that I was a human being, but I was too focused on ascending the Romano throne to care about a relationship.

I was determined to be my own woman. Turn tradition on its ear and make my mark.

Ever since my seventeenth birthday, I had been working relentlessly toward one goal: taking over the family business.

Ruling the Romano crime family and earning my father’s pride.

Because if my father did crown me as his heir officially, I would have to make sure he never regretted that decision.

As the only woman vying for the second-in-command role, I had always had to be better than my male relatives.

That was why I was so on edge, despite all my well-earned confidence.

I was surrounded by all my male rivals. They had never had to prove themselves over and over like I had.

No matter how successful I was—and I was—every day was a battle to show that I was even more cunning, ruthless, and ambitious than the boys around me.

Suddenly, I felt one of my cousins tap me on the shoulder.

“Time to get a move-on, Lena,” Frankie instructed. “Don’t want to keep your old man waiting.”

Those words gave me a surge of confidence.

My father had summoned me for a reason. To name me as his second.

That was the reason for all the pomp and ceremony.

The reason for getting us to meet at the family’s private box.

Only the most special occasions called for the glitz of the opera.

My father was going to choose me and he wanted all of the elites in New York City to know that I was about to be crowned.

Very soon, they would all have to answer to me, no matter how much they pretended to be on the right side of the law.

Grabbing hold of my regained confidence, I rose to my feet, the silk fabric of my evening gown swishing around my ankles.

The audience was already filing out of the auditorium, but luckily for us, my family could use the VIP exit.

It was a perk that not even the mayor had.

Which was the beauty of being a Romano. I had all of New York City at my feet.

Nowhere was off limits. Most of the funding for the opera house came from my father after all—which meant we could do as we pleased.

“Car or chopper?” I asked my cousin as I approached him.

My father’s summons gave me an excellent reason to travel in style.

Now that the show was over, I could meet him at one of our casinos upstate.

A summons was the perfect excuse to take the fastest transportation, and since we didn’t want to keep him waiting, a chartered helicopter made the most sense.

“We don’t have to travel that far,” my cousin informed me as he stood up to adjust his jacket. He lowered his voice as the rest of my family began to file out away from our box seats. “The old man’s here in the opera house.”

My eyes widened. “What? He’s here?”

That had never happened before. When my father made a grand summons like this, everything was a perfectly orchestrated sign that you were supposed to meet him.

After a glamorous night at the opera on his dime, I was sure that I’d have to meet him at the casino, a favorite location of his choosing.

Because that was a sign of the utmost respect.

Following his instructions and making the effort to meet him exactly where he wanted.

The thought of my father coming down to the opera house to meet me—to meet anyone—that was unheard of.

“He arrived about thirty minutes ago,” my cousin confirmed with a nod.

“Why didn’t he join us for the performance?” I asked, still shocked that my father had breached protocol.

“You know your father,” Frankie responded. “He’s not an opera kind of guy.”

That much was true. If my father had a choice, every meeting and every deal would be made over a large meal at one of the five-star Italian restaurants he owned in the city.

Sitting in silence while getting swept away by the romance of the opera was something that I enjoyed, along with my taste for fashion, jewels, and expensive wine.

My father was a little bit more down-to-earth than the daughter he spoiled.

My stomach tightened as the magnitude of the situation started to hit home. Not only had my father summoned me, he had arranged to meet me. Whatever it was that he was about to offer me, my life was never going to be the same.

I desperately wanted to ask my cousin how much he knew about my father’s plans. But I hadn’t survived New York’s criminal underworld by showing my cards before I was ready. I’d have to finesse the truth out of him.

It was just us in the box now, with no other family members around to overhear.

Though most of my family members knew that something was going on, they were as in the dark as I was.

As the family lawyer, however, cousin Frankie was well aware of the intricate workings of the business.

Even more than I knew. Probably even more than my father.

Our lawyers had to know everything if they wanted to protect us from law enforcement.

“Francesco, will you be present for the meeting?” I asked, keeping my tone even.

I didn’t want him to guess that I was trying to pry information out of him.

Despite the calm in my voice though, I gripped onto the detachable strap of my clutch purse tightly, anxiety taking over again.

I was desperate to discover how much my cousin knew.

“No, this is an occasion for father and daughter,” Frankie responded.

I followed him out of the private box and down a hallway. Our security detail was still present, my father’s henchmen blending into the shadows as my cousin and I began to make our exit.

When we reached the end of the hallway, I felt a new, imposing presence.

I wasn’t sure if it was a sound, or the intoxicating scent of an unfamiliar cologne, but this wasn’t one of my father’s silent henchmen.

Turning to look, I spotted a tall man in a suit.

With his face hidden by shadow, I could have easily mistaken him for one of my father’s men, but then I saw the flash of gold at his neck.

A medallion. Etched with an image of the sun.