Wicked Mafia Devil (Red Letter Syndicate #3)

Chapter 1

One

Ilona

The woman in the mirror is a complete stranger.

She’s beautiful, brave and utterly goddess-like.

And nothing like me, I’m happy to say.

If there’s anyone I don’t want to be tonight, it is the boring, obedient good girl me.

I turn slowly, watching the way Luna's artistic brushwork transforms me into something wild and untamed.

Hibiscus flowers bloom across my breasts in shades of sultry coral and forbidden gold, their delicate petals curling over curves I've spent my whole life hiding beneath modest necklines and father-approved fabrics.

See. I told you I was boring as hell.

Luscious green vines twist down my torso, leaves unfurling across my ample hips. Everywhere Luna's brush touches, I feel reborn. The paint is cool against my skin, tightening slightly as it dries, a second skin that feels more like me than anything I've ever worn.

I peer down my half painted body at my closest friend. “Where did you learn to paint like this? I never thought of myself as a human canvas.”

Luna swipes a black curl from her face and peers over my shoulder, catching my gaze in the reflection.

A playful smirk skims over the curve of her mouth.

“Not so long ago, I was on the receiving end of the paint. I kind of took a liking to it and every once in a while I’ll tease my men with a replay of our first night together at the Gilded Key Society. ”

My mouth goes slack with surprise. I’m familiar with the adult sex club, but I’ve never dared step inside. “Do I dare ask how the body paint landed you three men that night?”

Her distinctive moon-gray eyes sparkle with mischief.

“Missy,” I urge. “Since I’m preparing for my own night out on the town in very similar circumstances, I feel like I need those details.”

“Hm-mm, Nope. I don’t kiss and tell secrets, but I do know you're totally going to get laid tonight.

" Luna steps back, tilting her head to admire her work.

A smudge of gold paint streaks her cheek and her black curls have escaped their bun, wild and untamed around her heart-shaped face.

Her gray eyes, those moonlight eyes that miss nothing, spark with satisfaction as she takes in her creation.

"I mean, look at you. You're a goddamn masterpiece. "

"Finally." The word comes out more desperate than I intend. I meet her eyes in the mirror again and let out a breath that shakes. "You have no idea how hard it is to lose your V-card when three bodyguards act like your virginity is the only thing keeping them alive."

Luna snorts, dipping her brush into a pot of emerald green. The scent of the paint mingles with my jasmine perfume, creating something new and strange and fitting for the woman I'm trying to become. "Would your father really end them if they let you get close to a guy?"

The laugh that escapes me is bitter and hollow. "That’s right. You don’t know. Let me tell you about Abel."

Her brush pauses against my hip. "Abel?"

I nod. "Two years ago." I watch my reflection as I speak, as if the distance of the mirror makes the memory easier to hold.

My face looks calm but my eyes betray me, darkening with the shadows I usually keep buried.

"Sweet guy. Art student. Completely inappropriate by Marchetti standards, which made him dreamily perfect, Luna. I’m not even kidding.

We'd been sneaking around for three months when he came over while the guards were supposed to be distracted. "

Luna's hand stills completely. The playfulness drains from her expression, replaced by something fierce and protective. She knows me well enough to hear what's coming.

"Things got heated. Clothes came off. We were on my bed, and I was finally going to do something that was mine, something I chose, ya know." My throat tightens but I push through anyway. I’ve had enough therapy that I should be able to recount the story without a tremble in my voice, but it’s there all the same. Or at least I can hear it.

"These men burst through my bedroom door like they'd been waiting for the moment I finally had a guy alone in my apartment and they had a game plan just waiting to put into action.”

I pause and inhale deeply, forcing myself to calm down.

“Anyway, two of them grabbed Abel, still on top of me, naked. The third held me down so I couldn't help him."

"Ilona..." Luna's voice is soft, wounded on my behalf.

“I knew what was gonna happen the second they slid my balcony door open and there was nothing I could do.

They threw him off the balcony." The words taste like ash in the back of my throat.

"He landed in the neighbor's pool, hitting the side of his head. The man barely survived and all he did was want to make love to me.”

“Oh, sweetie, why didn’t you tell me any of this?”

I lift a palm-frond painted shoulder and force the tear threatening to ruin the delicate leaves on my cheeks into submission.

“I haven’t told a soul. I guess I couldn’t find the words for a long time.”

“Did those freaking brutes hurt you?”

I shake my head. “They simply turned their dead eyes on me and Gino, the one who'd held me down.

They all shared a look like the deed was done or something.

Creepy shit. Gino released me, straightened his jacket like the three of them hadn't just attempted murder.

I kid you not when I say his face was completely blank.

Bored, even. After a few seconds he looked down at me and growled, 'Your father will decide who takes your virginity.

Your maidenhead belongs to the family's wealth. Remember that.'"

A rebel tear slips down my cheek before I can stop it.

I brush it away with the back of my hand, careful not to smudge the delicate leaves painted across my face and lower over my collarbone.

In the mirror, my eyes glisten, but I refuse to let more tears fall.

I've cried enough over the life I never asked for.

Luna sets down her brush and wraps her arms around me from behind, resting her chin on my shoulder.

Her embrace is warm and solid, grounding me when I feel like I might fly apart.

In the mirror, we look like two halves of something whole.

Her in her silk robe, me in nothing but body paint and nipple covers and a scrap of fabric between my thighs held in place with some very strong body glue.

"It took me two years to get over the trauma," I whisper. "Two years of therapy. Two years of flinching every time someone touched me. And here we are."

"Here we are," Luna agrees softly. Her reflection meets my eyes, and I see the understanding there, the shared knowledge of what it means to fight for something everyone else thinks they own. "About to take back what's yours."

I met Luna in the hospital cafeteria three years ago.

Her sister Stella was battling cancer in the oncology wing while my mother wasted away from something the doctors couldn't name but I suspected was just the slow death of living with my father.

We bonded over shared heartache under fluorescent lights that buzzed overhead, drinking coffee that tasted like burnt plastic.

Through it all Luna found ways to make me laugh and I did the same for her.

She came from a family of thieves and I from a family of criminals. It’s like our friendship was destined to happen.

She doesn't care about the Marchetti name or the money or the power my father wields like a weapon. And I don’t care about the legendary group of women thieves associated with her surname that make her wanted by the FBI for questioning.

Luna sees me. The real me. The angry, artistic, foul-mouthed woman I keep locked away behind the perfect daughter mask. She's the only friend my father doesn't know exists, and I will do anything to keep it that way.

Luna squeezes me once more before stepping back. "Turn around. Let me finish your back. I have a beautiful idea that will catch the eye of every man with a working dick."

My laugh is deep and I instantly feel better. “There’s no filter between your thoughts and your mouth, is there?”

Her wink undoes me as she gets to work.

“What are you painting?”

“It’s a secret your lover can describe to you.”

My lips purse into a pout. “That’s unfair.”

“Then I guess you better make sure you find someone to bend you over tonight. Now turn, my sweet jungle goddess.”

Shaking my head, I obey, and her brush resumes its dance across my skin.

Cool paint trails down my spine as she adds more pieces of art that will allow me to disappear into someone new tonight.

The sensation is oddly meditative, each brushstroke pulling me further from Ilona Marchetti and closer to whoever I'm about to become.

"How did you do it?" I ask. "When you went to the Gilded Key Society. Weren't you terrified?" The Key isn’t my destination tonight, but still.

Her laugh is warm and knowing, vibrating over my senses as she works.

"Terrified doesn't begin to cover it. I walked in there wearing nothing but paint and stilettos, trying to steal diamonds from three of the most dangerous men in Seattle.

" The brush swirls across my lower back in a pattern that feels like wings.

"And then I fell in love with all three of them. Life is funny that way."

"I'd settle for one," I admit. "Just one night with one guy who doesn't see me as a way into the inner Marchetti circle."

"Then that's exactly what you're going to get.

" Luna caps her paint and moves to face me, her gray eyes serious beneath the smudge of gold on her cheek. She reaches up and tucks a strand of my black hair behind my ear, her fingers brushing against the electric blue tips I keep hidden from my father. His perfect daughter with her secret rebellion. If he knew, he’d have it chopped off while I slept.

No one does anything without his permission. Period.

And I’m damn tired of it.