Chapter One

“Lights! Camera!! Action!!!”

Ava smiled as she stood before the camera, wincing slightly at the blinding light.

“Cut!”

Ava flinched at her manager’s sharp voice. “Could you keep it down, please? All this noise is giving me a headache.”

She watched as Anne’s eyes grew wide with shock.

“Your job is giving you a headache?”

She shrugged but said nothing. There would be no point in arguing, especially not with the news at the tip of her tongue.

“You’ve been working here for the past ten years, Ava. This is your dream, your passion!” Anne continued.

Still, Ava remained quiet and waited for her to finish her speech.

“You have been acting all distracted and tired, so out with it! Tell me what the problem is.”

Ava smiled. This was the window of opportunity she has been waiting for.

“I’m leaving.”

There was drop-dead silence as the studio became still. No one moved and she didn’t blame them. Everyone was surprised by her statement, especially after everything she’s gotten by being here.

This had been her life since she was ten years old but not anymore. This wasn’t her dream. She had lived this dream for someone else for ten years, it was time she lived her dream.

“You aren’t being serious, right?”

Ava smiled at her manager, whose blue eyes were filled with so much hope that it hurt Ava to do this. But she was done being the good Ava that everyone could push around. She was doing things her way now, even if it meant hurting a couple of people in the process.

“I’m sorry, Anne, but I have to leave. I got a new job and modeling has never been my thing. I just wanted to please my mom,” she explained.

“But you’re a famous model and one of my best models.”

Ava felt sorry for the woman as she picked up her bags. “I’m sorry.”

As she walked out of the door, it felt like she was finally opening her mind to the possibility that maybe, just maybe, she could finally be happy.

She was getting her life back together and nothing could stand in her way. With that thought playing in her mind, she drove home to prepare for her first day at the office.

***

The shrill ringing of the phone on his nightstand had him jolting up, but he was not fully awake. Only one word did the trick as his eyes widened slightly.

“Get the bastard into the cellar!” he growled into the phone.

He listened briefly before he hung up the phone, releasing a string of curses, forgetting the female curled up in his bed till she purred sexily.

“Quit throwing foul words around. I’ve got a better place for your dirty mouth.”

He would have been aroused with the way she was biting her lips, trying to look sexy. Truth be told, she was doing a good job, but he had lost his sexual appetite and it was replaced by vengeance and anger.

“Please order a taxi and leave,” he said calmly. He was always patient with each of the women till they struck a nerve, and right now he didn’t want that.

“I don’t want to go now. Can I stay and wait till you’re back from work?” she asked, batting her lashes at him with a small pout.

He stood up. “Be my guest. I’m going back to the States.”

She stood up and he stared at her naked brown body as she glared at him. She had delicious curves in all the right places, and he felt his groin tighten again. She was the kind of woman you would want to have again, but unfortunately, he never fucked the same woman twice.

It gave them ideas and he didn’t want such confusion.

“You didn’t tell me this was a one-night stand!” she exclaimed.

He cocked a brow at her, watching her brown eyes study him intently. “What did you expect? I picked you up from the club.”

“Yeah, because you liked me,” she replied.

He frowned. “Now that I think about it, you picked me.”

She chuckled nervously. “That isn’t what happened.”

He took two steps towards her, and she backed away towards the bed.

“Why?” he asked, anger swirling in his green eyes.

“What are you saying, Noah?”

She was nervous, he noted, but then…

“I never told you my name.”

He had anticipated the attack because he managed to move out of the way before she lunged at him with a gun that she pulled out from under his bed.

Shit! He had been careless not to search her last night.

“Who are you?” he asked calmly.

“Shut up! I have the gun,” she snapped.

“Why didn’t you kill me last night when you had the chance?” he asked again.

“A big mistake, but the sex was great. Now, I can kill you happily.” She grinned, proud of her plan.

Noah smiled. “You’re right, that was a big mistake because now you will never get the chance.”

“Hello? I have a gun, remember.” She pointed the gun to his head.

“Not anymore,” he smirked.

“What—” She touched her neck and dropped down with a thud.

Noah sighed and smiled at his bodyguard, who was standing in the doorway. Noah thanked his stars for his panic wristwatch, the one he never took off.

“That was a careless mistake, Noah,” his bodyguard growled.

He smiled. “I’m glad I have you around then, Pedro.”

The huge man snorted, turning the girl, and removing the needle from her neck. He hadn’t killed her, he just drugged her.

“What do we do with her?”

Noah smirked. “Keep her sedated and toss her into the plane.”

Pedro frowned. “Isn’t that dangerous?”

He shook his head. “I have a feeling it’s all connected.”

“Whatever you say, boss.”

Noah waited till Pedro left with a now fully clothed woman before he entered his bathroom. Only one thought was going through his mind.

He wasn’t thinking about why anyone would want him dead. Being the youngest mafia boss in Italy could be a single reason. He was more interested in who had dared to kill him even after knowing he was Don Faustino’s grandson.

He intended to find out and end that person.