Devotion

Prologue

The sun heats the back of my neck as I sit at my desk. The forecast didn't predict a cloudless day with swealtering heat yet here we are. Others find a spontaneous sunny day as a sign of good luck or that things are going to start looking up, but to me it means something bigger is approaching. It started when I was just a boy, my mom told us we had to cancel our weekend trip to the beach because it was going to storm, but when the day came the sun was hanging high in the sky with very few clouds.

It was too late to drive down to the beach, so we all went to a small creek nearby to cool off. The rocks in the water were extremely slippery, and I ended up cracking my head open and almost drowning. To this day I can still feel the scar from the stitches on the back of my head. That was the last time I looked at a unexpectedly clear day as good luck. Nothing is a coincidence in my eyes.

"I don't know why you don't have Emilio do this for you." Lucia, my cousin and second hand, groans helping me check through the club's financial statements for last month. She knows exactly why I don't allow my big mouthed brother do this. He would go on and on about having the wrong liquor vendor or that I overpay my performers, and frankly I don't have time to deal with his bullshit.

"You know why." Lately Lucia has been distant and distracted, but I have yet to figure out why. Initially I figured she was obsessing over a new girl or guy that caught her eye, but she would have told me by now if it were that. A knock at my office door has me slamming the binder down on my desk.

"Entra." My eyebrows draw together in confusion at the sight of one of the newer guys, Ashton. Lucia insisted we hire him after she found him on the street. He's barely eighteen, so for now he only helps with drop offs until he learns the ropes.

(Come in.)

"I'm sorry to interrupt but we have a situation." He rubs the back of his neck shifting his gaze from me to Lucia making me suspicious of his motivations. If there were a true problem one of my security guys in the security room would have been the one to talk with me not Ashton. Leaning back in my chair I motion for him to sit in the chair across from me and next to Lucia before placing my hand in my lap while descretely grabbing one of my guns strapped along the underside of my desk.

"What is it?" Lucia shoots me a discrete glare probably because of my snippy tone. She hates when I'm short with the guys she brings in.

"Gabriele Valentino's men were following me to my training session last week." I holster my gun back in its place, and lean forward placing my elbows on my desk.

"What?" Clenching my jaw I push my anger down attempting to remain calm on the outside, but even Lucia cringes while looking at me out of the corner of her eye. Gabriele has been a thorn in my side since we were children, and has a tendency to pull shit just to get a reaction out of me. He's a spoiled child turned selfish man who's ignorant attitude cost lives, ones which he has no regard for. "What training session?" Now apart of our family, Ashton's day is delegated by us and I don't remember sending him to training.

"I thought it would be good for him to learn self defense, so I got him and a few of the others lessons with a trainer at some small gym." Lucia shifts in her seat not meeting my eyes. Sighing in frustration, I ignore her guilty pout and turn back to Ashton.

"What do you think he was after?" Gabe could have simply been observing, planning, or worst plotting. This could be nothing or it could be the start of a war, and my answers lie within the hands of a boy with such little experience he needed self defense classes.

"Saige." His voice cracks, and he wrings his hands together nervously. I raise my eyebrow looking to Lucia for an explanation.

"His trainer." She clarifies pulling out her cellphone dialing the number of our informant no doubt. This Saige woman has no part of our family yet Gabe has taken it upon himself to make her a target.

We have very few rules in my family, but the biggest one other than Omertà is innocents are not to be harmed. It's my families last ditch attempt at having some morale despite our line of business, and Gabe's lack of exactly that has me believing Ashton. Saige is in immense danger.

"Voglio la sua posizione adesso!"

(I want her location now!)

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Song: Watch Your Back by Sam Tinnesz

I'm so excited that you guys are finally getting to read this story. I chose to put this song with the prologue because I feels like a great representation of the whole series that I have outlined in my head. Just a heads up the entire book won't be in just one persons point of view. It's going to change between Saige and Felix's point of view. Anyway I'll let you read the next few chapters. I hope you enjoyed this prologue, and if you did don't forget to vote and comment! Stay safe and healthy! Until next time.

~Stella Gordon