Sienna Amoretto (SAMPLE)

Chapter 1

SIENNA

I'm just finishing up for today to head home from the gym. Dad opened another gym a few years ago. The one in town started to get a little too crowded and more people wanted a membership, so to not deny them that since that would be bad for business, he built another bigger gym right outside of town that focuses on the MMA fighters. It's a huge building that looks like a flashy warehouse with huge windows from floor to ceiling, and it's got all the equipment you need, and two fighting cages. The second floor only covers a little less than half of the gym, like a balcony, and that's where the office is located.

We don't hold fights here, they are only for sparring, but we train some of the top-ranking MMA fighters since dad has hired the best trainers. Only the best is good enough when it comes to business in this family.

I'm 22 and finished college a little over 2 months ago. Both Zayden and I inherited dad and grandpa's intelligence. Zayden did like dad and only took a few online courses instead of going to college. He's 20 now and is fully involved with the family businesses, both the legal and illegal parts. He trains like an MMA fighter, but isn't competing even if he would do really good. He doesn't have time for it and rather focuses on work.

Zayden is a copy of dad when he was younger. He just has a little lighter hair color. My hair is more ash brown, but I have some highlights in it. We both inherited our parents' green eyes. Mine are more pale-green, like mom's, and Zayden's are a little darker, like dad's.

I only keep to the legal parts of our businesses and decided to go to college even if I maybe didn't have to either, but I wanted the college experience, especially with my best friend Nat.

Natalie is Nico and Kara's daughter. She's 22 like me. I was born in March, and she in December. Aunt Chloe says that her theory that birth control doesn't work with Italian men is right. Mom got pregnant with both Zayden and I while on the pill. The pill didn't work on aunt Lily either, whose husband is Italian. Grandpa wasn't too happy about her getting pregnant at 23, but there wasn't much he could do about it, and I'm glad to have cousins my age even if they are annoying sometimes, especially the guys that are overprotective alpha males.

Since I'm the oldest, Zayden can't say much. I always tell him that I'm older and wiser, so he has no say in what I can and can't do. Not that he listens, and dad's the same, but they give me some slack since I have my personal guard, Dante, with me at all times. I also know how to fight. I don't only work at the office in both of our gyms, I work out there too. Dad always made sure that I could defend myself and kept myself strong and fit.

Being an Amoretto is equal to being untouchable to some people, or most. I don't think about it much since I've been brought up in this world. It's normal to me, and even if we're in the businesses that we are, I've never been worried about my safety. Dad and grandpa don't get involved with shady people, only people who know what they are doing in a smart way, like them. The shady ones that cause trouble get taught a lesson or get to 'sleep with the fishes', as mom says.

You think that having a guard with you at all times and knowing how to defend yourself would be enough. It should be enough.

But...

If someone is almost twice your size, a top-ranking MMA fighter, and knows all the moves and can predict them, it doesn't matter how much you have trained when you're smaller and not as strong.

I got to experience that 2 weeks after I started working here after college. Thinking that it would happen here in dad's gym⸺or at all⸺seemed impossible.

I was working out late that evening after finishing up work. Since I'm safe in dad's gym⸺or so we thought⸺Dante, my personal guard, usually takes some time to work out too. I had just finished and went up to the office to take a shower in the bathroom there. Dante went to the showers downstairs where all the guys shower and change. There was only us and Josh 'Nightmare' Bayer here in the gym since it was late.