I fixed my tie all while watching Little Red sleep. I had to wake her up in a moment, there was a lot she had to do today. However, I wanted to enjoy her in her most peaceful state. Her lips were slightly parted and her brown hair was sprawled all over the pillow she rested her head on.

When I laid her down last night, it was almost as if she didn't want to let me go. I held her for hours and let my mind wander. If time could go back, I wondered if I could've met her when I was just a young boy. She would've loved the boy I was, and I was sure I would've loved the girl she was. Before demons attached themselves to my shoulders and compelled my every action, and before loneliness coerced hers.

She was the girl my mother told me about. The girl that I would one day feel everything for. As I held her in my arms, her heart against my heart, there was no denying that I would do anything for her.

We were two broken pieces that could easily form together to create one. She was my angel when I couldn't see that I needed one. I could only hope she would one day see me as her saint.

I grabbed her glasses from my desk.

"Angel," I said, walking over to her. She groaned in her sleep, turning over to face away from me.

"We don't have all day... get up," I demanded.

She turned back to face me, her eyes slowly peeling back to gaze at me. She had to blink away her sleepiness a few times before simply gazing at me.

"Hi," she whispered.

I chuckled. "Hi, baby."

Her cheeks tinted a rosy color as she continued to stare at me. Her dark brown eyes were taking me in as if she didn't know if she was dreaming or awake.

I unfolded her glasses and slid them onto her face.

"I have to go to the meeting I told you about. I left you instructions on your computer. If you want to do this right, I need you to get started on it immediately. Can you do that for me?" I asked.

I watched her sit up on the bed, resting her back against the headboard. She pushed her glasses further up her nose before slowly nodding her head.

"Good girl," I said, grasping her by the chin. She didn't protest as I brought her lips to mine. When she began to reach for me, I had to pull away. Otherwise, I wasn't sure I would ever make it to the meeting. She was tempting, and there was nothing more that I wanted than to please her.

"Leo is here. He'll watch over you while I'm away," I informed her. There was a burner phone in my pocket, it was the same one she had before, I kept it just for her. I grabbed it and handed it over to her. "To do this, I'm going to need you to trust me, Angel."

"Okay," she confirmed.

"I'll see you very shortly." I smirked.

My plan would work. As long as she was willing to follow everything I wrote out for her. It would be scary, and she would have to do some things she wouldn't like, but it had to be done.

I gave Little Red one last glance just before walking out of the room. I made sure to leave the door open so that Leo could watch her from afar.

When I made it to the hallway, I found Leo was waiting patiently outside the door.

"She will be in my room for a large duration of time. You aren't allowed anywhere near her. I don't even want you speaking to her. When she notifies you that she's ready, I want you to bring her to me as soon as possible," I instructed Leo.

I could see it on his face that there were about a million questions he wanted to ask at the moment, but he refrained.

"Where's Rosalinda?" I asked.

"She's out by the garden, Don," he answered.

"And Adriano?" I wondered.

"I'm here, Saint," Adriano said, grasping my attention. I turned to him. It had been a while since I last seen him. He healed nicely which I was grateful for. I couldn't bare seeing the damage I had done to him.

"It seems like we have a meeting to attend." I smirked. "This game is finally going to come to an end."

***

I looked around the table. It didn't happen a lot, but every mafia family in Chicago was in the same room. Morelli, Rubino, Santoro, and me, Venturi.

Tino Morelli was the eldest. His hair was like a salt and pepper mixture as grays swayed with black. His brown eyes held wrinkles that confirmed his age. He began to get fuller, losing the muscular frame he once had. He had been in the game for the longest amount of time, yet he was the least frightening of all. The only thing he had going for him was being a model citizen in the eyes of the community. He was best friends with the President of the United States, and he attended more charity events than he did shipments. It was probably why he was so broke, as Little Red revealed to me.

Alessandro Rubino was only barely older than me. He was the quietest of everyone. With black hair and green eyes, there was a fierceness to him. He had completely taken over the mafia of one of the most respected men in Chicago. After murdering him, then forcing Don's daughter to marry him, he made all of the men submit to him. He reached out to me for an alliance, and I accepted. I knew I liked him the moment I heard about what happened. It was dark, but that's the kind of thing that went on in my world.

Lastly, there was the pretty boy, Tommaso Santoro, the youngest of us all. With blonde hair and blue eyes, he was born into the mafia, being the heir to one of the greatest mafia don's of all time. He had a legacy to live up to, and from what I heard, he was doing well at living up to it. Tommaso was a sadist, one of the craziest motherfuckers I ever met. However, he hid his insanity with the pretty-boy smile.

"Good morning!" Tino declared, grasping my attention. "Just a quick briefing while we're all here together... there is no word from the drug lords in New York. They interfered with Santoro and Rubino's shipments. I think they may want to return to war. Be ready for the declaration at all times."

I rubbed my chin.

"Now, back to the subject at hand. I'm sure we have all been trying to deal with a little problem... Red," Tino said, looking directly at me.

I leaned back in my seat, making sure I kept my gaze stern. There was a smirk playing on my lips. He probably thought he had the upper hand, but little did he know, I was cooking up a little something of my own.

"Well, all of us except for Saint, isn't that right?" Tino asked, everyone turned to me. Adriano stiffened behind me. He was behind me with a few of my other soldiers. We all had men standing around just to make sure the meeting went smoothly.

I chuckled. Every mob boss had their eyes on me.

"Clearly, you have something to say. Let's hear it." I smiled sarcastically.

Tino placed his elbows on the table and leaned in. He was directly in front of me, so the action put him as close to me as he could get.

"I know you have Red," he said.

Rubino and Santoro watched me skeptically after his allegation. The room immediately began to feel tense. I knew this was going to happen. I knew he was finally going to do what Viktor asked him to do. However, denying it would be playing right into Viktor's hands. Keeping Reyna away would also be playing right into Viktor's hands. I was in the lead, and after this, I was determined to win.

Adriano tapped me before leaning down. "She's here," he said.

"Gentleman, I want to introduce you to my woman. I'm sure you've all met her before," I said. Just as the words left my mouth, the door opened and my beautiful angel walked in. She was accompanied by Leo who hurriedly went to stand behind me.

She was dressed in exactly what I picked out for her. It was a simple outfit—a red dress. It was the perfect 'fuck you' to not only Tino but Viktor as well.

"Since when do we bring our putanas to meetings?" Santoro asked. She walked over to me. My jaw clenched at the whore comment, but I decided to let it go. I gracefully grabbed her hand and had one of my men pull a seat to the table. She sat down beside me. I turned to look at her as she took a shaky breath.

'I'm trusting you,' she mouthed.

"You wanted to have a discussion about Red. Why not have one with her instead?" she asked, turning to face every man at the table.

Tino remembered her. It was hard not to. I bet it surprised him knowing that the vixen I fingered at his ball was the woman he feared more than anyone.

Suddenly, every weapon was aimed at Reyna. My men were quick to aim at every mob boss in the room. They weren't going to shoot her—not when their boss would be dead a second later.

"Saint, what the fuck are you doing?" Alessandro asked.

I smirked.

"Alessandro Rubino, Tommaso Santoro, and Antonio Morelli—I know everything about you. From the last murder you committed to the color of your underwear. I know you all have something you hold very dearly. Not just you but the men behind you, aiming their guns at me now." Everyone began to look worried.

"I know that you, Tommaso Santoro have a mother in Italy by the name of Isabella Santoro who lives on 721 Via Sacra," she smirked.

I knew she hated this more than anything, but it was the only way to get mob bosses to kneel beneath her feet.

"I wonder what the bosses of New York will do if that address was possibly leaked. All I have to do is press this little button here, and they would know where your mother resides," she threatened, holding up a small button that I left for her. She wasn't bluffing. She programmed the button to send a very lengthy message about everyone with the single click of a button.

I made sure to give her specific instructions on everything she needed to get on the men before me to hit them where it hurts.

"Drop your weapons," Tommaso ordered his men. Reluctantly, they dropped their guns, but Tommaso was glaring at me with pure hatred.

She glanced at Tino with a innocent smile playing on her face. "Antonio... you are my favorite. You have the most secrets. How about you tell all the men here the real reason why you gave them that ten million dollar deposit?" she raised a brow.

He stayed silent, glancing at everyone at the table with wide eyes.

Reyna shrugged. "He deposited ten million into your accounts bec—"

"Drop your weapons," he ordered his men. Slowly, they lowered their gun.

She turned to Alessandro Rubino, and he looked at her with a challenging look in his eye.

"I am not your enemy here," Alessandro said. "Drop your guns," he ordered his men.

Now, everyone was no longer aiming at Red. She had them exactly where she wanted them. She'd be a hell of a mob boss if she truly wanted to be.

"You can lower your weapons now. I want the rest of this meeting to be as civil as possible. I only want to talk," she said. I nodded my head and my men quickly put the weapons away.

"Great! Now the meeting can really begin," she stated.

—

Question: how do you feel about this chapter?