Ruthless Princess (Mafia Royals 1)

I shot a look at Junior, who was already on his phone.

There are moments in life that take you by surprise. I’d like to think that I was the type of person that was so weathered down by what my family did that I didn’t really shock easy.

But seeing the phone fall from Junior’s hand, watching his face visibly pale as he fell to his knees and shouted was enough to traumatize me for life.

“Junior?” I shot to my feet. “Junior, talk to me, what’s wrong? What happened?”

I would remember this moment the rest of my life, I knew it, I knew it in my blood, in the way he shook his head like he couldn’t believe it.

We were mafia; nothing shocked us.

But I knew this would.

And I prayed it wasn’t any of our parents; I prayed that something awful hadn’t happened to them.

I grabbed Junior by the shoulders and shook him. “Junior, talk, now!”

He swallowed and looked up at me. “It’s Claire.”

“Claire?” I hated how relieved I felt. “What happened to Claire?”

“The brakes had been cut.” He slowly stood and ran his hand through his hair. “It was a hit meant for Ash, but he let her borrow his car…” His eyes flashed with anger. “She’s in the hospital—they don’t think she’s going to make it.”

“No.” I shook my head. “No, that’s not true. She’s strong; she wouldn’t, she can’t—”

Junior pulled me against his chest while I tried to process what he’d just said. Tank cursed behind us. “Was Annie with her?”

Junior let out a heavy sigh. “Yeah, she was in the passenger seat, Claire spun the car so that the impact hit the driver’s side… she saved Annie’s life.”

We got in Tank’s car after realizing that not only had someone tampered with Ash’s brakes, but they had tampered with Junior’s as well.

Claire getting in her accident, didn’t just save Annie’s life, but ours.

Tears filled my eyes as Tank drove his truck to Mercy West in downtown Chicago. Already there were reporters outside the ER along with enough men in suits to make the place look like it was ready to host a political campaign for Uncle Chase.

The minute we pulled up, Ax, one of Andrei’s men, came over, grabbed Tank’s keys, and said, “Get inside.”

We didn’t need to be told twice.

Breaker was sitting with Izzy and Violet while the bosses were all pacing the floor, most of them on the phone, most of them yelling—and then there was Ash, in the corner, sitting by himself, staring at his hands like they held her blood.

Junior and I made our way over to him at breakneck speed.

He didn’t even look up; he just stared at his hands.

“Ash,” I reached out to touch his shoulder, he flinched and jerked away.

Shit.

Junior sat down next to him. “How is she?”

Ash sighed and then looked up. His eyes were bloodshot like he’d been crying. Then again, he loved her; he’d loved her faithfully, had done anything he could to protect her. He knew she had Petrov blood in her, knew that she would need the protection of his name, and lucky for us, he fell for her even though it would eventually be revealed that he had been set up.

Not that he needed to know that detail, that Nikolai Blazik had basically made it so that Ash was obsessed with Claire the minute he saw her at her high school graduation.

It was a secret my dad made me promise to take to my grave, the fact that Ash never really had a chance to choose who he loved.

It was chosen for him.

I never thought it would end up like this, though.

He took another breath and leaned back, pinching the bridge of his nose with his fingertips. “She’s in a coma.”

I breathed a sigh of hope. “Medically induced?”

He swallowed slowly and rasped out. “No.”

I reached for Ash’s hand and held on tight. “Is she in surgery?”

“It wouldn’t matter.” Ash’s voice broke. “There’s too much damage, even if she did wake up—they did everything they could. We’re just waiting for Nikolai to get here.”

I was almost afraid to ask. “Why are we waiting for Nikolai?”

His eyes met mine; I’d never seen so much pain in another human being in my life. “So he can say goodbye.”

“But—” My eyes filled with tears, I wanted to yell at Ash, to lash out and tell him he had to fight for her! That he loved her, and that’s what you did when you loved someone! You fucking fought!

I couldn’t find my voice.

I couldn’t breathe.

There had to be something someone could do. We were untouchable, right? The great Cosa Nostra?

I pushed my hand against my chest as a sharp pain sliced through me like I was getting chopped in half.

For once, Junior pulled me against him while I tried to swallow the knot of emotion in my throat. Claire had been part of us.