Livia Ximena Di Vittorio

Playing that game with Nikolai isn't something I should be doing right now or ever. It was a line I should never even think of crossing, it would be detrimental to both of us and maybe that's why I snuck away so quickly from his reach.

Or maybe I was just a coward.

Either way, I left at the first opportunity, the guards at the bottom of the stairs didn't even blink when I walked past them without a single glance, being polite wasn't on my mind at the moment, the only thing that was, was getting the heck away from the blue-eyed man.

Upstairs was an open area just as it was downstairs, this was the VIP space, it was the same idea as downstairs just more exclusive. But I didn't stop to mingle with the rich and famous who could afford to be here, instead I headed to the only room on the floor beside the bathrooms. Typing in a pin I was let into the room and in the dark, I could make out five figures, Vincenzo had made it up ahead of us so he counted as one, Zion and Sebastian counted as another two, and Erik, Seb's second in command counted as the fourth.

But there wasn't supposed to be a fifth.

"Lina!"

My cousin comes around and hugs me, I hadn't seen her in months and I had missed her tremendously, but her like I had so much work once we reached eighteen and it never slowed down.

"Hi, Livy." She smiled at me with a small smile, Adelina always looked regal, long shiny black hair went all the way to her but, she had sharp facial features that gave her an intimidating look, and her eyes which were a striking blue-green colour only added to her appeal. Adelina was dressed more casually than the rest of us, just in a hoodie and jeans with a pair of boots. It helped with her image, if she was ever caught here no one would think a princess was dressed like that and they would assume it was photoshop. Having two titles instead of one like I had made it immeasurably more difficult for her to have normal teenage experiences but with the right amount of effort from her and her friends, she always managed to.

"Not that I'm not ecstatic you're here, but what are you doing here?" I hadn't mentioned anything to her yet about my brothers, not that I didn't trust her but because I hadn't even thought about it but Adelina was the best of the best out of all the heirs, it wasn't shocking at all that she knew without me telling her.

"To see my cousins of course." She says like I was an idiot.

"And how did you find out about that?" I enquire, before backtracking. "Wait, don't answer that, I don't want to know who you asked and what you did to find out that information."

"No one special, Camilla mentioned it. Oh, by the way, she's joining us tonight." Camilla, the third person in our cousin trio. We were all born within two months of each other, Camilla three weeks older than me and Adelina five weeks younger. It made for the best family gatherings growing up. Camilla probably found out from my Uncle Massimo, her dad, who had been the one to find mom and them in the first place.

"And Diego?" I ask if Camilla's brother, our older cousin, will be joining us as well, and Lina rolls her eyes in distaste answering my question. Diego was off doing some questionable stuff that didn't bode well with our family morals, no one was too happy with him at the moment but we were family at the end of the day and that's what is most important.

"Ah hem." A throat clears behind me and we both turn to face the pouting heir of the Spanish mafia. "Have you forgotten about us, Livy, or are we just not important to you?"

"Aww, I'm sorry, Sebby. You know I love you." I croon, and pull the much larger man into a hug, stroking his hair in a soothing way like I was his mother. If anyone saw us now they would never guess our professions.

"Love you too, Liv," He whispered into my hair. "I missed you."

"I missed you too, idiot."

I stepped out of his embrace and right into the arms of the dark-haired man, Zion Asprenus was not an affectionate man, and that's always what made me give him all the love he missed from everyone else. Pulling away from him I caught the look on his face, he looked like he would be physically sick. He was playing with me and as I rolled my eyes a smirk lifted onto his features. His pin-black hair fell into his eyes just about covering his warm brown eyes, the eastern Asian features he had inherited from his mother had completely overtaken the German ones his father had passed along.

"Hi Livy." he greets softer than Seb had.

"I missed you too, Zi." It had been the longest since I had seen Zion. I had lived with Adelina and Sebastian for four months last year during our training but it had been over a year since I had seen Zion who as soon as he had turned eighteen had run off to other continents to start leading his father's mercenaries on dangerous missions.

I wave to Erik who was already sitting with my brother, the Spanish man raises his drink in greeting as he and Vincenzo carry on their conversation.

Adelina, Nikolai and Sebastian were sitting on the couch that overlooked the whole club, I took the seat closest to my cousin leaving the boys all on the other side.

"So how's Ju..." I start.

"Don't you dare, Livia Ximena Di Vittorio." My cousin demands, her striking blue-green eyes drilling holes into me, a warning swirling in them. "Unless you want me to start asking questions." Her eyes flick between me and the Russian sitting opposite us, the three men were lost in conversation and we weren't talking loud, especially with the blaring music, but it still made me panic a bit.

"Nothing is happening with us." I tried to wave her off but Adelina could read anybody.

"Oh please, his eyes have barely left you since you arrived." Subconsciously my eyes flick over to the man in question and just like she said they were on me I quickly look away and back to my cousin who was watching me, a 'told you so' look on her face. I narrow my eyes in a warning and she leans back, relenting.

The best part about having cousins so close in age to you is the act of being able to talk without any words, well that's just one of the reasons. Lina looks at her phone.

"Cami is downstairs."

"Let's go and meet her there, we can have a bit of space without these hovering buffoons," I tell her and she agrees, the boys try and invite themselves but I shut that down immediately. "There she is." I point out the brunette, Camilla catches sight of us and makes her way over to us. Unlike Lina and I Camilla is soft, she has an innocence neither of us has. She has no part of any mafia, she just exists in the world of it, she brings the light to the group the two of us aren't able to hold onto. So despite her being the oldest of the three of us Lina and I have always tried to protect her, and shelter her from our awful world.

"Hi, darling." She greets Lina first before giving me the same greeting. Lina and I each move and place Cami in the middle of us, an unsaid agreement we have had for many years.

"Do you guys want a drink?" I ask, moving behind the bar while the other two take a seat in front of it. None of us drank alcohol, Lina and I because we always needed to be alert but Cami didn't just because it had never appealed to her. The three of us chat as I make up a couple of mocktails like one of the old bartenders here had taught me while I was still in high school. I go to clean my mess after serving Lina and Cami, stepping in closer to the chaos of the room.

"Are you a bartender?" I turned around, abandoning the glass I had been washing, the man who had spoken up was the man I had bumped into earlier. This time he spoke to me in Italian since he knew I knew the language.

"No." I shake my head in denial.

"Oh, then what are you doing behind the bar?" He drills me with questions, his body language was relaxed, arms were crossed casually. He looked amused with me.

"Making a drink of course," I replied going back to finish what I was doing.

"But you aren't a bartender?" I shake my head in denial. "Is that allowed?"

"I know how to get away with stuff." I evaded answering if my father owned the place. If they knew they knew but everyone knew the Italian mafia owned this building and I would rather people put two and two together. I look at his glass and see it was basically empty. "Scotch?" I double-checked.

"Top shelf."

"Of course," I say, I couldn't help the little bit of mockery dripping in my tone but it seemed he didn't notice it anyway. I reach up and grab the bottle. "On the house."

I go to move away and back to my cousins. "Wait." He calls after me. "I should at least know your name after you so graciously bought me a drink and all."

"You first." I urged the man.

He thinks for a second, running his tongue across his teeth. "Santino."

"Liv."

"Well, it's a pleasure to meet you, Bella." He brings my hand up to his mouth and presses a kiss to the back of it. "I hope to see more of you."

Adelina studies me when I end up back to where she and Camilla were sitting, her eyes flick between me and Nikolai who was now coming down the stairs with the other guys. When she was like this, calculative, you saw less of the small bits of the Di Vittorio genes she had, Adelina was a carbon copy of her father. "I hope you know what you are doing, Livia. This could all blow up in your face."

"What's life without a little risk, little cousin." I grin at her.

"Safe," Camilla answers first, her maternal side glaring at me. She didn't know what was happening, in all honestly, I doubted Adelina could tell what I was doing either, but Camilla always tried to play the maternal figure neither Adelina nor I had growing up.

"Boring," Adelina smirks over the rim of her glass.

"Exactly."

I know I keep changing my schedule around but after a week of school again I think I'm going to update on Sunday so lucky for you all you get a chapter a day earlier. But a bit of a longer chapter than usual for you guys today :) 

A ton of new characters today, who you will hopefully see a lot more of I the future. Who is your favourite character so far? 

Please vote and let me know all you thoughts

Happy reading

Ara <3