The sound of my phone ringing woke me up the next morning, in a most unwelcome way. I had turned off my alarm clock last night so I wouldn't get woken up, but now it seemed that my phone had taken over. I groaned and covered my head with my pillow. Whoever it was, they would just have to talk to the answerphone.

"Urgh, damn machines. Olivia, it's Dominic. I want you at my house. 4pm. And dress smart."

I sat bolt upright in bed when I heard that voice coming through the answerphone. Even with the crappy speaker, he still sounded incredibly smooth. Plus, he wanted to see me again. I couldn't believe it.

Also, he had said he wanted me to dress up smartly. I wondered why. Maybe he wanted to take me on a date? That would be great. I wondered where he would take me? It was so exciting.

Although, the more I thought about it, the more I thought that I probably shouldn't be dating him. He was basically my sworn enemy, and I was supposed to be getting my revenge on him. I couldn't afford to get so close to him, no matter how incredibly attractive he was.

But then again, I did need to get close to the Salvatore family as part of my revenge plan. So maybe I could pretend to be attracted to Dominic, just for the good of the plan. I would just have to make sure I didn't develop feelings for him. That would work, right?

Either way, I needed a shower first. I rolled out of bed and threw off my pyjamas. Then I waddled off into the bathroom.

As the warm water of the shower hit me in the face, I closed my eyes and thought about Dominic. My mind drifted back to when we were in his bathroom together. The image of his naked body filled my thoughts. His smooth skin and rippling muscles. Urgh, he was so hot. This idea of not catching feelings was going to be so hard. I was going to have to focus really hard on the fact that I hated him.

Once I was finished in the shower, and dried my hair, I wrapped a towel around myself and walked back to my bedroom. Then I dropped the towel to the floor and headed over to my wardrobe. I had to work out what would be the best dress to wear for my date. I wasn't sure where we were going, but Dominic had said to dress smart. I flicked through my clothes until I found a little black cocktail dress that I had. That was fairly smart, but also quite short and sexy too. That seemed like the perfect combination for seeing Dominic.

After a couple of hours doing my hair and makeup, I took a taxi over to the Salvatore mansion. I thought I could have called Dominic and asked him to get someone to come and pick me up. But then previously it had always been Tony who drove the car, and he was dead now, so I wasn't sure if that would be an awkward conversation.

When the taxi arrived outside Dominic's house, I could see there were a bunch of guys outside. They were all wearing dark coloured suits, but looked kind of rough. A bit like the bouncers you get outside a club. Sort of smart but menacing at the same time.

They all seemed to watch me suspiciously as I got out the taxi and walked towards the front door. I wasn't sure if they were going to stop me going inside, but as I got closer they stepped aside to let me through.

As I went up the steps to the front door, another guy came out to stop me. He looked even more rough and thuggish than the others. He was big and stocky, and almost seemed like he had been squashed into the suit he was wearing. It was like someone had shaved a gorilla and tried to take it out for dinner.

"Yeah?" he said, menacingly.

"Err, Mr Salvatore asked me to come," I said quietly.

He just grunted something unintelligible and looked around behind him. I sighed with relief when I saw Dominic step out from the doorway behind him.

"It's fine, Giulio. She's welcome here," said Dominic.

Giulio grunted again, then stepped aside to let me pass. Dominic reached out and took my hand, then led me inside the house.

As we walked through the foyer, I could see there were loads of other people here too. Probably about twenty guys at least. Most of them were older looking men, and all of them were wearing dark suits. This didn't seem like a date. Something else was happening, but I wasn't sure what.

Dominic guided me through the room towards a small bar in the corner. There were glasses, and a collection of bottles of alcohol.

"Get yourself a drink," he said. "I need to mingle, but I will come back and find you soon."

With that, Dominic let go of my hand and wandered off through the room. I watched him for a moment as he stopped and spoke to a small group of people by the window. I stayed watching him for another minute, before turning to make myself a drink.

As I poured out some vodka and orange juice, I glanced up to see Lucas coming down the stairs. He looked kind of annoyed, and I also noticed that his hand was wrapped in a bandage. As our eyes met across the crowded room, his expression changed to one of confusion. He quickly made his way past everyone else as he walked over to where I was standing.

"What are you doing here?" Lucas asked, without even saying hello first.

"Your dad invited me over," I said. "Though I didn't realise you guys were having a party."

Lucas scoffed and rolled his eyes. "It's not a party," he said. "We're remembering Tony."

"Oh, shit. I'm sorry," I said. "I thought his funeral wouldn't be for a couple of weeks."

"No, well, it's not a funeral, it's complicated," said Lucas. "It's more like a meeting of all the main leaders of the family to discuss what action we need to take next."

"Oh, I see," I said.

I stood and took a few sips of my drink, while Lucas stood next to me in an uncomfortable silence. After a few minutes I'd had enough, and needed to say something to break it.

I looked around trying to think of something to say. "So, umm, what happened to your hand?" I asked eventually.

Lucas looked down at his injured hand and gave an angry looking sneer. "Went to talk to that damn hooker again," he said.

That hooker? Did he mean Desirée. I hoped she was okay, it sounded like she got badly hurt the last time they had talked to her. I hated the idea of her getting in trouble for helping me.

"What happened?" I asked, not sure if I wanted to know.

"Her story didn't add up," he said. "Plus the place where they found Tony's body was popular with hookers."

"Was it?" I said, mostly to myself.

"Yeah, commercial area, all the businesses are closed at night, so that's where the hookers get their customers to drive to. Then they park up in an alleyway where they won't get disturbed," he explained. "Got me wondering if maybe Tony tried picking up a whore and she knifed him. So I went to find out."

Damn, that was close to the truth. Well, apart from the part about me being a prostitute. But the rest, that was too close for comfort.

"She was back working the streets, so I picked her up and took her back to one of our warehouses," said Lucas. "Once she started talking, her story was all over the place, so I got angry with her and started punching."

Oh no, that sounded bad. Desirée was in real trouble, and it was my fault. I just hoped that Lucas hadn't hurt her too much. She had been so nice to me that night, she didn't deserve to suffer for it.

"What happened to her?" I asked, nervously.

"Bah, she annoyed me, I lost my temper," said Lucas. "Hit her too hard, and she cracked her head open on the floor. Had to dump the body out back in the river."

Oh shit, he had killed her? I couldn't believe it, that poor woman. She had only tried to help me, and she had ended up dead. My body felt weak and dizzy. I nearly dropped the glass I was holding, before Lucas reached out and took it from me.

"Hey, sorry if I scared you," he said. "But the bitch had it coming. She might have been the one who killed Tony."

Oh god. He had killed her because she might have been involved. What would he do to me if he found out what actually happened? He would probably do worse than just beat me to death. There were probably loads of horrible ways to kill someone,and he would know them all. I had to get away from him.

"Sorry, I'm just really upset thinking about Tony," I said. "I just need to get some air."

"Yeah, of course," said Lucas. "I need to go talk to my uncle anyway."

My knees were shaking as I walked away from him. I wasn't sure where I was going. With nothing better to do, I headed towards the staircase and started climbing. When I reached the second floor, I stopped and looked around. I could see a corridor that stretched off to the right, and at the end a large bay window with a seating area built-in. That looked like the perfect place to sit and collect my thoughts, so I wandered over to sit down.