Prologue
“Hudson, no!”
I could hear my mom yelling at my dad as I hid in the stairwell. At 22 years old, I was very aware of the danger my family faced. My twin brother, Dex, being the brother that he is, tried his best to protect me from all of the heated arguments between my parents, but he knew that he couldn’t do that forever.
“Enough, Sky! You know what kind of life I was a part of when you met me! You fell in love with that man, remember?”
“Things are different now, Hudson. You have been in hiding, managing to protect your men from afar for this long, and you said that you would keep it that way. You promised to keep us safe...”
Mom paused, “....You promised to keep yourself safe. I need you here..with me.”
I could hear my mom’s voice cracking as she said that very statement. It broke my heart to think about the tears that I knew were falling from her eyes. It’s obvious that dad’s job is beyond dangerous, and mom knew what he faced each and every day. There were a couple of close calls where we could have lost him, so I understand why mom has been so anxious lately. When she found out that dad was training both my brother and I to fight, she absolutely lost her shit. For Dex, it was different. She didn’t like it, but he was a man, made to follow in Dad’s footsteps. But when it comes to me, she wanted me to follow in her footsteps.
She claimed that she couldn’t help but to fall in love with my dad. He made her feel safe, and she made him feel things that he’d thought he’d never allow himself to feel , especially in this lifestyle.You have to be able to control your emotions to be able to get the job done. That’s what dad always says, but he just couldn’t control his with mom.
But when it comes down to it, dad loves what he does. And no matter what, the mafia is family to us, and has helped us stay protected since Dex and I were born.
“Sky, two of my men were killed today protecting that very secret, forUS! They were our family too,” my dad said.
My dad is Hudson Underwood. He works for one of the most powerful Mafia bosses in New York City, named Axel Stone. I guess you can say that my dad is his right hand man when it comes to business. With big titles comes big responsibility, and Dad was the main man to go out on each mission to make sure everything went as planned.
Being the right hand man also gets you a lot of respect. Whenever I went to their office, everyone treated my dad like they treated Axel. Growing up, I got to know everyone in the crew pretty well. Axel also has a son a year older than us, named Marcel. I had the biggest crush on him growing up. I spent most of our play dates as a kid trying to get him to notice me.
It never worked, but I got over it.
Long story short, since my dad has been faithful to Axel, he agreed to keep us and my dad safe and in hiding until the dust settled with our enemies. We’ve been in hiding for 5 years now. Of course, my dad was still calling the shots, making sure his men were protected. But lately, dad has been a little on edge... like he knows something is coming.
"You shouldn’t be listening to their conversation, Aurora,” Dex whispered to me from the top of the stairs. I looked up at him and made ashushingsound.
I quietly made my way to the bottom of the stairs and peaked my head around the corner where I could get a better look of the kitchen, where my parents were. I saw my dad walk towards my mom and gently cup her face in his hands, wiping her tears away.
“Sky, baby... our children are safe. They have their whole lives ahead of them. I’ve fought so long and hard to protect this family.
“I know, baby, and I am grateful for that. You said so yourself, your enemies were already getting suspicious. Most of them thought you were dead, Hudson. They could start looking for you again.”
“Baby...”
Dad trailed off when he heard a knock on the door. I quietly ran back upstairs to Dex so I wouldn’t be caught eavesdropping. He walked over to the door and opened it. I couldn’t quite make out the face from the top of the stairs. It was raining and the man had a black hoodie over his head.
“Is this the Underwood household?” the mystery man asked. His voice was strong and deep.
“Who’s asking?” dad asked in a stern voice.
I heard the man at the door laugh under his breath. My brother and I glanced at each other, and in that split second, I heard my dad’s feet shuffle to stand on guard. He slowly reached behind him, but before I could see him make his next move, Dex pulled me by my arm and began dragging me down the hall.
"Dex, let go of me!" I whispered.
Halfway down the hall, we heard one single gunshot. I froze in my tracks as my heart raced, hoping that my dad was the first one to pull the trigger. Within a few seconds, I heard another gunshot go off. My brother and I looked at each other.
Dad trained us for moments like these, but no matter how prepared you are, you never actually think to expect it. He tried to protect us from this lifestyle as much as he could, but he knew that he couldn’t shield it from us completely. We knew how to fight, but he never wanted us to have to use that skill. At that moment, I knew exactly where Dex was trying to take me.
When we were younger, Dad built us a safe room in a place he knew was an obvious place to look for kids, but he built it so well that you could never tell anything was there. The safe room entrance was in my bedroom, hidden on the wall in the back of my closet.
The room had fingerprint recognition, which not even my dad’s most trusted men had access to. The door led to a huge basement like room that had secret exits that led to every room in the house.
We ran to the entrance of the safe room, and quickly opened the doors. When I heard the doors shut behind us, I ran down the stairs from the door to the camera’s that were watching every room in the house. I braced myself, knowing what I could possibly find.
.... And I dropped to my knees when I saw exactly what I had feared the most.
My dad was too late.
