The Hitman's Mark

*This is an excerpt of The Hitman's Mark, book one of the Hitman's Heart series. The full book is available on Kindle Unlimited and on Amazon as a paperback and ebook. Thank you for your support!*

MATTEO

Everyone knew that behind every powerful crime family, an extremely effective don waited. A crime lord. A kingpin. A godfather. Boss.

Seated at the top of the family’s hierarchy, the don’s authority was unquestioned. Revered and feared in the same breath. The don made every hard call and was blamed for every bad one. The most successful ones lived in absolute luxury, surrounded by riches and women and infamy. But they also lived on edge. Always looking over their shoulder. Sleeping with one eye open.

Matteo Costa didn’t envy them. Not at all.

The Romanos initiated Matteo into their crime family nearly three months prior. Since then, he’d spent almost every day following Leonardo “The Hollowman” Romano around New York City. It hadn’t been easy to earn a place in the Romano family’s tight-knit circle, but, as the bastard son of Leonardo’s distant cousin-in-law, he had just enough Italian blood to merit a position. Even as just another hired gun, ordered to guard the Romano don with his life.

In those short three months, Matteo learned the characteristics that separated a good don from an effective don, like Leonardo. Effective dons ran a painstakingly organized operation, enforced the Omertá with a steel fist, and rewarded loyalty handsomely.

What separated Leonardo Romano from even the most effective bosses, however, was his unpredictability. No one outside of Leo’s innermost circle knew his agenda. No one knew the next step he’d take to tighten his steel grip on New York.

Leonardo “The Hollowman” Romano was exceptional.

So, Matteo couldn’t understand why the crime boss would suddenly lower his guard—and throw a birthday party for his eighteen-year-old daughter, no less.

“He does this every year,” another guard mumbled from beside Matteo, a cigarette pinched between his lips. “Throws his principessa a party fit for the fuckin’ stars.”

Matteo didn’t need to glance over at his fellow guard, Alfonso, to know that a scowl crossed the man’s features. Alfonso had been one of Leo’s bodyguards for several years, though. He’d earned the right to express his displeasure. Matteo, on the other hand, didn’t dare speak out against his boss’s foolishness. No matter how much he wanted to.

He ground his teeth to avoid voicing his own frustration, eyes sweeping the lavishly decorated courtyard again. Rose-gold balloons and streamers decorated the clearing, and a half-eaten cake sat abandoned at the center of a refreshment table. There weren’t enough teenagers at the party to finish it, and the attending adults were far more concerned with the prosecco glasses lined up next to the dessert.

The don paid for his daughter to attend one of the most prestigious girls’ schools in the state, but Matteo doubted that any of her classmates had been invited to the milestone birthday. The only other teenagers at the party were Romano cousins, who seemed more concerned with nabbing a flute of champagne than celebrating the birthday girl. At the ripe age of twenty-eight, Matteo might’ve actually been one of the youngest guests at the party.

That’s sad as hell, he grumbled to himself. At least she doesn’t seem to mind.

His gaze flickered to the birthday girl in question. Flanked by Leonardo and her mother, she gasped and peeled back a layer of golden wrapping paper from her latest present.

The infamous boss laughed, a deep, rumbling sound, as his daughter carefully lifted a necklace from its case. Even from his place across the clearing, Matteo saw diamonds shimmering on the pendant, and, judging by the look of wonder on Principessa Valentina Romana’s face, they were big.

Blood diamonds, no doubt, Matteo mused.

"I’m surprised he didn’t get her a tiara,” Alfonso drawled, clearly unimpressed.

At the center of the courtyard, Leonardo took the diamond necklace from his daughter’s hands. She swept a curtain of phony blonde hair to one shoulder and allowed her father to clasp the necklace around her neck. The diamond pendant fell perfectly between the neckline of her golden dress, as if she’d known what her father would give her and chose an ensemble that would best display the jewelry.

Matteo couldn’t blame Alfonso for his disenchantment with the young woman.

Fortunately, Leonardo and his entourage spent little time at the family’s Scarsdale mansion. But when the boss did return home to visit his wife and daughter, Valentina seemed determined to wreak as much havoc as possible to gain her father’s attention. In those instances, Leonardo dispatched Alfonso to deal with her. Unlucky bastard.

“Why did he insist on throwing the party outside?” Matteo finally muttered, crossing his arms against his chest as he scanned the surrounding treeline.

An iron gate surrounded the Romano family’s property in Scarsdale, New York, but dozens of visitors traversed the mansion’s expansive grounds for this party. It wouldn’t have been difficult for someone with ill intentions to slip in unnoticed...

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Alfonso shrug. “Maybe he plans on gifting Valentina another horse and didn’t want the animal to shit all over the living room again. Sofia’d have his balls for that.”

“Again?” One corner of Matteo’s lips tugged up at the thought of Sofia Romano yelling at her husband. She was the only person brave enough to raise her voice with the dangerous man.

His smile faded as Valentina flipped her faux-blonde, beauty pageant curls back over her shoulder and wrapped her arms around Leo’s torso. Even from a distance, Matteo saw the adoration rimming her round, doe-like eyes while she gazed at her father. For a moment, he thought he understood why Leonardo Romano chose to risk his own safety to bring such a smile to his daughter’s lips...

Sofia stepped closer to her little family, wrapping her arms around Leo’s neck to sandwich Valentina in her parents’ embrace. Despite himself, Matteo smiled.

The don’s wife tilted her head to press a red lip-stick kiss to Leo’s cheek, and a deafening CRACK sounded throughout the courtyard.

A gunshot, followed by screams. So many screams, then chaos.

Matteo bolted into action as partygoers scattered around him. He scanned the treeline for the source of the single gunshot—a precision sharpshooter with a sniper rifle, if he’d heard correctly—but found nothing at first investigation. Other guards were already running for the trees and bushes surrounding the courtyard, so Matteo turned his attention back to Don Leonardo and his family.

The breath guttered out of Matteo’s lungs at the sight of Sofia slumped in her husband’s arms. Splattered blood stained her previously immaculate light-pink cocktail dress, stemming from a wound on the back of her head, hidden beneath an intricate brunette updo.

“Sofia? Sofia. Amore. Wake up!” Leonardo shouted, struggling to keep her limp body upright. He shook her shoulders, staggering back under the unsupported weight.

Matteo lunged forward and wrapped his arms around Sofia’s waist, shouldering some of the burden away from the don. He smelled the blood, felt it seeping through the fabric of his button-up.

She’d been shot. The bullet buried itself deep in the back of her skull, likely killing her on impact. A bullet that would’ve lodged itself in Leonardo’s skull if Sofia hadn’t leaned in to kiss his cheek at the last moment. Nausea threatened to creep up Matteo’s throat.

"Boss! Get down. Give me Sofia,” Matteo shouted, tugging the woman’s limp body away from her husband. Sofia was already dead. Now, he needed to protect Leonardo from a similar fate.

"No!” Leonardo growled, half-feral. His grip on his wife’s body didn’t falter. “Protect Valentina!”

Matteo blinked. He’d forgotten about the girl.

He cursed, his neck snapping back and forth as he searched for Valentina amongst the chaos. He found her by the sparkling gold of her dress, crumpled on the cobblestone amidst the still-wrapped birthday gifts. She kneeled, unmoving, even as men and women nearly trampled her in their pursuit of safety. Wide hazel eyes stared, unblinking, at the carnage, unaware that blood splatter covered her as well. Her mother’s blood.

Matteo glanced back at Leonardo Romano, who’d fallen to his knees and now cradled Sofia’s body in his arms. Tears coated the mafia boss’ cheeks. The sight unnerved Matteo more than it should have. He didn’t think the Hollowman was capable of crying.

Matteo needed to secure the boss—ensure their leader’s safety above all else, even if it meant forsaking the daughter. At that moment, Leonardo’s eyes snapped up and snagged on Matteo, who’d just taken the first step toward his boss.

"COSTA!” Leonardo roared Matteo’s last name, as if he knew that he’d been about to abandon Valentina. "Now!”

Matteo froze. He held the don’s tear-filled gaze for one long moment before nodding once, a subtle dip of his chin. Obeying his leader’s command, he dove toward the gifts. Toward Valentina.

"Principessa.” The unaffectionate nickname slipped off his tongue before Matteo could stop it as he stooped to her level. “We need to go. Now.”

"My m-mamma?” Valentina whispered, silent tears mingling with the crimson splatter on her cheeks. She didn’t spare Matteo a glance, never ripping her shell-shocked eyes from her mother and father. She slowly shook her head, her bottom lip trembling. “No... No, mamma!”

At last, she moved, crawling on her hands and knees to reach her family. Tears streamed freely down her cheeks now.

“No, Valentina,” Matteo instructed, wrapping a hand around her biceps and holding her back from her father and dead mother. She struggled against his grip, desperate to break free and reach her family.He held her tighter, growling between clamped teeth, "Valentina! Listen to me.”

More gunshots cracked across the clearing, and Valentina froze. Matteo instinctively pushed her closer to the cobblestone, draping his arms around her to shield her body with his own. Either the Romano guards had found the hitman, or the hitman had shot into the crowd again. Regardless, Matteo needed to get the principessa to safety.

The gunshots faded, and the shouting resumed. Matteo peeled away from Valentina. His hands desperately landed on her cheeks, forcing her to hold his gaze despite the chaos unfolding around them.

“Valentina, look at me,” he demanded. When her wild, terrified eyes attempted to find her parents again, his palms pressed more firmly into her jawline, unrelenting. "Look at me. I need you to hold on to me. Tight. Can you do that?”

Despite the trauma unfolding around them, she held his gaze for one long moment before nodding. He saw something like determination in her hazel eyes.

Good, she’d need that in the coming days.

Without wasting another second, Matteo pulled Valentina into his arms, one arm scooping beneath her knees and the other bracing her back. She wrapped her arms around his neck and curled the rest of her body into a tight ball against his chest. Her arms tightened like her life depended on it. Maybe it did. He held her just as tight and stood from the ruin of trampled, unopened gifts.

She didn’t weigh much, having inherited her mother’s slight frame, which allowed Matteo to remain half-crouched to keep her shielded from any gunfire.

Two more pops echoed through the courtyard from behind the tree line, and Matteo sprinted toward the mansion. He didn’t stop—didn’t look up—until they burst through the heavy mahogany doors and the scent of cigarette smoke and leather surrounded them. Even then, he didn’t put Valentina down, She didn’t release him, either.

Matteo gasped for breath, a hand absently stroking Valentina’s blonde locks, too-aware of the warm, sticky blood that coated one side of her head.

He’d seen his fair-share of death and blood in his lifetime, but never at an innocent’s birthday party. Never a mother’s blood splattered against her daughter’s golden birthday gown.

“Valentina?” he rasped after several moments. Voices still clamored outside, but the mansion doors muted the chaos.

She didn’t answer. Her shoulders simply shook with every sob that escaped her lips, her head buried in the crook of his neck. She continued to clutch at him like a lifeline. He didn’t put her down. He wouldn’t abandon her now.

They remained like that until Alfonso rushed through the doors to inform them they’d located and killed the sniper. The Romano guards neutralized the threat, and the don survived. Sofia was the only casualty.

Valentina stayed in Matteo’s arms throughout it all. Even when he tried to set her on her own two feet, she tightened her hold around his neck.

He didn’t mind. So long as she stayed by his side, her face hidden against his chest, he could protect her from the gruesome scene in the courtyard, where her father still cradled Sofia’s body.

He lost track of how much time passed before Leonardo peeled his body away from his dead wife, stood on stiff legs, and finally came to retrieve his daughter. Only the promise of her father’s embrace prompted Valentina to release her hold on Matteo’s neck.

He gently set her down, and she didn’t look back at him once as she raced to her father’s embrace. Leonardo, however, did look back.

The boss wrapped his arms around the young woman and clasped her tight against his chest. His swollen eyes were vacant as they held Matteo’s gaze and mouthed: “Thank you.”

Matteo nodded once, then quickly looked away.

He couldn’t hold Leonardo’s gaze. Not when he didn’t deserve the boss’ gratitude. Not when he’d been prepared to abandon Valentina in the courtyard to save her father.

Shame clogged his throat, and he turned to retreat before anyone could witness the turmoil racking through his body.

Protect Valentina. A simple command, but one that Matteo had nearly been fool enough to ignore.

Thank God he hadn’t.

Protect Valentina, he repeated, cementing the command to memory. Tattooing the order over his heart like an unbreakable promise. And swearing to fulfill that duty until his last breath.