Prologue
The wet air cooled her skin as she watched the waves crash in the dark. It was well past midnight and she should have been sleeping in the villa her family had rented for her eldest brother's wedding. He was marrying an Italian mafia princess, it was something her family hadn’t openly shared with her but it didn’t take much sneaking to figure that one out. The villa they were staying out now, one above the beach on a cliff side, was surrounded by high level security and her father had brought in armed guards to stay on watch round the clock.
She had only been able to sneak away after watching their change of shifts for the last three nights, the wedding events were a two week long occasion. Fallon had no complaint with the length as she was never permitted to leave their compound in Ireland whenever they were home. She had been raised by the staff more than her family over the years with all the business trips and social occasions they had needed to leave for and couldn’t take her as they would say.
She hadn’t even snuck out to escape into the city like she yearned to do, she wanted to travel and see the world outside the compound. Her parents just always said it wasn’t safe for someone like her to be out there and as she was still only sixteen she couldn’t fight them on it, she didn’t even think she would be able to when she became an adult either. They had plans to marry her off to the first man they found suitable, just as they had begun doing with her brothers. She still had three more brothers to be married off before it would be her turn.
She walked closer to the ocean, the water was raging tonight, sea spray covered her as the waves crashed, it was relaxing. She had no desire to return to the villa where for the rest of her trip she would be stuck silently following around her mother from event to event, she wanted to just run into the water and swim off. Fallon was close to going in for a swim when the sound of yelling nearby caught her attention.
From where she was a car and four men came into view. She could see on his knees before a large form. The other two leaned against the car watching. Without making a sound she hurried to a nearby boulder to hide. She wasn’t close enough to make out the foreign words they spoke in but as she watched the four the man on her knees started to look familiar.
Paulo, her cousin on her mothers side, was sort of a family reject. Her father despised him and his mother only tolerated him for her sister's sake. It didn’t come to much surprise he had gotten himself into a situation like this. He had a horrible habit of creating enemies that my father had to end up paying off. The man before him though didn’t seem to want money, he had a gun in his hand. It wasn’t pointed at Paulo yet but he would say something that led him there.
She should have left, should have taken in the fact they were distracted and fled to her villa where she would be safely tucked away from the men with guns but she did none of that. She was almost in a trance watching the two men talk now in english. Her cousin was begging, asking the man for mercy and promising him whatever he wanted.
“You’ve given me everything you can Paulo, you are now useless to me.” HIs voice sounded rough, like he smoked too much.
“Please Ronan, I’ll kill him for you if I have too. Have I not proven myself to you?” She could hear the tears in his voice, Paulo was begging for his life.
The man, Ronan, shook his head as he lifted his gun, the dark metal shining in the light of the full moon. “Why would I want to keep around a man who so easily betrayed his family, you are even willing to kill them for me Paulo. Do you know how pathetic that is, I am doing your family and the world a favor by ending you.” Paulo cries out another plea but it’s cut short at the muffled sound of a gun firing. Fallon watched as her cousin fell dead, his body limp on the sand.
When the two men leaning against the car began to move she finally realized how much she needed to be out of there. She crawled away, staying out of view until she reached the stairs. It was too far for her or the men to see each other. She threw a glance back though as she was half way up the stairs and while she couldn’t see anything she knew that there were eyes watching her.
