Prologue

Being born to take over the Moretti mafia business–the biggest and fiercest in the world, Alessandro, Alex, always knew he was fated for destruction. That’s what they did–the Morettis. Whatever they’d pass, they’d either rule or ruin, mostly ruin and then eventually rule.

Even when he was essentially a child, he was always respected and more than that, feared and for good reason. He was born to command the triggers. That’s what he had always been trained to do, and he was trained well. Destruction was second nature to him, he could do it in his sleep.

What he could not do was protect. He never thought he’d need to. He was never taught how to, and he never felt the need to learn. Protection wasn’t something he had ever given any thought to at all. They were Morettis, they were the lions, the kings of the jungle, and he was born to command the pride. And who would lions need protection from?

Safety was the last thing they’d ever need to worry about in his twenty-five years of sheltered, feared, and evidently naive life. But that changed one fateful night full of guns, shrieks and blood. A lot of blood.

And since the cub had only ever been trained to hunt, chase, when chased himself, he did not know which direction to go.

What hurt more was that his father realized it. He saw Alex couldn’t survive the attack, let alone protect them, so he made him run. He ordered him to leave, in the pretense of going to protect his sister. But his sister was far away from the battlefield which was their house, she did not need protection.

“If they are here, they came for us all, Alessandro. If they don’t see her here, they will go after her.” His father told him as he pushed him out of the back doors. They have come for us all. You go, I will protect everyone, you protect your sister.” You can do that much at least? Alex heard what he did not say.

“Protect?” he echoed, and his voice wasn’t his own. It was weak, scared and all things he was never supposed to be. Protect how? He wanted to ask him, but the haste with which his father was strapping the gun to his waist told him there was no time to ask, no time to learn.

He turned to leave when his father placed a hand on his shoulders. When Alex turned to look at him again, his eyes were soft for the first time in his life, and the sight terrified him. He did not want to hear what he had to say, but he had no choice.

“Alessandro, the pride of lions is feared for their hunt, but the pride leader is known for his defense. We protect the pride, or the pride is dead.” Alex had never before known that words had weight, and that sentences were something to carry, something that could hold you down. But for some reason, all of a sudden, he couldn’t move.

“You and I, we do not hunt Alessandro, but if we don’t protect, the hunt is over.” And the burden kept getting heavier. Alex wished he could tell him to stop, that he couldn’t carry anymore.

“You must keep the hunt going, Alessandro.” His father’s eyes hardened soon as the last word left his mouth. Fortunately, he did not wait for Alex to respond, he turned and left, the door shut behind him. The sound of his footsteps were soon lost in the chaos of gun shots and screams that he couldn’t place anymore. There were too may of them yet none of them belonged to the one he was told to protect, so he turned a blind eye and left.

It took him 4 hours on their private jet to reach the school in Florida where Sophia was camping for her student exchange program. When he found her, she was having dinner. She sat on the top most end of the bleachers at the school’s football field, alone, as always. Her face expressionless, her eyes tired.

But she was safe.

He patted a hand on the gun at his waist, and when he was sure it was there, he stepped out of the shadow and walked towards the bleachers until she appeared–that girl. For a second his hand went back to his gun, he pulled it out and cocked it, ready to protect just as he promised his father.

But she didn’t look like she was there to hurt Sophia. She only seemed a few years older than her, perhaps 17 or 18, her dark hair and shorter frame a sharp contrast to his sister. Dressed in a cotton t-shirt and plaid skirt, with a sweater tied at her waist, she walked up to Sophia and when she tapped her shoulder, she looked up and smiled.

Sophia smiled.

Even from this distance, it was bright and wide. A sight he couldn’t remember seeing in forever. The girl sat next to her, and they talked and giggled for a long time, while eating their sandwiches and canned juice. Though he couldn’t wonder what they must be discussing, he didn’t care because Sophia was safe at that moment.

But the moment didn’t last.

Sophia and the girl were far from the entrance and that was the only good thing. The moment the first gun shot sounded in a distance terrifyingly close, the girls jumped. Sophia wasn’t alarmed, only very sad, as if she had been waiting for this to happen forever, the other girl however was hysteric. She screamed, rookie mistake.

Alex called after Sophia since there was no point to silence anymore, she looked at him as he ran up to her. Her eyes softened in relief until they fell on the gun in his hand. “You?” She asked, and he was already failing his mission.

“What? No. No. I came to protect you.” She opened her mouth to respond but was cut off by a gun shot that sounded a little too close. He pulled her to the side to protect her, but the girl was faster than him, she had stood up between Sophia and the masked man, the bullet pierced her arm and she fell to the ground.

Alex caught a crying Sophia before she did the stupid mistake of moving closer to the men charging towards them with rifles. “Let me go. Let me go! You brought them here. You killed Grace” Sophia shrieked in his arms, “Grace!” Sophia pushed and shook and bit him, but he couldn’t let go. He had to protect her.

He wanted to tell her that as well, but now wasn’t the time or place and that one piece of information wasn’t going to kill all the hate his little sister had for him and the Moretti family either.

After that, it all flowed too fast to note. More men with rifles poured in, more gun shots were heard. He killed the most men he ever had yet that day. Alex had earlier signalled for the helicopter to descend, it came down, and he pulled Sophia towards it. But she wouldn’t cooperate, she kept reaching to Grace, who was losing blood and consciousness too much and too fast to waste any time on her. She was beyond saving.

Alex got two men to come pick Sophia up and put her in the helicopter, she was already too weak with all the crying and hysteria. She kept screaming out for Grace, begging them all to save her, take her with them. But Grace wasn’t his responsibility, only she was. So he buckled Sophia in and asked the pilot to go until she hooked her fingers into his chain, the one his mom gave them both months before she died of Cancer. Sophia was only 5 then. She looked at him, her soft childish eyes filled with tears, her voice so small it was almost not audible.

“She made me laugh, Alex. For the first time after mom. Save her.”

That was all it took, and before he knew it, he had made the second promise of protection of his life.

And that's what he's been doing ever since--protecting. Protecting Grace Millers.