COLD TRAP

Chapter 0001

MIRABELLA

For the first time in months, I finally make a decision to leave my research laboratory and head on out to my apartment just so I can have a peaceful and well rested weekend. I weave my keys through my fingers as I walk through the suspiciously quiet streets and the moment I come to a halt in front of my door, two men in black suddenly emerge from the shadows, taking their stance on both sides of me.

I suck in a breath.

Being taken hostage has become an all time normal in my life. It doesn’t happen quite frequently but when it does happen, there’s always one person behind it—my father.

What father derives pleasure in kidnapping his own daughter?

Mine.

With a roll of my eyes, I put my hands behind me, waiting for the men to bind my wrists together and blindfold me as they’d always done. “This doesn’t count as kidnapping if I’m willingly going with you,” I snort a laugh as they lead me into the black SUV.

Having a father like mine can pan out to be very detrimental to your mental health. A father whose only interest is money, power, fame, and more money. Never once has he shown any interest in putting his family in order, but plays himself out to be a responsible man in the eyes of the public.

My father is an extremely calm man on the outside but I do not and will never feign ignorance to what he truly is on the inside—a catastrophic, greedy bastard.

He always has the perfect excuse for being so withdrawn, being the consigliere of the mafia seems to be no joke and my father being my father takes his job a little too seriously.

. . .

“This has become quite predictable father. Don’t you think you should just call and invite me over if you wanted to summon me. I am your daughter after all.” I blow the strands of hair out of my face.

After hours of waiting in the basement, still bound to a chair, my father finally arrives and I’m in shock as to why I’m still tied up.

Something’s definitely up.

“Sister,” my twin sister peeks her head from behind my father’s huge frame and I chuckle.

Like father, like daughter.

My twin sister Annabella has always taken after my father, and I on the other hand takes after my mother in more ways than one. Which explains why my father cannot stand me but showers Annabella with so much love and affection.

I and Annabella are identical in many ways except our eyes. Her eyes are emerald green just like my father’s. But mine, I took one from my father and one from my mother.

I have two different irises—one appears as blue as the ocean and dead as ice and the other, emerald green.

Unique, don’t you think?

It is something that has and will always gain me attention in public, except, I do not like being out in public.

Twenty six years of my life has been utterly boring. Just the same routine every freaking day. Although, I have no complaints.

I spent the first ten years of my life being homeschooled before my mother passed. Father was quick to ship me off to some boarding school. I cannot begin getting into details of what happened in that f**ked up school, but I got an opportunity and made my escape.

From there, I became a lab scientist and I’ve since been confined in the four walls of my research laboratory.

Except for when my father decides to kidnap and bring me home. Whenever he needed something.

And he doesn’t need something very often.

But he of course funds me pretty well—I’d give him credit for that.

While every effort was made to hide me away from the outside world, my sister Annabella was being trained in the best schools, introduced to the Italian mafia and their workings until she finally became an assassin and my father’s puppet.

So, we might be twins but we share very different views and opinions and we have quite the opposite personalities.

“Your sister will be getting married in two weeks,” my father states and I genuinely smile.

“Well father, you should’ve just sent me an invite, I’d have been more than happy to attend.”

That’s when I see the look in his eyes. The look that says he’s in a difficult situation and needs saving—and if I’m still strapped to this chair, I guess I’m the one doing the saving.

“What do you need?” I ask and my father let out a sigh, pulling close a seat before settling into the seat—his breath exasperated.

“You’ll be standing in for your sister.” He deadpans.

“What?”

“She has a mission and I wouldn’t like for her to miss out on it because of this wedding arrangement. She’ll be gone for at least six months and until then, you’re to remain married to her husband.”

“I’m sure the gentleman can wait six more months,” I scoff with a shake of my head.

“I’m sure he can but he will, but this is arranged and he doesn’t want it. Anymore delay and he’ll see reasons to call it off. But it is important that we become a part of that family and you will play your part. You can no longer run away from your duty to your family.”

“My family?” I snort a laugh, making certain my sarcasm doesn’t go unnoticed. “Why is it so important, becoming a part of the so called family you speak of?”

“Because Mirabella, why be a consigliere when you can become the Don, hmm?” My father whispers with a hearty laugh and I narrow my eyes at him observing him for a second before looking over at my sister who’s standing beside him. Gradually, I piece all of the information together.

“You greedy basta—” my father’s hand comes down hard on my face before I can curse him out. He fists my hair, yanking my head backwards with so much force that I yelp out in pain.

“You’ll watch your mouth when speaking to me. And you’ll learn to speak less and follow the path that has been cleared out for you.”

“Throwing me to the wolves? Is that the path? If you wanted to be Don so bad, why don’t you just kill them all? Why do I have to be married to someone for so long just so you can get whatever it is you want?”

My father pushes my head to the side with a shake of his head, tsking, looking down at me like I’m the most foolish person on earth. “You’re going to gain their trust, and gain inside information. Your presence in that house will solely be to gather every information I need to become the Don.”

“You’re consigliere, I’m certain you have access to more than enough information.”

“I need more. I need something greater than what I have and you’ll help me get my hands on it.”

After a moment of silence, knowing that no amount of screaming will get me out of this, I finally ask the question I should’ve asked from the beginning of this conversation. “Whom am I marrying?”

“Matteo Messina Denaro.”

Matteo?

Matteo.

I do not concern myself so much with the mafia and their business, for that reason, I know very little about their men but the name sounds too familiar.

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Matteo!

He’s the. . .

“Hell no. Please no. You can’t get me married to that monster. Please father, I’ll do anything but not him. I’ll be dead even before Annabella returns to take her place.”

My tears overflowing—call me dramatic but when a man murders his sister, brother and grandparents over some misunderstanding, he becomes the most dreaded man in the underworld.

A man willing to do anything for power. A man who’d rather soak himself in blood than accept the idea of peace, that is the same man my father wants for me.

It has become as clear as day, Annabella is not going on any mission, she’s just too precious to my father, so much so he cannot bring himself to give her away in marriage to that demon. And now, I’m the one to be sacrificed for their greed.

F**k.

Me.

I begin rambling on and on about how this is a bad idea as my tears continue to flow. I tell my father that Matteo has seen Annabella and I don’t have the same eyes as her, but he says I’ll have to use contact lenses. I tell him that I have a different personality from my sister, and he says they’ve only met once and there’s no way Matteo would know so much about my sister from just one meeting.

And it becomes clear as day to me—there’s no way out of this.

“You’re having dinner with his family in two days. Anna will put you through whatever it is you have to know before then. Please Mirabella, do not disappoint me.” My father deadpans as he exists the basement, leaving I and my sister alone.

It is happening, in just two weeks, I’ll go from being a lab rat, to becoming the wife of the most dangerous man in the Italian mafia.

The heir and soon to be Don of the biggest famiglia of the Italian mafia.