Chapter 1

Mila’s POV

Someone was in my room. My eyes flew open when I felt something cold touch my temple.

“Don’t make a sound.” The intruder warned. “Sit up.” I sat up robotically, realizing fearfully that there was a gun pointed at my head. I tried to slow my breathing but I was aware I had begun to hyperventilate. I liked to act tough but faced with my mortality, I was nothing but a scaredy cat.

“You’ve been a bad little kitty haven’t you?” The man said. He was wearing a full face mask and a pure black outfit. The only thing I could tell about him was that he had dark eyes and was tall. I shifted my eyes to the side to see that my bedroom window was open, the curtains billowing with the night breeze.

My apartment was on the sixth floor, how the hell had he gotten in? 

And most importantly who the hell was he?

“Who are you? What are you doing here?”

“Who am I? You’ll know soon enough. What am I doing here? I’m here to deliver a message from my employers. They aren’t pleased about losing their money. Ten million dollars to be exact.”

Fuck. Sartorre’s men had caught up with us. I had thought we had been so careful and left no traces. It had been more than a year since my sister and I had done the heist on Sartorre. How had they even found us?

“Where’s my sister?” I growled. He chuckled. “I think you should be a little more worried about yourself right now, darlin’” The man had no accent to speak of, so I guessed he was an outside contractor.

“Where's Helen?” I repeated.

“Somewhere safe.” I tried to leap out of the bed but the cocking of the gun stopped my progress. I sucked in a breath.

“Now look here, sweetheart.” He began. I gritted my teeth at the pet name.

“Sartorre doesn’t want any trouble. All he wants is his money back. He was going to chop you both into tiny, disposable pieces, but…” he shrugged. “Well.”

“We don’t have your money right now, but if you give us…”

“Just you, darlin’. Your sister will be coming with us, as a guarantee of course. We don’t want you disappearing on us now. It took me quite a bit of work to find you. I wouldn’t want you to slip away.”

“How did you even find us?” I asked curiously.

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” Bastard.

“Your sister will be safe with us. For thirty days. After which her safety will no longer be guaranteed.”

“Touch a hair on her head and…”

“Please, let’s leave the threats. I’ll respect you a little less if you started our relationship with empty threats.” I rolled my eyes.

“Oh and Sartorre’s money seems to have accumulated some interest while it was in your care. A twenty-five million dollar interest to be exact.”

My eyes went comically wide and I was sure my mouth had dropped to the floor. I spluttered. 

“That's more than twice what we took!”

“Would you rather you end up as shark food then? Because I’d truly be sad to deprive the world of your beauty.”

“Go fuck yourself.” He laughed. 

“I like you, you’re a spitfire. I do hope we’ll be seeing each other on good terms a month from now.” Then he moved to the window and climbed out. A second later when I rushed to the window with the gun that had been stowed in my bedside drawer, he was gone. As if he had never been there.

With my heart in my throat, I raced out of my bedroom and down the hall.

“Helen!” I roared as I barged into her sparsely decorated bedroom. In fact, the whole apartment showed an unusual sparseness. Helen and I had gotten used to moving out and disappearing at impromptu times. Putting down roots or becoming attached to a location was a mistake we couldn’t afford to make. It could be the difference between life and death.

Her bedsheet was on the floor and I could see evidence that there had been some struggle. Fuck. They had really taken her. Under my watch. The thing was, after a year of looking over our shoulders and realizing that no one had been after us, we had gotten relaxed, and let our guards down. We should have moved on from this city over a month ago.

I rushed to the kitchen and dug out the disposable phone taped to the underside of the sink. I dialed the single number saved to the burner phone.

“What happened?” Ma’s strong voice asked after the second ring.

A call from this phone meant only one thing. Those things had gone tits up. Since we had gone off our own, we had never had to make this call. I felt ashamed of myself for having to call my parents for help now.

“They took Helen,” I said.

“You let them take your sister?” Pa roared. I winced, feeling a headache coming on.

“Who did this?” Ma asked.

“Sartorre. He wants his ten million back. With a twenty-five million dollar interest. Do we have that kind of money?” I asked desperately.

“Not even close,” Ma replied. 

“How long does she have?”

“Thirty days,” I said in resignation. There was a pause on the other end.

“That’s not a lot of time.”

“Is there any available job? Anything that can get me this kind of sum in a month?” Pa scoffed.

 “We don't make that kind of money from quick jobs and you know it. Jobs like that take months if not years of recon and you…”

“There’s something.” Ma cut in.

“You had better not be talking about the Meiland diamond, Bea.” I heard Pa hiss.

“We don’t have a choice. Helen doesn’t have a choice.” Ma argued.

“What is it? What’s the Meiland diamond?” I rushed in.

“I have contacts that can help us find Helen. It’s the only way that won’t end in all deaths.” Pa said.

“And if they don’t find her on time?” Ma snapped.

“What is the Meiland diamond, ma?” I asked again.

“It’s a piece of jewelry that costs fifty million dollars.” She began.

That was enough money to save my sister and disappear. We could finally change our identities, and start over somewhere new. Leave the life of crime perhaps. 

“What’s the catch?” Ma sighed. “Sweetie…”

“Only one man knows the location of the piece.

The owner, Jonathan Meiland.” Pa said. “Who is a reclusive, retired, army general.”

Fuck my life.