Chapter 1

Victoria stared at her reflection in the mirror. She knew what she was about to offer was a long shot, but she had to try. This current situation was killing her parents' and making their lives miserable. She remembered the day he came into her father's failing soul food restaurant. She knew in his icy blue eyes that he was a fucking devil.

She loathed him with every single cell in her body. He had ruined her family. Her parents' lives. Her life. She despised him and she hated money. Money really was the root of all evil. It was the reason she was in this predicament. She never found any use for money. Sure, she may have never sported the newest, trendy clothing, but she didn't feel the need to. She was never the girl in high school with the latest anything, and she was just fine with that.

But now here she was putting on the only decent dress she owned (minus a black funeral dress), which was now a little short from being washed a million times. It was a black dress with thin straps. The color had started to fade, and under a bright light it turned to an ashy black shade. She wore an old pair of black heels that belonged to her mother, and she quickly pulled her wild curls up in a ponytail. She wanted to look somewhat presentable since she would be going into the lion's den. Or snake pit...either was appropriate when talking about him.

She sighed as she turned off the light and walked out of the tiny bathroom she shared with her mom and dad in their one bedroom apartment. Her dad was in the bedroom asleep finally. His back pains kept him up and moaning most nights. Her mother, Olivia, was in the kitchen scraping the leftovers from dinner into containers.

She turned to look at Victoria and then back at the dishes. Her mother was a beautiful woman, but the years had not been kind to her. Her smooth chocolate skin that used to glow and sparkle was now a dull brown. Her makeup and hair that she at one point had taken so much pride in was not even a part of her daily routine anymore. She never wore makeup and she kept her hair in a tight bun at the base of her neck.

She had prematurely grayed, which Victoria figured was due to her father's bad business investments. And the smile that Victoria remembered as a little girl seemed like it had been permanently removed from her mother's face. Now a hard line and tight lips were all that replaced the bright grin she had once grown to love. Victoria continued to stare at her mother's back.

"I don't know what you think you trying to accomplish by going over to that dangerous man's place. Just plain stupid in my opinion," Olivia said, not bothering to turn around.

"I know mama, but I got to try something. We can't live like this. I didn't want it to come to this, but this is a last resort," Victoria said, pleading with her mom to understand.

"You think you just gon' walk in there and have him erase the debt?" Olivia asked, turning around and throwing the dishrag over her shoulder. Then she smacked her lips and ran her eyes over her daughter's tiny dress. "Unless you plan on offering him something to make him forget the debt."

Victoria sucked in a breath. "Mama! I would never. I just want him to try and see it from our point of view. That's all. It couldn't hurt to try."

"Vicky, he don't care about our point of view. Rich, white, bad men like him could give a damn about poor, black people like us. The sooner you get that through your head, the better," her mom said, and turned back around. Victoria figured that was the end of the conversation.

Victoria sighed as she grabbed her purse and an old black jacket of her father's. It was chilly outside and she wasn't used to wearing something so revealing. As she slid the oversized jacket on, she looked down at her dress. She really hoped he didn't get the wrong idea. She just wanted to look presentable, not easy.

She chanced another look at her mother, who pretended like Victoria wasn't even in the room anymore. Victoria blew out another sigh and opened the door. The windy night air hit her bare legs and it caused her to hesitate for a moment. 'No, I can do this' she thought, as she zipped up her coat and headed down the street to the nearest bus stop.

***********************

Nicolas Andretti stared at the green table before him. He bent down and looked at the open hole between his ball and the striped ball that sat in its way.

"Not sure how you're going to pull that one off, Nic?" Jimmy said confidently, as he leaned on his cue stick, staring at his boss and best friend. He knew that Nic hated to lose. For Nic, losing wasn't an option.

He would circle the table a million times until he could figure out a way to win. Jimmy figured that's why Nic had gotten so powerful at such a young age. When you don't accept failure, you have no other option than winning. And Nic's philosophy was to conquer and destroy.

Nic's bright blue eyes narrowed when he saw the perfect shot he had to take. He walked back up to the table, slid the cue stick back and forth between his fingers two times, and then knocked the red solid ball into the far corner pocket, barely grazing Jimmy's striped ball.

"Motherfucker," Jimmy muttered under his breath.

Nic raised up, no smile or celebratory air in his voice. "You're up."

Nic watched as his oldest and closest friend walked to the table and scratched his head, trying to figure out his next move. That was actually Jimmy's problem. He gave too much away. Never let people see you sweat. That was the one good thing Nic learned from his father, rest his soul. Nic had a thriving business because he followed the few rules his father had given him, and a couple of his own rules that he had set throughout his life.

When Nic was a kid, he never thought he'd be leading an underground crime circle. He had always respected the law and police officers. He was eight when Miami Vice first aired, and his love for cops and the law was first born. He thought Sonny and Rico were the coolest motherfuckers to ever walk the planet. But over the years, Nic started to realize that the work that his old man was dabbling in would have caused him to be one of the guys Sonny and Rico would have tried to lock up.

Nic's father, Nicolas Andretti III, was a tall, dry man from the old country. He was born and raised in Italy, and believed in the principles of his home country. At fifteen, he traveled over to the United States on his own dime, and started working little odd jobs around town and saved up enough money to open his own fish shop. He would cheat men at the docks out of fresh fish, to get a leg up on competition. Over the years he made a name for himself. Not necessarily a good one, but a name nonetheless.

He met Nic's mom, Marianna, at a local dance one night and the two became inseparable. They ended up having five children, while Nicolas's business grew from a smelly fish place, to his first restaurant, which was funded by crooked cops who came to conduct business with drug and weapons runners. Nicolas would turn a blind eye, and in return favor they would give him money and turn their heads away from his illegal numbers business. It was a perfect arrangement that worked well over the years.

But when Nic started thinking back over his life, there were things about his father that he didn't like. Nic didn't like cheating people. He preferred to scare them. That usually got the message across even better. And when Nic was a teen going into his twenties, instead of turning the blind eye like his father did...he started dealing with the weapons runners, to gain more money. He didn't approve of drugs, so they could still use his restaurants, but he was not a part of their deals and made sure they all knew it.