Serena POV

The room was dark when I woke up. I knew I was still in his room from the décor and the small amount of light coming from the rising sun through the shades.

Slowly sitting up in the bed I realized he covered my body with the blankets.

Drug me then cover me with blankets as if you care.

I look around the room, feeling eyes on me.

"What do you want?" I ask into the seemingly dark room. I knew he was in here.

He wanted to see what I would do.

"You have some explaining to do, Serena," Clayton's voice says as he walks out of the shadows next to the window. He opens the shades so more light streams in.

"I have some explaining to do?" I spit before throwing the covers off my lap and standing up. I stood a few feet away from him to gauge any reaction he had in case he tried to attack me.

"That is hysterical," I say with a shake of my head but keep my deadly glare on him. "You brought me here and drugged me. But more importantly, why is my name signed on that paper in the closet?"

He grabs a paper from the windowsill and walks over to me.

"This paper is a certificate of marriage between us that is legally and mafia binding," He says and hands it over to me.

I look at the bottom of the form to see my name signed next to...

"Massimo Russo," I whisper before my eyes snap to his.

I had a hunch since I first met him and Spencer that there were in the mafia... but the leader? That never crossed my mind.

"I knew Ricardo didn't kill you but they never listened," I say with a shake of my head with a disgusting taste in my mouth.

"When your father attempted to kill me all those years ago he ended up killing one of my top men thinking it was me since I never showed my face." I snarl when he says, my father.

Ricardo Gonzalez, my 'father', the leader of the Spanish mafia, tried to take out Massimo after he interfered with a business deal between him and the Russians.

"So you have just been hiding here all these years?" I ask and he nods.

"It appears we have more in common than you originally thought. I hid while you ran," He says getting closer until he is a foot in front of me. A scoff escapes my mouth as I run my hand through my hair. Something on my hand catches in my hair.

I drop my arm and stare down at the shiny ring on my finger. I look up and met his eyes again.

"Why did you run from the familia?" His question nearly catches me off guard but I keep a blank expression.

Leaving the family means certain death if or when they find you. The only way you leave is death.

I don't answer his question so he asks another.

"Why would the princess who was given everything leave the family?" I stare daggers at him but he keeps going. "Please enlighten me, Mrs. Gonzalez."

Before I think, I shove him hard and swing kick him in the stomach. He doesn't have time to react before the air is kicked out of his lungs. He takes a step back before meeting my eyes with fury behind them.

"I will never be that pig's daughter," I spit at him before sitting on the edge of the bed with a headache forming.

The room goes quiet for a minute as I stare absentmindedly at the wall.

I never thought there would be a day that I get caught up with another mafia after escaping one.

But from the moment Joyce told me we were going to Italy, a part of me knew what would unravel.

I feel the bed dip next to me but don't look over at him.

Releasing a breath I close my eyes.

"My birth parents took me on vacation for my thirteenth birthday. We were in poverty so it was unexpected and last minute. They packed all of our stuff up and drove from our small house in Arizona across the border into Mexico," I say and feel his eyes on me. "They sold me to the Spanish mafia for money."

I open my eyes and stare at the wall.

"They thought it would give them the money for the life they deserved and give me a chance at the riches of the world. But they were so wrong," I say and look over at him. "He killed my parents before they even left the front gate and made me watch."

Massimo was quiet as he looked over my blank face with hard eyes.

"Ricardo trained me from the moment I was dropped off. He trained me to attack, to manipulate, and to kill without a blink of an eye," I say while staring into his eyes. "When I reached sixteen he sent me on my first mission in the U.S. There was a shipment he was trying to steal from the Russians. I was the bait to distract them and lure them away from the crates. Then I was assigned to kill them after the package was secured." I cut off as I look at the wall.

"What happened?" He asks and I look over my shoulder.

"They knew we were coming. Killed everyone except me and Ricardo's son, Tomas."

"Why leave the both of you alive?" He asks and I let out a laugh.

"Because it only takes one person to send a message, I know," I say with a head shake. "They were going to kill Tomas as payback but I told them it would cause a war between the mafias if he did. I convinced them to let him live because one crate of cocaine was not worth the death of their men after Ricardo came for payback.

"Part of me did it because I knew Ricardo would beat me to the brink of death if I sat while his son was killed beside me. The other part hoped they would kill me so I would be free of the mafia life," I say then cut myself off with a head shake.

"Anyways, the Russians surprisingly listened. They pulled me away from Tomas and behind a crate. When I asked why he didn't kill me he said..."

"He might need you someday," Massimo says. I look over at him with an arched eyebrow to see him looking at his hands. "The Russians told me about a girl they saw by the dock that we could use someday since you had good negotiation tactics. We assumed you were a secret daughter of Ricardo."

"A lot of the mafia families thought the same since Richard seemed protective of me," I feel the anger boil in my veins and take a deep breath.

"When we got back to Mexico, Tomas told his father what I did to save his life. Ricardo took it as my allegiance to the family rather than me saving my ass. So he sent me on more missions, most alone. I would leave only when dead bodies covered the floor. That's how I got the nickname portador de la Muerte."

"The bringer of death," He says breathily next to me. I look over to see his stunned expression on me.

I let that information sink in for a few seconds as he connects the pieces in his mind before I continued.

"One night I came back with severe injuries," I say and hesitate as I eye him in the corner of my eye. "Thomas begged his father to stop sending me because he was going to kill the most deadly weapon they had and surprisingly he listened. They left me in the infirmary only to come back a few days later with a much worse fate than killing people..."

"Marriage," His voice was gruff as he huffed out the word.

I nodded my head and brought my legs up to my chest.

"He arranged for us to marry when I turned eighteen," I say in a whisper. "That way loyalty and strength would continue to run in the bloodline."

"So you ran away before he could," he says and I nod my head.

"When I first got there, Tomas became a friend of sorts and helped me cope. I told him what my parents did and claimed if I were in their shoes I would never leave my children. I would fight to the death before I think of putting them in harm's way." I shake my head at the memory.

"If I did marry him, he would force me to birth children then use them to control me to stay."

The room went silent once again as he let the words sink in.

"So I ran. When I just turned eighteen and the wedding preparations were taking place, I found a way out and took it. I ran for five years. Anytime I knew they were getting close, I hopped on a train, plane, or bus and got out of there. Changed my name and my appearance each time."

"Why did you stop running?" He asks and I look over at him. A small smile appeared on my tired face.

"I told you before, I was tired. When I turned 21 I enter California. I let my hair go back to the natural dark brown and stopped hiding my face from every camera I saw. I finally stopped looking over my shoulder everywhere I went. I was letting the universe take control of my fate," I say and he gives a sad expression.

"I even made it easy for them by going by my birth name, Serena."

"You were waiting for them to find you?" He asks with an angered expression on his face.

"Either them or you, whoever came first," His eyebrow arches, and I let a laugh escape. "Your men aren't exactly good at hiding themselves when they cyber-tapped my phone and my phone started glitching. I located the IP address to Italy and knew you were after me too.

"I mean you even had one of your people befriend me and live in the same apartment as me," A smirk appears on his lips that I know. "Yes, I knew from the start that Joyce was working for you. The question is why you went to such lengths to get me here?"

"I'm not going to lie to you. At first, we thought we could use you to threaten Ricardo. Throughout the years we have kept tabs on you but every time we thought we found you, you were gone. Then last year you stopped running. I had a feeling you were getting tired so I sent Joyce in to lure you to Italy.

"She did a good job but then she became a true friend to you and saw the real you. She reported back that we needed to change plans but I thought she was just falling for your manipulation tactics. So she brought you here. But when I met you, I knew she wasn't lying."

"So, you met me and decided to change plans," I say and he nods. "And what does marriage have to do with this?"

"You are now a Russo by law and mafia. You are under our protection. We are going to work together and take them down."