Chapter 1 One

Athena

The FBI was a rather busy place. With the legalization of guns, drug trafficking, and a lot of other shit that made the world a terrible place, they had their hands full. It was easy then, for me to slip through their crowd of agents unnoticed. I walked into the headquarters, dressed in black pants and a blue shirt that half the agents present wore. A few nods here and there would make it seem like I belonged there- and maybe I did.

I caught my reflection on one of the glass windows of a unit. My caramel brown hair was tied into a strict ponytail, leaving my green eyes to pop out. I narrowed my eyes and pressed my full lips into a thin line.

Maybe I didn't fit in there at all.

"You in?" Frederick's raspy voice reached my ears through the earpiece stuck in it, breaking my reverie.

"What do you think?" I asked, climbing down a set of stairs into the basement. "Last I checked this earpiece thingy doesn't work if I am not in the vicinity, Freddy,"

"Cheeky as always, kiddo," He grunted. "Get your ass in here quickly."

"Well you sound excited," I mumbled, approaching a steel door that was bolted shut. Right on it was a facial detector and a fingerprint machine.

With an impatient sigh, I placed my finger and face in the detecting range. "This new job better be exciting."

The door opened after a beep, revealing a unit of the FBI that only a selected few knew about. The Undercover Ops. Behind the doors were cyber geniuses and several specialists in all the fields of crime, a fucking mine of information. And at the center of it, all was Frederick Gonzalez, my foster father.

"Huzzah!" Someone yelled as I walked in. "The goddess herself has arrived!"

"Shut up Cole-" I snapped and would have continued if my voice didn't drown in the sea of my colleagues as they hooted and hollered.

My face flamed up slightly but I kept the glare stuck on my face. "Do you all not have something better to do?!"

"Ah come on Athena," Cole teased, approaching me. "Don't be such a downer. Give yourself some credit. Woman, you single-handedly infiltrated Eduardo's Casita and exposed his ass to the breeze!"

"I did it all with your help," I mumbled, stepping away from him.

"Of course, modest as always!" He yelled, clapping his hands. The crowd joined him and I closed my eyes pushing through them, ignoring their smiles and muttered words. I had simply done my job.

Nothing more, nothing less.

"That was quite the reception," Frederick teased when I eventually managed to enter his office. His glass walls made it easy for him to see everyone and for everyone to see him. His brown eyes were filled with mirth as he gestured to the seat before him.

"I'd rather stand," I sniffed, folding my hands. "I don't like being here for too long. Makes me feel fucking naked."

He chuckled and nodded. I followed the movement of his salt and pepper hair as he slid a file across the desk. "Here's your next target,"

"Who is he?" I asked, picking up the file. Frederick simply shrugged and gestured for me to open it.

I frowned, my eyes narrowed into slits as I looked up at him and then back at the opened file in my hands. The name, Luciano Moretti, glared at me. "No fucking way. I'll kill him and you know that!"

"No you won't," Frederick deadpanned.

"I'll fucking kill him!" I screamed, tossing the file on his desk. "You know how bad I want to kill him. How much I want to see him suffer. You can't give me this assignment and not expect it to get compromised. I hate him, Frederick! I hate him so much I have spent the past two years thinking about stabbing his fucking eyes out!"

Frederick winced and dragged a hand down his face. "That's gory, Thena."

I slapped a hand down his table, staring him deep in the eyes. "You can't send me there- unless you want me to kill him, you can't send me there!"

"I thought you wanted revenge, Athena," Frederick said, cocking his head to the side as his warm eyes regarded him. "I guess I was wrong."

He was baiting me. I knew it. He knew that I knew it, but did it anyway. We glared at each other for a while before I sniffed and sat down on the chair he had provided earlier.

"What are the details?" I asked. "And wipe that smirk off your face!"

****

"Miss Raven Gonzalez?" A woman with skin so pale, called out.

I put up my hands, keeping a small smile on my face, and rose to my feet. "Here,"

I was in the rather large reception room of the headquarters of the great Moretti Industries. My target sat fourteen floors above us, probably sipping on the blood of the many people he had killed.

The blood of my father included.

"Bastard," I muttered, clenching my fists tightly.

"What was that Miss Gonzalez?" The fair woman asked as I approached her.

"Ah nothing," I choked out, unclenching my fists and forcing a sweet smile onto my face.

Damn it. I shouldn't have broken character. Today, I wasn't Athena Henderson. I wasn't a girl on a mission to avenge her father's death. I was Raven Gonzalez. Some random sweet girl from the suburbs- and I had to act the part.

"Come with me then. Mr. Moretti has scheduled your interview to last the next thirty minutes before his next meeting. And he does not like to be kept waiting." She said, directing me towards the elevator.

My brows furrowed. "Interview? I was referred by his last PA and was already reviewed by his team. Why is there another interview?"

She shrugged. "Mr. Moretti likes to be thorough,"

Of course, he does. He was so thorough that seven years ago, he left my father dead in our living room. I would never forget that day. I would never forget coming home from school to see my father white and bleeding, stabbed severally, and branded with an M insignia on his chest.

The Mafia Insignia.

Luciano Moretti, the mafia lord, killed my father. It was only fair that I ended him as well. Subconsciously I touched the hairpin that held my hair up in a bun. Embedded in it was a little knife. Good, I nodded. If for a minute, he suspects me, I'd end him swiftly.

The elevator pinged open and we stepped out into the hallway. At the end of it was an office so large, it took up the width of the entire floor. Blood pumped wildly in my veins with each step we took. An interview meant it would be just us. Just the two of us. I could drive a knife up his gut and get the hell out. After all my years of plotting and coming up with the perfect revenge scheme, I could end it all.

The secretary motioned for me to wait outside and pushed the door to the office open.

"Mr. Moretti? The new PA is here." I heard her report.

This was it.

"Let her in," A deep voice with a rather silvery tone to it, spoke up.

My heart thumped faster and I stepped back to calm my raging nerves. I couldn't kill him. Not until I got the information Frederick needed. The FBI knew with certainty that Luciano was the Lord of the Italian Mafia that has plagued New York for many years, but they had no solid proof. And until I got that proof, my dreams of killing him would have to be pushed aside.

Afterward, I assured myself, Afterwards, I would end him.

"You can go in now, Miss Raven." The secretary said and stepped aside.

Taking in deep breaths, I smoothened my dress and walked into the lion's den, a bright smile on my face.

Luciano Moretti sat behind his desk, the epitome of a brooding dark man. I had seen his pictures before. Heck, I had even tailed him on some days when all I could think about was killing him. But all of that barely prepared me to meet him face to face.

He was a large, intimidating man. Dressed in a suit that clung to his bulky frame, his eyes were a dark coffee brown that bored intensely into my skin. His hair, black as midnight, was slicked backward with gel and arranged in fine rows. He had a square jaw that ticked with each passing minute as if he was angry at something but the overall expression on his face was… blank.

I had to give it to him, he was dashingly handsome, and perhaps if we were in a different world where he wasn't a mafia lord and didn't kill my father, I would have melted like fucking butter before him.

"Miss Gonzalez?" He said, clasping his hands together.

"Yes sir," I gritted, keeping the smile on my face as wide as possible.

"Let us begin."