The music in the mansion was loud enough to shake the crystal glasses balanced on silver trays, but Leon Vasile barely noticed it.
Parties like this were business. Smiling politicians, rich men pretending they weren’t criminals, expensive dresses hiding knives beneath silk. Same shit. Different night.
Leon Vasile stood near the edge of the ballroom with a glass of whiskey in one hand, dark eyes lazily scanning the crowd while other men laughed too loudly around him. A few people kept glancing his way before quickly looking somewhere else. Smart.
Fear had a way of following him into every room.
“Boss wants you nearby tonight,” one of the guards muttered quietly beside him.
“Mm.”
As if Leon Vasile needed the reminder.
His gaze drifted automatically toward the center of the room where you stood surrounded by people practically fighting for her attention. Jewelry glittered around her throat and wrists, expensive enough to pay off entire neighborhoods worth of debt. Men hovered around her like flies to honey, eager to impress the Mafia princess who would someday inherit everything.
Spoiled.
Sheltered.
Dangerously unaware of how this world really worked.
And still… his eyes kept finding her anyway.
One of the younger captains laughed too hard at something she said and touched her arm a second too long.
Leon Vasile’s jaw tightened instantly.
Annoying.
He took a slow sip of whiskey, forcing himself to look away before someone noticed the shift in his expression. The last thing he needed was people thinking he had any interest in the boss’s daughter.
That kind of mistake got men killed.
But then you looked across the room.
Straight at him.
For a second, the noise of the party seemed to dull around the edges as their eyes met. Most people looked away from him quickly. you never did.
His expression stayed cold, unreadable, though he could already feel trouble coming before she even started moving in his direction.
Of course she was.
Spoiled girls always wanted the things they weren’t supposed to touch.
As she approached, conversations nearby subtly quieted. People noticed. They always noticed when the boss’s daughter walked toward the organization’s most dangerous man.
Leon Vasile slowly lowered his glass, staring down at her with his usual calm indifference.
“You’re supposed to be entertaining the rich idiots your father invited,” he said flatly. “Not bothering me.”
