CHAPTER TWO

Two months ago

BEN SAT ON THE EDGE sofa of the central Rome apartment owned by The Institute and stared at his phone.

He didn’t want to make this call, but he’d put it off long enough. He should have made it days ago, but had been hoping to gather more information before he spoke to the Director, who was going to be unhappy.

Ben had never missed a mark before, and this one was important.

They were all important.

The Institute didn’t take on anything that wasn’t, and as Head Assassin, Ben wasn’t accustomed to fucking things up. He wasn’t going to make any excuses, either. He knew what was on the line.

This job was personal. For all of them.

Not that he’d actually fucked up, but things weren’t going as smoothly as he had wanted. Ben ran his hand over his face and stretched out one long denim-clad leg. He cursed under his breath and pushed the call button.

“Ben,” the deep, powerful voice answered.

Ari Moretti was an ancient vampire. Only a handful of vampires knew he existed and who he was. Ben was honored to be in his trusted circle, but it went deeper than that. Ari was like a father to him.

Ben had a father, but seventy years ago, he had left his family when their alliance with the rebellion had reached a point he could no longer stomach. He hadn’t been able to for many years, and the debates with his parents had become intolerable.

When he’d left Italy and traveled to the United States, his plan had been to make his way to Maine, where the Moretti king resided. What he hadn’t been expecting was to find a Moretti who had branched out on his own, living covertly on the other side of the continent.

It had been a coincidence that they had met. He’d been walking out of a bar and spotted two human males accosting a woman. She had been on her own, and it had irked him. Ben had crossed the street and shoved his boot into the back of the knees of one of the men, wrapping an arm around the other while the first was dropping to the floor.

The female had gasped at him, and he’d simply winked at her and told her to run.

She had.

“ Go home and jerk off, boys. If I see you again, you won’t have anything left to play with. Capisce ?” he’d snarled at them before walking back across the road to jump on his new motorbike.

Halfway there, he’d sensed a pair of eyes watching him. He knew they belonged to a vampire. Without missing a beat, he’d kept walking and lifted his helmet.

Then the male had appeared in front of him.

“ You’re not going to threaten my balls like you did those little fuckers? ” the dark voice had said, lined with humor.

Ben had turned and come face-to-face with the ancient vampire, whose power had rolled off him. There had been a strong and calm danger to him. Holding the male’s stare, he’d simply replied, “ No. I sensed your balls might be a tad bigger. In any case, you weren’t harming an innocent. ”

Ari had grinned...and the rest was now history.

Over the past seventy years, they had grown to trust each other as deeply as anyone could without being mates. Ari had shared his greatest secret with Ben and trained him to become his top assassin. He’d been tough on him, and it had made him what he was today.

A lethal killer.

Yet, he was only as good as the intel provided, and right now, they were dealing with a fast-changing situation. Apparently.

“I’m going to stay in Rome a little longer,” Ben informed. He could all but hear Ari’s frown through his silence. “Red light,” he added the code word, indicating the need for a private channel.

“Hold the line,” Ari replied.

Ben had the phone on speaker; he turned the volume down as Ari began to scramble their call. He fucking loved that they had the best technology and toys available to them. They had to—there was no mucking about when you were in the business of killing people.

Covertly.

The scratchy noise subsided, and he upped the sound once more.

“Go ahead,” Ari said, switching to a video call. “Are you compromised?”

“No.”

“Then what’s going on?”

“Our intel was good,” Ben started. “To a point. Bob fucking Johnstone is more in bed with the Italian president, Diego Lombardo, than we thought.”

Bob was the man responsible for writing to the US president, triggering the exposure of their race to humans. Unsurprisingly, Bob’s name wasn’t really Bob . It was Xander Tomassi.

Xander was a white male, aged thirty-five, six foot one, recessing hairline, and carrying a few excess pounds. He was also wealthy as fuck. They also had proof Xander was responsible for tipping off the global media.

When it had hit the news, the Moretti royal family had gone into hiding, most of the vampire race executing their emergency plans. It was a scenario they’d all planned for centuries. But living it was a whole other experience.

Reading the human comments on social media where they threatened to hunt them down had been sickening, but not surprising. They had all lived among humans long enough to predict how they’d react, and their suspicions had been right.

Thankfully, the quick thinking of the Moretti PR team had quietened the noise online and turned the breaking news into fake news. Long may it last.

While the keyboard warriors had been stopped—for the most part—The Institute had been left with the reality. Deep in the shadows, a darker world was still taking shape, and it was Ben’s job to cut them off at the knees.

So far, things weren’t going quite as planned, and while he was trained to pivot and adjust, he was feeling more off-balance than usual.

Ben had been at The Institute in Seattle, Washington, when news of their existence had first come out. Despite leaving his family over seventy years ago, his thoughts had gone to his parents and sister. He had wanted to know they were okay.

When he’d finally reached out to his connections in Italy, he’d heard Stefano Russo, leader of the vampire rebellion, had abducted his sister. He’d taken the news to Ari and their team of analysts.

Xander, aka Bob, had referred to the rebellion leader in a letter to POTUS which they’d intercepted. That, along with Ben’s additional news, had raised more questions. Then they had learned about the kidnapping of vampires in Rome and a lab where they were being experimented on.

A few hours later, Ari had sent him to Rome.

His job had been clear: evac the vampires from the lab and locate Xander to obtain more information.

It was likely at that point, Ari would give him instructions to eliminate the human. A big call, given Xander Tomassi was a big cheese at one of the largest pharmaceutical organizations in the world.

Through the Russo family, Tomassi had learned about the existence of vampires. What he knew and who he’d told was what they needed to understand. How deep and far did the knowledge of their royal family and the race’s secrets go?

It was important they clean up as much as they could, as quickly as they could.

After investigating more about Tomassi and the pharmaceutical company he worked for, BioZen, they had discovered something shocking. A team of humans had been working on replicating vampire abilities for months from a single subject in one of their laboratories.

The vast conglomerate had offices and labs all over the world, and they had yet to find the poor soul to get him out, but their team was working diligently to find him.

It was on the top of Ben’s list of questions when he got his hands around Xander’s throat.

Motherfucker.

But first things first. With the knowledge of where the lab in Italy was, Ben had gone there first. Unfortunately, he’d been late to the party. The vampires had no longer been there, and the lab had been dismantled.

From what he could gather, the US government had been involved in the clean-up, unaware that the test subjects were vampires. The soldiers had simply broken in, handed the vampires over to the Moretti family, and retrieved the data.

Ben had reported this back to Ari and been instructed to proceed to step two. He’d been well and truly ready to pop a shiny bullet into Xander’s skull after interrogating the asshole. However, things hadn’t worked out quite as planned.

Such was an assassin’s life.

“Xander’s residence was scattered with Italy’s finest undercover guns. I couldn’t get near him. Clearly, he has government protection, along with his own personal guys,” Ben informed. “This is going to take a lot more recon. I may need some more boots on the ground, but not until I know more about what we are dealing with and their security system.”

“Oliver can head over when you are ready,” Ari said, his baritone voice darker than usual. “I’m setting up a video conference for you to connect in with the team and see what they can do to assist you while you remain in Italy. This is important, Ben. Take all the time you need. Within reason. We have to stop these humans.”

Ben nodded as Ari rubbed his forehead. He knew the ancient vampire was strategizing. He was smart as fuck. But he looked worried.

“Lie low. Make it look as if you’re in town visiting your sister after her abduction.”

Right. About that.

It was time for some confessions.

Ari tapped on a keyboard somewhere out of sight, so Ben stood and walked to the full-length glass windows which looked across the roofs of Rome.

“So, I’ve been in touch with Sofia,” Ben started. There were no secrets between him and Ari—at least, not on his end—but learning Stefano Russo had not only abducted his sister but sexually abused her had infuriated him. His blood still boiled knowing he hadn’t been there to protect her and that his asshole of a father had all but sold her out to the psychopath. “She’s mated to one of the senior lieutenants in the king’s army, Lance De Luca.”

He hated to bring up the Moretti royal family, but this was too close to home for him not to share with the Director. Full transparency was important for trust. Especially in the business they were in.

“That’s a good thing, Ben. Sofia will be well taken care of and protected,” Ari said, then as the dots connected, he narrowed his eyes. “She’s living in the castle.”

Ben nodded.

“Don’t get too close, Ben.”

There were only about a dozen people in the world who knew Ari’s history and secrets, and Ben was one of them. He understood Ari Moretti’s identity needed to be protected, and he had pledged his life to doing so. It was in everyone’s best interest.

His secrets were safe with Ben.

“Remember everything I’ve taught you, Ben. Those vampires are nearly as highly trained as you—they will already know you are different.”

Fuck.

“Yeah, so, I...um...” Ben rubbed the back of his neck, and Ari narrowed his eyes further. “I met the commander.”

Also known as Craig the fucker.

“I have never met him, but I understand he is powerful and smart,” Ari said.

Ben couldn’t help himself. He snorted.

“Ben. I don’t need to remind you what’s on the line here. Stay away from the royals and their senior team, and get the job done,” he ordered.

As Ari’s Head Assassin, it was rare he ever got such a direct order outside of a job’s specs, but Ben knew what was at stake here. As one of the few vampires alive who knew Ari’s history with the Moretti’s, his presence in Italy was a risk.

But the safety of all vampires was at stake here if he didn’t succeed.

“Yes, sir,” he said, pulling his head out of his ass. He’d been trained better than this, but for some reason, the male pushed his buttons. “One last thing. The Moretti’s have captured Stefano Russo.”

“Yes, we have received the intel,” Ari replied, and Ben wasn’t surprised. “And his two brothers. Tongues will wag. See what you can find out and where the data from the labs is.”

Ben suspected the Moretti’s had it.

“Oliver will remain on standby until you are ready for him. Let’s get this job done and get you back to Seattle.”

“Roger that,” Ben responded.