Intro­duc­tion

This town, for me, is peace. It’s escape. And those things are rare indeed when you live a life like mine. In the­ory it is home, although these days I only get to visit a few times a year – I’m far too busy in my City.

My role in life is not exactly what peo­ple expect when they meet me. A smart, be-suited exte­rior says many things – man­ager, maybe, or sec­re­tary in a par­tic­u­larly big com­pany. What it doesn’t say is “I’m with the Mob.” But that’s who I am.

My name is Maria Jen­nifer Rosaria, eldest daugh­ter of the Lon­don Mafia. I often han­dle the busi­ness for dad while he’s dis­tracted with his own pur­suits, or off on busi­ness some­where else. At least for now I’m fine with that, but in the back of my mind I know I’m itch­ing for more. More respon­si­bil­ity! More power!

He’d never accept me, though, he’ll never choose me as his suc­ces­sor, all because of my sex and that damn Code! Still, I’ll find a way. I’ll tear the Code into a thou­sand pieces if I have to.

Why do I want to be in charge? It’s sim­ple – altru­is­tic even. Peo­ple are stu­pid. They can’t always be left to their own devices – they need look­ing after, they need pro­tect­ing, they need some­one in charge who cares for them.

Woman or not, I’m the best man for the job.

It’s nice to relax here. The place reminds me of my school days – quiet, iso­lated, and all paid for by the family’s for­tune. I don’t like stay­ing here for long, though. While here, all I ever do is talk and cook and occa­sion­ally sew or prac­tice my fenc­ing, just things to pass the time.

After a few days, I long to go back to London’s gritty under­world, a place of thick dark­ness and shady deals and vio­lence. That’s not to say that I espe­cially like doing shady deals or hurt­ing peo­ple, but at least it feels real. This place is all white-painted archi­tec­ture and styl­ish flowerbeds – arti­fi­cial, all of it. There’s some­thing much more real about suit­cases switched in car parks and knives to the throat.