"This is good," My father tells me a few days after giving me the assignment as he's looking over the finished product of Elisa Margaret Bonheur. My dad's assistant has been running around for the past few days as well, grabbing hair extensions, colored contacts, tattoo cover, anything that I may need to change my identity. He hands the folder to Sergei, his number two, for him to look over too.

"You knew that it would be," I remind him. He knows that I'm really good at what I do, he knew that I'd pull it off with flying colors. Especially since I've been making fake identities since I was in high school. Sergei, who is standing beside my father at his desk, nods in approval of the folder and puts it back on the desk without saying anything. "Do I get to know what the assignment is now?"

"It's a big one," My dad warns me, sitting at his desk as I sit on the other side, my fingers playing with the frame of the only personal item in my dad's office—a picture of my mother. Sergei stands silently, crossing his gigantic buff arms over his chest. I don't know why he is here but it's not surprising that he is. He and my father are always together, he's kind of like my dad's body guard. "But everything is in place and I know that you won't like it. I hate the idea too but it's the best way to finally defeat Berardi."

"So it does have to do with Arizona," I realize although that's not very surprising, he still hasn't told me anything as to why he's given up our Arizona border territory. Having territory separate from the Berardis is the only way that we stay civil and although both mobs pay off the cops, you can only pay the police to cover up so many murders.

"Yes," He finally admits. "We gave them the Arizona codes in order to get route 15 into Los Angeles."

"Wait, what?" I wonder with raised eyebrows, still not understanding anything. "Why would we need 15 if we have 40? It's more of a drive but it's not worth the only hacked toll into Arizona from the east side."

"Vera," He scolds me. "Just listen. I know that it was a risk, but giving them Arizona means that he's going to have to put all of his techs on the project, checking out the tolls for themselves and changing what needs to be changed to mold it to their standards instead of ours."

I still don't understand and so I only continue to listen.

"So they won't have time to manage the actual casino," He adds and then that's when I realize what's going on and I'm even more surprised than I thought that I would be.

"You're sending me into the Berardi Casino?" I ask him incredulously. I really hope that I'm wrong about this because that's about the worst idea that he's ever had. Or if he didn't come up with it, it's the worst one that he's ever ran with.

"I am. Your resume is subtly catered exactly for the job, you just have to nail the interview and if you get it, you'll be able to earn their trust and sneak into their offices and get their information. Whatever they have on us, any sales that we can interrupt, without them even knowing that we know. Any Berardis that have ever seen your face are dead, they've only seen pictures so with the appearance changes, they won't have a clue."

"It only helps that he's into young brunettes," I mumble bitterly.

"Yes, it does help," He confirms with a nod.

"You want me to sleep with Berardi? The man that you've sworn your life to fight and hate?" I ask him, still not believing that he'd be willing to put me in this situation.

He raises his eyebrows at me, challenging me to continue questioning him. "I want you to do whatever it takes, Vera. Like you always do. This will work, you just have to nail the interview. And because I'm sure he's put a few spies of his own into our casino, this is completely confidential. To anybody else, it was just Arizona for 15 and that's it. I believe in you, Vera."

"If they find me out, they'll kill me," I remind him.

Sergei finally speaks up, saying his first words since I've been in here. "No they won't."

I want to ask him how he can be so sure but I don't want to annoy either one of them. My dad is always used to having his way and I know that no matter what I say, he will get his way. The hard way or the easy way and I've grown to choose the easy way ninety nine percent of the time.

"You'll have your own apartment on their side of Vegas, you will have a contracted phone under your fake name and you'll have a burner. You will only contact us on your burner," My dad starts giving me the rundown.

"I know the drill," I assure him because although I've never been undercover myself, I've been part of the missions enough times to know how it works. I also know that all of the people we've sent to see how the Berardis work has gotten killed in the process. My dad only sends expendables, people that aren't important to the operation, so that he doesn't mind sending them to die.

The Berardis have always tried to hit my father where it hurts, that's why they killed my mother after my father stole some of their territory. That's why they always try to go after me because they know that they won't be able to ever get to my dad. They don't know exactly what I look like because I'm mostly always in my office, working at my computer grid, and the few people who have gotten to me, I've killed first.

My point is that if they figure out who I am, I am dead and my father has to know that. I just can't figure out why he's so okay with it. They'll probably make it really painful too, just to hurt my father that much more. He knows this. And yet, he seems so sure about this plan.

I don't want to do this but I have no choice. I have to blindly follow my father's orders or I get punished and that's how it is. Leaning back defeated in my chair, I open my eyes and look at him. "When do I start?"

He smiles at me. "I knew that you'd see things my way. I'm sending your resume in tomorrow morning and then we'll see if they take the bait. For now, just get back to work as usual. Sergei will be taking the lead on this project from here so you will contact him on the burner, he will be there if anything goes wrong."

I nod in understanding and glance up at Sergei who looks confident, staring back at me to assure me that he's got my back on this. He's a very tough man but that doesn't mean that he can save me from everything. I stand up from the chair that I'm sitting in so that I can get out of here. Those are our only parting words as I leave his office and return to my own. I have some surveillance to get through today so I guess I'll just go on pretending like my father isn't putting my life on the line here just for some business feud.

The Berardis own a casino, the Berardi Casino, and we also own a casino but we aren't as egotistical as they are about it, using our last name as our brand name. Granted, we don't use our last name for anything. The Berardis are more of an Italian crime family led by Giovanni Berardi and his son, Dante. They have the Berardi Casino with the Berardi Hotel and they run the Berardi Mob.

My great grandfather began the Pantera Mob in Russia when he was about my age and my grandfather carried it over into the United States. We still have strong ties with Russia like importing weaponry and drugs but unlike many organized crime rings, we do not deal in prostitution or bringing over illegal immigrants. Only guns and drugs and some other stuff but never people unless they're willingly working for us.

Pantera isn't our last name, or a name at all, it means panther in Russian. We aren't so big-headed that we need to paint our name on everything. We own the Renegade Casino and Hotel on the other side of Las Vegas and above the waters, we're competitors but so are all Vegas casinos. Under the waters, we're not only competitors but violent rivals. I don't know why we've butted heads so violently but it seems like it's getting very intense now, if my father is getting me in on it.

Getting back to my office, I open the door and see somebody sitting at my desk. Knowing that I don't have a meeting scheduled with anybody, I'm immediately pulling the gun out of the waist band of my pants and pointing it at the person, prepared to pull the trigger at any second. Once I fully realize who it is though, I relax again, letting my arms drop to my side with the gun.

"Relax there, tiger," Coleman grins at me as I step farther into the office and slip the gun back into my waistband where it always sits against my hip.

"What are you doing here?" I ask him impatiently. Coleman is basically my second hand when it comes to the tech stuff. He's very good with a computer (but still not as good as me) so if I'm getting weighed down with a lot of work, he's the one that helps out. He's pretty buff and he works the field sometimes too, helping out the loan sharks if they need it. Mostly, though, he's working with me. He's also one of the other people who smile sometimes and we are a very rare breed.

"I'm having a slow day and I just came by to see if you need anything," He explains to me. I sit across from him in my desk chair and he runs his fingers through his dark hair.

"I need the security reports," I tell him.

"Already done," He holds up a manila folder that he's had on his lap and then he lightly tosses it onto my desk for me to inspect. "And the remote server is back up too, running smoothly."

"Did you just come in here to gloat?" I raise my eyebrows at him. "Because I'm very busy."

"No, I'm here to help. Like always," He assures me in a comforting voice. I like that he can comfort me sometimes, because we work together a lot and he knows me fairly well. "So what can I do?"

"I have to teach you a lot of shit," I realize. "I'm going on a long term mission and you'll be on your own here for a while."

"I can handle it," Coleman tells me. "Give me some credit here, Vera. I might not be as good as you but I'm still pretty fucking good."

"I know," I say to him, letting out a long sigh as I'm still trying to wrap my head around this crazy plan that my dad has planned out.

"Hey," He leans forward as if he's trying to get closer to me but the desk is still between us. "I know that you're the boss here but I'm going to tell you how today is going to go. Okay?"

"Alright."

"We'll stay in here and get everything done that needs to be done today. You can teach me whatever you need to teach me to be a big boy, I'll give you a shoulder massage because you look really stressed. And then we'll leave it all here and go back to your enormous mansion house and watch a movie or something and unwind. You need to unwind."

I appreciate Coleman a lot. Especially right now with so much going through my head. "Okay, we'll go with your plan. That's a good plan."

"Good," He offers me another genuinely comforting smile. "Now let's get to work."