The Billionaire's Accidental Bride

Chapter 1: Plan

Azure P.O.V

I sat in my father’s office with a few other soldiers going over the plan of attack for tonight. I was to lead the attack along with Richardo, the underboss, and son of the Salvatore family. “Now, when we enter from the east of the building, group A will distract the soldiers who protect Rocco while team B moves in from the east. No one’s judgment or unplanned emotions should get in the way of the mission. We need to keep Rocco alive and back to the Armory. It’s the only way that a traitor deserves to be dealt with” father said, looking over at all of us. I would lead team B, while Richardo leads team A. I honestly hated working with Richardo. Our parents had set up an arranged marriage deal ever since my father became the Cappo of the North.

He always tried to do something to get my attention. He knew very well that I had no feelings for him. After my childhood crush, Xavier Cortez, broke my heart, I would have preferred to never get married nor have any feelings of love towards anyone, ever! The Cortez and the Salvatore family rivalry went back almost 15 years. The Cortez family was responsible for the brutal murder of my mother and younger sister, along with the three wives of the other Capos as well as Marina Salvatore, the late wife of our boss.

Ever since that night, there has been a constant blood war between the two families. Rocco was one of the lead soldiers for our family. He was part of the Cartel group in charge of protecting the cartel's merchandise. It came to our attention a week ago that Rocco got greedy and sold cartel trade secrets to the Cortez family. Once this became common knowledge, the Cortez’s offered Rocco safety and a pass.

"You know, if you don’t frown so much, those hazel eyes really are the most beautiful thing to see in existence,” Richardo said, standing next to me staring out of the window. I just rolled my eyes at him. Obviously, a girl can’t be allowed to have peace and quiet looking out over the ocean. “You know, I would really like some peace and quiet before we head out tonight. You know – private girl time?” I tartly retorted back. A chuckle erupted from Richardo’s chest as soon as those words left my mouth. Without allowing him to mock me further, I spun around on my heel and left the office, heading down to my room to get ready for the mission.

***

Waiting - not one of my strongest characteristics. We sat hunched down behind the wall, waiting for the signal from father to enter the building. He managed to hack into the security footage of the hotel."Azure, Richardo, they are moving Rocco from the ground floor, they are heading up towards the stairs." father exclaimed through my earpiece. I nodded at Richardo before spinning the silencer tightly on my gun. I flung the shotgun over my shoulder and put on my mask. I nodded at Richardo, giving him the signal that I was ready to move.

"Come on, let's move out!" I whispered over to my team before standing up. Richardo pulled at my arm and turned me toward him. "Be safe in there, okay? Those men are heavily armed and they won't hesitate to shoot whether you're a woman or not!" He whispered, pulling me flush against his body. He leaned down and placed a kiss on my cheek before pulling away. My body instantly went rigit at the dislike of the situation that just happened. "I'll be fine!" I muttered before turning away, sprinting in the direction of my team. Once at the entrance door, I slightly pulled it open, peeking inside with my pistol at the ready. Once clear, I motioned for my team to head on inside. "Azure, up to the second floor, once Richardo gave the all clear over the channel, moved onto the floor from the fire-exit. Take a left, count 4 doors and you'll have him on the right-hand side of the corridor. There were about 6 armed men inside the room with Rocco!" father's voice coming over my earpiece.

We ascended the stairs as fast as we could. Once on the second floor landing, I hunched down next to the fire-exit, keeping my pistol aimed in the direction of the door, I waited for Richardo's voice over the channel. I heard voices on the other side of the door. s**t! This was no-where near the plan. Father said that the second floor was the quietest floor in the hotel. The door started to creek open. Two large built men in suits walked in. Once they saw us, they immediately reached for the pistols. Before they could even try to aim for us, two quick pulls from my trigger and both men laid in a heap on the floor. "Father, two men just came into the fire-exit. How many are looming around on the floor?!" I whispered over the channel. After a few seconds of no response from father, Richardo's voice came over the radio.

"Those two broke away from the group. I couldn't send someone after them, otherwise the whole mission would be compromised. All other guards have been taken care of, team B, you're up!" He said autoritively over the channel. I gave the signal to my team and pulled the door open. Looking down the corridor, I gave the all clear to my team and turned left, as instructed by father. I started counting: door 1, door 2, door 3, door 4. I turned to face the door just opposite me. I knew Rocco and armed guards were inside that room. I took a deep breath before turning around to face my team. I gave one curt nod to them before slowly walking up to the door. I knew once this door was opened, all hell was about to break loose.

I took a deep breath and counted to three in my head before placing my hand on the door handle. Okay, let's go! I turned the handle and flung the door open. Bullets immediately flew past me as the men in the room opened fire. I aimed my pistol at the first guard I saw, one shot in between his eyes and he fell to the floor. I immediately swung my pistol over to my left - one shot and the second guard was down. My team stormed in and started taking care of the rest of the guards as I reverted my attention to the search for Rocco. I saw the bathroom door turn shut and knew it was him. I rushed over to the door and kicked it in. Revealing, a scared-looking Rocco crouched down in the corner of the bathroom. "P-Please d-don't kill me!" he pleaded. I just smirked as I took off my mask. Fear immediately painted his features as he took in who I was. He knew right then and there what his fate would be. "Oh, don't you worry about that sweetheart, father has different plans for you!" I mocked him sarcastically.

"Azure! We need to get moving now! More armed men are storming into the building from all the shots that went down now!" Michael, one of the soldiers on my team came rushing into the bathroom. I just sighed. Where the f**k was Richardo?! He was supposed to take care of things downstairs and outside! I walked over to Rocco, turned my pistol around and hit him hard against the head with the bottom of my pistol, completely knocking him out. Michael walked over and hauled Rocco up and over his shoulder. We rushed out of the room just as a few men stormed up the stairs. Michael handed Rocco over to Nicololo, as the rest of the team rushed tto the fire exit. Michael and I stayed behind to give support. Bullets flew from our pistols towards the men shooting right back at us. I gave one final shot and the last man went down.

"Azure! Your leg! You're bleeding!" Michael said, getting my attention. I looked down and felt the sting, a bullet had grazed my leg. "f**k!" I muttered to myself as Michael immediately pushed himself under my arm, offering some support as we headed over to the fire exit and down the stairs. Once outside, we headed over to the SUV's waiting for us. Richardo immediately stormed out of the black SUV in the front and over to us. "What happened?!" He demanded urgently.

"What happened? Are you serious?! We were ambushed by armed men. I thought you had the outside and ground floor covered!" I spat back at him. He just looked at me questioningly before he started to laugh. "Oh, come on babe, let's get you in the car and back home. I'll get Doctor Mischa to meet us there to patch you up!" Richardo said, lifting me up and carrying me to the car bridal style. "I'm not your babe!" I mumbled, looking ahead. Once back at the compound, Richardo carried me to the living room, and placed me down on the couch. He walked over to the kitchen, bringing back a towel and placing it under my leg. "Doctor Mischa should be here soon. Look, I'm sorry about what happened. My men assured me that all of the guards surrounding the hotel were indeed taken care of. If I knew that there were more on their way, I would have had my men at the ready." Richardo said, sitting down next to me.

Before I could retort something tartly back, Doctor Mischa walked on into the room. "Here we are, I heard you had a little run in with a bullet, yeah?" she said, walking over to me with her medical hanging over her shoulder. Richardo, luckily, took that as his queue to leave as Doctor Mischa instructed me to take off my pants. I hissed in pain as she started to clean the wound. "You're lucky that it's only a graze, you know that, right? If the person had aimed merely millimeters to the right, they would have hit a major artery and you would have bled out in seconds. Now, I'm going to numb the area just a bit and give you stitches. Three should do." She said as she injected a local anaesthetic into my leg.

Once stitched up, Doctor Mischa gave me a spare pair of tracksuit pants that I luckily pulled on just in time as father walked into the room. "I heard you got a little blood drawn on the mission" he said, walking over to me, patting me on the shoulder. I always hated that my father never wanted to show me a hint of affection. Ever since my mother and sister died, it was like he retreated back into his own shell and just treated me like any other family member. I just sighed and nodded my head. "Yeah, a bullet gazed my leg, nothing too serious - I'm sure I'll live." I said, looking away.

"Good, that's good, because you are going to need that leg of yours for your next mission!" father said, looking at me with a glint in his eyes. I frowned, just staring at him. "What do you mean?" I asked him, looking confused. Never has my father been this excited about sharing mission details with me.

"Well, after you retrieved Rocco, I had a meeting with Marinio Savatore. It's time to finally strike back and put the final nail in the Cortez coffin." My father said excitedly. I kept looking on at him, wanting him to elaborate on the exact details of the mission. "You will have to kill Xavier Cortez. Marinio will come by later and elaborate further on what will be required from you. Just know that once you complete this mission, I will retire and you will take over as the Cappo of the North!" My father said, looking at me with so much hope in his eyes. 'Kill Xavier?' I kept on repeating in my head, unsure if I would be able to kill him.