Mafia King's Contract Breeder

Emmanuel POV

The moment it was confirmed, pure joy as I had never felt exploded inside me.

Thirty two years I have haunted this earth, alone, unwanted, surviving the slums and climbing up through sheer force of spite.

I need no equal, no friends, no family.

Those were for dull, ordinary people.

But an heir I needed, because I was still regrettably mortal, frustratingly human. How I yearned to leave my mark on the world beyond each hollow breath, something to hold onto each night that I danced with death on the edge of the line.

My blood. My legacy.

An heir that was mine and mine alone, a child to shape in my image.

When I imagined it, planned for it— I never thought it would feel so visceral.

The mere knowledge that a child of my blood was growing inside this dainty little body drove me wild. I would cut down a hundred, a thousand more enemies with my bare hands to keep them safe.

It made my blood turn to ice, thinking back to the moment I saw her, there in the midst of the assassins and gunfire.

A defenseless target. With my child in her womb.

Well. Not quite as defenseless as I thought, but...that was not the point.

The entire point of having a child with an anonymous breeder was to prevent my enemies from knowing of my weakness and pressure point.

"Lara is pregnant," I told Ricci as he traced my step towards the elevator lobby.

"What! Congratulations, sir. Hole in one, eh?" Ricci chuckled.

"I will be tightening security around the top floors," I said, "Keep a close eye on Lara. Give her whatever she wants, within reason. Just don’t allow her to put herself at risk. Oh, and prepare the guest suite in the penthouse. I want Lara moved upstairs."

"Yes, Boss."

Assigning Vienna to guard this asset had not been one of my best ideas.

Never again, I thought darkly as the elevator doors closed. Even if I had to physically chain Lara to my bed, she was not allowed to be in in the path of danger again.

And there was no better way to avoid that than to eliminate the source of danger.

——

The headquarters below ground were already in action by the time I arrived.

Dover peered over Shen Kai’s shoulder as he typed on his laptop, transforming the flow of data into something that could be deadly.

"What do you have for me?" I asked.

Shen Kai jumped, startled, and then swiveled around in his chair to face me.

"Boss. Hi. I have decoded the surveillance and alert system at the Altair estate."

"Well done." I clapped him on the shoulder.

He gave a small smile, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose.

Shen Kai was my best man when I needed anything to do with hacking, tech, and intelligence gathering. Sagres Tower could not have become so secure without Shen Kai and his team.

"We have five sets of workable, complete uniforms that we stripped off the assassins," Dover added. "And the passcode that assassin gave us— he’s locked in one of the interrogation rooms."

"Time is running short," I said thoughtfully. "We leave before dawn."

"We?" Dover cocked his head at my bandaged shoulder. "Are you sure, Boss?"

I waved his concern away. I had been in much worse state than a scratch on the shoulder. And I could use both hands in combat equally well.

"I will kill them with my own hands. That is what they owe me."

Dover wet his lips slightly and did not argue further.

"Take me to see our informant. Let’s see if we can persuade him to be our tour guide in Kensington Hills, too."

Each of the row of interrogation rooms on B2 had a small one-way window on the door. Dover led the way, keys and access cards jangling on his keychain, his step pausing outside one of the doors.

When I peered inside, it was not the assassin I had asked to see.

Vienna was pacing the small space like a caged beast. As I watched, she slammed her fist into the concrete wall, hard. Her knuckles were already bloodied.

Dover glanced at me carefully.

"Is there something you want to say?" I lifted an eyebrow at him.

"Vienna is one of our best fighters," he said, voice carefully neutral. "She could be useful on the mission to the Altair estate."

"I will not bring into a fight like this someone I cannot trust to follow my orders," I said, my voice hardening. "Someone who believes they know what is good for me better than I do. That is not an asset, that is a liability."

"That was with the girl." Dover grimaced. "You know how she gets. Vienna wouldn’t mess up when your safety is on the line."

That was not enough for me. That was not what I wanted from her.

I turned away from the cell’s window to the next one down the row, already bored with this conversation.

"Send someone in and cuff her," I said. "She’s damaging my walls."

Dover made an even less enthusiastic face behind me, which I ignored. I had found the cell which housed my newest friend, the assassin with a better instinct for self preservation than his teammates.

He sat with his back against the wall, head in his hands.

I opened the door.

"Hello again," I said smoothly. "How would you like to earn your freedom?"

——

The Altairs were a family as old as the Federation, who had come over to the Capital of the Federation from the old continent when the city was founded.

Rich in heritage. Strict in discipline. Untouchable.

At least, on the surface. Below the surface was centuries of rot.

The wrought iron gates of the estate rose before me in the morning fog, the grand mansion standing proudly at the top of Kensington Hills. The location of the land itself was already worth millions, let alone the historic building and the priceless antiques.

I was clad in a uniform that I had stripped off a dead assassin, pistols hanging from both sides of my belt.

It was not the first time I had been here.

The last time I had been here, I was three years old, and a bargaining chip.