Fight or Flight

Chapter Five

POV Ashton

When I asked Reese to find out her back story, I didn't really know what to expect.

** Flashback**

"Hey boss, I have the info on that girl from the fight if you still want it." I don't look up as I tell him to have Dev put it on my desk.

"There's something you should know though" He says, while clearing his throat. He's nervous.

"Why is that?" I ask, in a bored tone, I'm trying to enjoy the other fights. What could this girl possibly have in her file that should be brought to my attention?

"Her name is Novalynn Brooks, grew up learning MMA and is apparently quite acconplished. What we saw tonight was nothin'. She also works at a nursing home. Nothing big and fancy, just a small long term care facility. Moms a schizophrenic in a mental institution, seems like she killed her son. Her brother was best friends with Mark-"

"I could have read all that shit myself Reese, get on with it." I say, my irritation openly showing. There's nothing special here, just a boatload of childhood trauma. What next? Daddy issues?

"It's her dad man, you're not going to believe it." Daddy issues, called it.

**Flashback Ended**

I pride myself in not being easily taken off guard but that definitely did. She's a fucking heiress to the Italian mafia, I mean shit. She's hot but god damn, after watching her for a little bit anyone could see this girl is a walking disaster zone. I almost want to strangle Reese until he tells me him and Dev are fucking with me, there's no way this girl is underground royalty.

The footage from my private investigators over the two past two weeks is almost comical to look at. There are even photos of her walking into a glass door, spilling a bottle of some kind of cheap alcohol all over herself.

But of course, they both swore up and down that it was true, so then I had to treat Mark like a fucking mole until I knew for sure he was solid. They seemed a little too close for my liking.

I had Reese and Dev dig a little deeper, but everything checks out to be completely normal. Born and raised in the states with no obvious ties to her Italian heritage. There were a few things that stood out, one being a robbery when she was 20 resulting in her fathers murder and her being hospitalized. The other was four years ago her darling mother had a psychotic break and killed her son, Nova's brother Kaden.

After that Nova drops off the radar and I'm assuming that's when Mark turned to drugs having lost his best friend. When Dev looked into Dante Romano's activity here, that basically only showed him renouncing his family name, taking his wife's last name which is a huge deal in the mafia world.

It also confirms his death, showing the label on the file as a robbery/homicide, that's doubtful but whatever. Other than that he owned and operated a gym in a lower class area, that really didn't make much money.

Mark is fucking unyielding, even when he was beaten to a pulp for defying my orders he still refused to tell me anything about her. He only said that she was family, and that if she was an heiress she definitely didn't know it.

I'm kind of beginning to believe it, if he renounced his name he would have to keep his identity a secret to stay safe. There's nothing that suggests that he was receiving any money from the Italians, and I know he wasn't involved with anything in the underground market on American soil because I would have heard of it.