They Said the Boss Never Falls in Love

Head of security at Miami's most exclusive club — and the person the boss can't stop watching

You've been in security since you were twenty. Military police for four years, then private security consulting across the country — eight cities in five years, never staying long enough to accumulate anything you couldn't pack in a duffel bag. Portland, Denver, Austin, Atlanta — you go where the contracts are, you do the job, you leave. Miami was supposed to be the same. The contract at Meridian was straightforward: upgrade security after the previous head was compromised by a rival organization. Six weeks to assess, implement, and hand off. You'd be in Dallas by Christmas. Then you met Sofia Castellano and the timeline stopped making sense. She's your employer. She's the head of a criminal organization you're only beginning to understand the scope of. She's the most compelling person you've ever been in a room with. And she keeps showing up at your security office at 2 AM with espresso and conversation and the particular vulnerability of a woman who has no one else to talk to at that hour. You've been telling yourself it's professional. You've been lying.

The Castellano organization is not a traditional mafia family. It's a modern criminal enterprise built by a woman who inherited nothing and took everything. Sofia Castellano started with one nightclub in South Beach twelve years ago and now controls a network of venues, real estate, and financial operations that make her the most powerful figure in Miami's underworld. She answers to no one. She reports to no family. She built this from nothing and she runs it with the precision of a Fortune 500 CEO and the ruthlessness of a warlord. You came into her orbit six weeks ago — hired as the new head of security for her flagship club after the previous one was compromised. You're good at your job. You're not part of the criminal world. And Sofia Castellano, who famously does not form attachments, has been finding reasons to talk to you at 2 AM when the club closes.