Page 25 of Marked

Chapter 15

Cain

I’m an idiot. A crazy idiot.

For the past few days, I’ve done the exact opposite of what I should have been doing. I should have continued to keep my distance from Riley. I should have been smart and rational, remembering the deal I agreed to and the role of Riley within all of this. She was supposed to be a means to an end, nothing more.

Instead, I have used every opportunity to fuck the living hell out of her, to play with her, to forget myself as I was buried deep inside of her and I refused to ignore the uncomfortable realization that hit me the night after she asked for warm food.

I can’t let her go. I can’t do this to her.

I can still feel her warmth pressed against my body as I leave her basement room and force myself up the stairs. My feet are dragging and I feel as if there’s a hook attached to my back, pulling me back to her and the force getting stronger with every step. I can still smell her scent radiating from her heated body as she lay nestled in my arm. She was a little tense at first, only able to relax because of the aftermath of her climax, but wary of my intentions. I could tell. I could tell that she wouldn’t let herself trust me.

She’s smart like that.

Riley is too good for all of this. She stands above the life of crime that I pulled her into, but she took her place in it with grace nonetheless. I admire that. I admire her in many ways, and I can no longer ignore the hot sting that pierces my heart every time I think about the things I ask her to do—and what I’m supposed to do to her after all of this is done.

The Scivolas have made their position clear. They did what was asked of them, but they didn’t do it as a favor to me. When I first heard of their hatred toward the Covey, I knew I would have to contact them. I knew, despite their many losses and their weak stance within the Mafia families of New England, that they could be just the help I needed to carry out my revenge. They are a small family who has taken a few too many hits in recent years, but they are still a name whispered in hushed voices by those who fear them.

And they hate the Covey with a passion that comes close to mine.

It wasn’t too long ago that they were betrayed by a Covey member, a guy who no longer works for them and whose only goal back then was to get out of a life in crime. He was the one responsible for the failed Onyx operation, which was nothing but another twisted attempt by the Scivolas to secure a bride for one of their sons. From what I know, they are desperate for new family members, desperate to grow, desperate to come back to their former glory. The Covey promised to help in their quest and failed them miserably. It’s no wonder they want to see the syndicate dead.

But their personal agenda is starting to interfere with mine. It’s not just the subtle threat by Ivo, or the fact that one of their contacts, who has been providing us with valuable information for months, went silent all of a sudden. These occurrences alone caused me to grow skeptical of their reliability, but when Kyle’s contact returned out of nowhere a day before the rendezvous, my suspicion grew exponentially.

Because we had a plan, and that plan has been thrown into disarray.

Kyle’s contact returned without giving an explanation as to what happened. Instead, he informed us that the plan for the evening of the rendezvous had been changed. Riley is still supposed to approach Charlie within the group and show him the kind of interest a guy like him rarely gets from a pretty girl. But instead of trying to go home with him to get access to his computer, the Scivolas decided to go a different way—a way that I don’t like at all.

According to Kyle’s contact, the Scivolas have reason to believe that Charlie would never take a girl to his home like that because the Covey forbids it. While that is a reasonable assumption—and one I’ve had myself before—there’s nothing that indicates this to be true.

Charlie is under constant protection, always watched by at least one or two henchmen who function as his bodyguards. They are usually easy to spot and I agree that it would be an easy task to take them out, kidnap Charlie and force our way to the information we need, using Riley’s skills to open virtual doors that none of us could unlock without her.

But that approach would cause a ruckus within minutes. A dead bodyguard would alarm the Covey immediately and not only would they send a small army to save their precious Charlie, they would also know of our intentions and thus make it even harder to get to the sensitive data that protects their entire syndicate.

And that would be the end of my plan.

The whole idea behind this was to not raise suspicion, to not let the Covey know we’re coming for them. I don’t want them to suspect anything until it’s too late. I want their goddamn hands cuffed by the time they realize what we did. We not only have to get the data from Charlie’s servers, we also need to process and use it to disband the Covey. That can’t be done within minutes, or hours, even. At least I don’t think it can be done that quickly. We need time, we need quiet proceedings, and we need the dark. We need the Covey to think that everything is fine.

That is why I need Riley. That is why I need to use her to sneak my way in without the Covey noticing anything. Charlie would just have an innocent one-night stand, one he may not remember much about the next day, but I doubt that would raise any suspicions.

It was the perfect plan.

And now the Scivolas are messing up everything. They want Riley to spike Charlie’s drink while she flirts with him, and they want her to lure him to the back exit of the bar with a promise for sex so they can get to him right then and there. The idea is to take Charlie and force the info out of him after using Riley’s allure as a decoy. She would have to be a lot more forward and in a lot more danger because she would be in the middle of the mess that could involve a fight between Charlie’s bodyguard and us. I never wanted that.

I never wanted any of this.

And now it looks like they’re not giving me another choice. Ivo blocked communication on this matter, Kyle’s contact already laid out the plan for the night—and I’m pushed into the role of a simple henchman playing along while they do as they please.

And Riley’s life is in more danger than ever.

The rendezvous will take place tomorrow, so I don’t have much time to come up with a plan to steer the wheel back in my direction after the Scivolas took control out of my hands.

Well, fuck them.

If they can step out of the arrangement we had—so can I.

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