Page 49 of The Devil's Deal

“Just say, ‘Hey.’” She sits back on the bed, shaking her head as she stares ahead, not really looking at anything specific.

I write the text. They’d better fucking listen, or we’ll have a huge mess to clean up. None of us want anyone who doesn’t deserve it to die tonight.

Chiara:Hey. Stay home tonight. The club will be closed. I found a rat. You’ll be paid. Don’t worry.

Before sending it, I walk over to her and hold the phone before her face. “How’s this?”

She scans the text and looks up with confusion marring her features. Then suddenly, her eyes widen.

“Fuck. You’re the reason my father and uncles are in hiding, aren’t you?”

“I am.” I grin. Not a kind one, either. One that says I’m the monster behind the destruction and damn proud of it.

Today’s attack will inform Faro Bianchi that I reject the deal he offered me the day after we burned his warehouse. He thought he could stop the war, but I have no intention of ever taking the devil’s deal, no matter what I led him to believe.

The Bianchi men will pay with their blood. The battle will rage on until every last one of them is dead.

Chapter Fifteen

Chiara

I can’t believeI didn’t put two and two together. He’s the one that has my father scared. I have never seen him hide from anyone…until now.

Brian Smith must be different somehow, and I have to figure out why. I know my father is planning a war behind closed doors. He may have disappeared, but he’s never truly gone. He’s always there. Watching, waiting for his chance to strike. He’s never been the type to sit behind a desk and have his soldiers do all the fighting. He’s been the one leading them.

I hope Brian and his army are strong enough to win. A daughter shouldn’t want the death of her own parent, but this one does.

Knowing my father is scared of Brian should have me scared too, but I’m holding on to the hope that he needs me enough to let me live.

Lord knows he could’ve easily killed me already, especially when I talked back to him, but he didn’t. He didn’t even hit me. The men in my life would slap a woman around for ever talking to them that way. He just took it. And I liked giving it to him.

I know what I told myself about keeping my attitude in check around him, but every time he walks into the room, I can’t help myself. I can’t stop the need to bite and claw until I see that inferno burning in his gaze, the one that tells me exactly what he wants to do with me.

He excites and unnerves me all at once. I’m a fool for playing this dangerous game, but I don’t think I could stop it even if I tried.

Grabbing a pillow adjacent to my head, I hold it close against my chest, worry carved onto every beat of my heart, not for myself, but for the people I employ. I really hope none of them show up at the club tonight. I’ll never forgive myself if any one of them gets hurt. It’d be my fault. By virtue of being a Bianchi, I could lead them to their death without lifting a finger.

I don’t care about the club itself. I never have. I only care about the people in it. I’m grateful that Brian is going to torch it, even if that means all of them lose their jobs. They shouldn’t work there anyway, not when my father is the boss.

And as an added bonus, I won’t have to work for him. Well, until he finds another purpose for me or another man for me to marry. I love my cousin to death, but I don’t want to be her.

Standing up from the bed, I walk around aimlessly before turning on the TV. I flip through channel after channel, not finding jack shit to watch. I hate being locked away in this room, like a mouse on a wheel. But unlike the mouse, I’m fully aware of my surroundings. Unlike the mouse, I know there’s more out there, and I’m digging aimlessly with no way to escape.

There has to be something I can do to get out of here. First, out of this room. Then, out of this house. I need to get him to trust me.

Maybe I can offer him something he may not know about my father. Show him that the man whose blood I share means absolutely nothing to me.

But there’s something else I can try on top of that.

Something riskier.

Bolder.

But something that may work.

I can use his attraction for me to my benefit.

I can tell he’s fighting it. I can see the flares of caution warning him away, as though I’m the sun and he’s a mere mortal who’ll burn from a single touch.

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