Page 9 of The Devil's Pawn

“Want to get out of here?” The question jumps out before I have a chance to take it back.

My heartbeats slam in my rib cage, afraid he’ll say no—or maybe afraid that he’ll actually say yes.

His eyes widen for the briefest of seconds, and then he’s on his feet, towering over me and tugging on my hand. His lips curve with a wicked smirk.

“I thought you’d never ask.”

I breathe a sigh of relief, wrapping my fingers around his and letting him take me as far from here as possible for as long as he’ll have me.

CHAPTERTHREE

DANTE

She’s sobeautiful with her long, wavy black hair and brown eyes so dark they’re almost the color of midnight. She’s a lot shorter in person, especially with no heels on. She’s five-three while I’m six-three. My brothers and I are all tall, taking after our father.

Thanks to my constant surveillance, I knew she’d be at this bar. After I watched her run from her house, I beat her here.

Raquel Bianchi is predictable that way. She likes to hide out in this crummy hole-in-the-wall bar whenever she’s upset. I would’ve been really pissed if she’d chosen to go elsewhere.

I’ve been keeping tabs on her for a year now, intercepting all her calls and having my men follow her when I couldn’t do it myself.

When my brothers and I set the plan in motion to hurt the Bianchi brothers, Raquel was always the chess piece I was born to play. We knew how much she meant to her father, and we knew how much they hated us.

At first, when I saw her photo while we planned our revenge, I only wanted to trick her into marriage to punish her father for hurting our family. Marrying his daughter would do the trick. But then we decided we could use her as a bargaining chip to get her father out of hiding.

Not that I’ll ever give her up, but I could easily convince her father I would trade her life for his. Unlike Faro, he’d probably choose to save his daughter.

Little does Sal know that Raquel will be mine, and she’ll stay that way, even though she doesn’t know it yet. The Bianchi men have always thought they’re better than us. The thought of the Cavaleri boys marrying a Bianchi woman would be hell to them.

I can’t wait to let her father know the happy news…right before I put a bullet in his skull. It’s too bad he won’t be attending the wedding, unless it’s in a coffin.

I have no plans of falling for my enemy’s daughter. Raquel may be innocent, but she still shares their blood. We may be married soon, and I’ll even fuck her, but I’ll never fall in love with her. A loveless marriage is all we’ll have.

She can blame her father for that. He stained her with the blood of his mistakes, and for that, she’ll always pay. I might not be as cruel as Carlito, but marrying me will be its own prison. This little bird will never truly be free.

I can provide her with something Carlito can’t, though: a life not ruled by fear. She’ll never have to be afraid of a man hurting her again.

Tonight, after I left Viper, one of the dance clubs my brothers and I own, I went to the wedding she was attending and made sure Carlito wasn't doing what she didn’t want him to do. I blended with the crowd, completely unnoticed amongst the hundreds of people in attendance. When they were heading out, I followed them back to her parents’ house.

I’ve gotten to know her soon-to-be ex-fiancé quite well. He likes to frequent Tips & Tricks, a strip club owned by the Bianchis, of which Chiara is the manager.

Whenever he’s there, I find a way to be there too, securing a table right next to his or joining him when he texts my burner. My men keep me up to date about his comings and goings too, so I know where he’ll be before he even does.

After the first conversation I struck up with him, he thought we were friends for life or some shit. The man can drink a whole bottle of liquor and sing like a canary, with a stripper or two on his lap while he spills details about what he’ll do to Raquel once they’re married.

I feel sorry for her. I’m even sorry for what I plan to do to her. The lies I’ll tell to get what I want. But it’s necessary. My brothers and I have waited fifteen years to avenge the deaths of my father and eight-year-old brother, Matteo, who are both dead thanks to her uncle Faro and his brothers, one of whom is her father.

Because of her family, I had to run away with my oldest brother, Dom, and my younger brother, Enzo, when I was only twelve. We lived on the streets for a year before finding shelters to survive in.

We had to do a lot of ugly shit to make it out alive, like robbing people and stealing candy bars from convenience stores so we could eat. Our past is filled with more awfulness than any kid should ever endure. But we did, because of them.

Faro wanted us dead. Before he killed my father, he swore to him that he’d kill us too. So we had no choice but to get as far away from his whole family as we could.

We got lucky eventually, when Dom met Tomás Smith while working at a coffee shop when he was sixteen. Tomás offered us a job, a safe place to live, and more importantly, someone who could look out for all of us. Dom was just a kid, only a year older than me, when we ran, but he did whatever he could to keep us safe. With Tomás, we finally were.

We didn’t think the day would ever come when we’d be on top—when the Bianchi brothers would fear us—but now they do.

They hid like roaches after we burned the first business they owned: a laundromat they used to run guns and manage their illegal operations. We’ve been solidifying our plan for vengeance for a year now, making sure all the cards are laid out perfectly. The time has finally arrived for every one of them to pay the ultimate price.

---