Page 57 of The Devil's Pawn

He’s probably still worried about her after Cain, our gun supplier, assaulted her during a charity event Dom was holding at his place three days ago.

“She’s fine. She’s strong. Everything’s been taken care of.”

I immediately know he means the cleaners have disposed of Cain’s dead body. He’ll never be found.

“I’m glad she’s good, man,” Enzo throws in.

“Thanks. Why are you calling? Something happen?”

None of us are big on talking on the phone. If any of us calls, it means some shit is going down.

Enzo pulls in a long inhale. “The Bianchis are worse than we thought.”

I lean deeper into my seat, finding that hard to believe.

“What do you know?” Dom asks impatiently.

Enzo’s jaw tenses. “They’re trafficking women and kids, bro. Young fucking kids.”

“What?” I stand, my palms landing roughly on the desk. “How do you know?”

He curls a fist on his thigh, and the anger in his face would scare any motherfucker. “Because they did it to her. And to the others she saw working at some private sex club the Bianchis started.Kids, man. They hadkidsworking there.”

“Are you fucking serious?” Dom’s words loom with something menacing.

“There’s more. They have her son. He’s only eight. A baby, like Matteo was. They took him from her the second he was born.”

“Fuck!” I slam my fist on the desk, rattling the pen holder.

Just the thought of what those children and women have had to live through has me spiraling.

“Who’s the kid’s father?” Dom shoots off.

“She says she doesn’t know, but I don’t buy it. I think she does, but she’s scared to tell me.”

“Does she know where they’re keeping her son?” I’m the one asking the question now. “We’ve gotta find him.”

There’s one thing I don’t tolerate, and that’s anyone who hurts children. Every single person responsible will wish they’d never been born.

“She has no idea. But every month, they allow her to see him for ten minutes. They’ve been doing it since the kid was born.”

“Motherfuckers!” Dom’s enraged voice rips through the line.

“We need to go and find them all,” I say. “And I don’t mean days from now. I mean tomorrow.”

“You’re right,” Dom agrees.

“Let us take care of it,” I tell him. “Chiara needs you. Stay with her.”

If Raquel was the one going through what Chiara did, there’s no way I could live with myself if I had to leave her alone. I know my brother well enough to know he’s torn from both ends: duty to those kids and duty to the woman he cares about. I want to take that burden off his shoulders.

“Yeah, man. Dante and I have this,” Enzo adds. “We’ll keep you in the loop, but you stay where you belong.”

A long, silent moment passes before he speaks. “I should be there with you two. What if something—”

“We’ll be fine,” I reassure him. “You’ve gotta stop trying to protect us, Dom. It’s not your job anymore.”

But he can’t stop. Protecting us became embedded in his genetic makeup from the moment we ran. He carries this fear of losing another brother. It’s unspoken between us, but we all know it’s there, tormenting him.

---