Page 2 of Dance with the Devil

The Boss had told her exactly what was going to happen, and she didn’t think she would be claimed. All her life, she’d been told how ugly she was, how fat and disgusting. Why would anyone want her? Her parents had always told her they were deeply ashamed of her, how they never wanted anything to do with her. She hated them.

When she learned what they were planning, at first she had panicked. She didn’t know what to do, or who to go to. They were planning to take over the mafia family, to kill The Boss, and they even had a list of capos they planned to eliminate.

Maria had seen all those details. She wasn’t meant to see any of it, but they fucked up. Thankfully, she had spent most of her life pretending to be dumb so they’d leave her alone. Fat, ugly, and dumb. No one had the time of day for her.

So, being ignored became a blessing. They only put up with her when there were social gatherings, and they could no longer pretend she wasn’t part of their family. Once she realized what she was doing, she snuck into her father’s office, found all the details, and that night, she had no choice but to go and find The Boss.

Doing so put her life at risk, but she couldn’t allow her father and mother to do what they wished. They were cruel, horrible people. Even though the mafia family was no better, she knew there was also mercy, there was order, and to kill The Boss and allow them to take over would have meant death to a lot of people. Her mother was the jealous type, and she’d order the kill of any woman she deemed a rival for her spot.

There was a lot of damage her family could do, which was why she went to The Boss and revealed their plans. She had no choice but to take proof, and she did so on the cell phone she’d been hiding from them for years.

At first, The Boss had laughed at her. Then when she showed him the proof, including the recording she had of their plot, his laughter had died.

Maria had expected to die. Anyone who plotted against The Boss or his family was killed. She didn’t know why The Boss spared her, but he had, and now she was due to marry.

Glancing up at the only man who’d stepped up to claim her, she couldn’t help but be terrified. Draven Esposito. He was considered the Devil. She heard the rumors about him, the death he caused.

People said he didn’t have a soul. There was no life in his eyes, and all he caused was death. He liked to bask in the blood, almost drown in it. He was addicted to causing blood to flow, and watching men and women bleed.

His name evoked nightmares. His name had terrified her father and mother. She had seen it, just as the one time she had seen him at one of her parents’ parties.

It was one of those occasions when her mother had thrown a black dress at her and told her she better hope she blended into the furniture. She wasn’t allowed to embarrass them. They wanted nothing to do with her, so she did exactly that.

Even her own family hadn’t realized she was there, watching, waiting.

“You could do so much better than her, Draven,” the older woman said.

As if her humiliation wasn’t already complete, she now had women who were perfectly happy to see her fall, to see her … hurt.

Draven had slid his jacket over her. The clothes she’d worn hadn’t been her own, and they had stunk like that of a sweaty man. It was a relief as well as a humiliation when they were pulled off her body. She had hated it.

Maria watched as she stepped toward Draven and then began to dance her fingers up his chest. They were perfectly painted a deep shade of red. She had felt those nails sink into her flesh. She gasped as Draven suddenly wrapped his fingers around the older woman’s neck, cutting off her air supply.

“Were you given orders to strip her on stage?”

Draven hadn’t given her enough oxygen to even answer. Maria couldn’t make out a single word she was saying.

He stepped back and the older woman, whose name Maria didn’t know, had no choice but to do as he wanted. She only stopped when her back hit the wall. Draven must have let her go long enough to gather some oxygen, but then he wrapped his fingers around her throat, cutting off her air supply once again.

Maria didn’t know what to do. This was going to be her husband.

“If you ever see my future wife again, you look the other way, or get down on your knees and you kiss her feet and beg for forgiveness, do you understand me?”

She tried to nod her head. Draven held onto her throat for a couple more seconds, and then let go. She fell to the floor.

He moved away and Maria looked up as he took her hand, and then they were out of the strip club. She held his jacket closed and didn’t make a single sound. She didn’t have on any kind of shoes, and didn’t get a chance to look down. It didn’t matter, because his car, along with his driver, waited for them.

Draven opened the door and ordered her to get inside. She did so. There was no arguing right now. This man had saved her, and not only that, he’d hurt the woman who’d been intent on humiliating her.

“No one is going to want your fat, useless ass, and when the room goes silent, and no one wants you, I get to kill you.”

All day, Maria had to deal with this woman pulling a gun on her, aiming it at her head. The threat had been real, but Maria was long past being terrified.

She’d been warned what her fate was going to be if no one claimed her. Maria had waited for it and knew when it came, she might know a sense of peace.

That hadn’t happened.

Draven had claimed her.

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