Page 1 of Of Desire And Deception

Chapter One

To fear the dark, you must first fear the unknown .

What lurked in the shadows was never worse than the darkness dwelling in my own mind. I’d seen the worst, had known the terror of death. I was immersed in every fear I once possessed until I had none.

While others avoided Chicago’s streets and alleyways at night, I embraced them, making them my hunting grounds as I tracked those who dared betray my family. A band of traitors made up of those still loyal to my father and those disloyal to the Bratva, the self-proclaimed River Raiders, had made life as difficult as possible for us. The Neretti Mafia ruled Chicago, and my brother Dante left me in charge of taking care of the river rat upstarts who thought they could take on my family.

So I stalked them in the shadows, becoming their worst nightmare, and reveled in each final breath exhaled at the tip of my blade. Silently, I followed a man who had been passing along information about my family’s shipments. He’d worked for a capo who blew my brother Romeo’s business to pieces two weeks ago, and though my brother had been spared because he’d decided to meet his wife for lunch, others hadn’t been so lucky.

I was still searching for the capos behind the explosions that day; they were wise enough to keep themselves well hidden behind their lackeys. Yet they’d been stupid enough to think they had any chance of survival after their actions. It was only a matter of time before they were strung up in my dungeon and screaming in lyrical agony at my hands.

My black leather boots trod silently over the cement sidewalk as I closed in on my targets—five men wearing black hoodies, black jeans, and black shoes. They thought it made them less noticeable, but it screamed gang activity to me. The sound of the river lapping against the docks muted their harsh whispers as they rounded the next warehouse, and I plastered myself against the building as one of the men reversed course and came in my direction.

Silently, I withdrew my knife, flipping the blade open with a quiet click as it locked into place. The man’s footsteps grew louder, and as soon as he passed the corner, I wrapped my hand around his face and pulled his back to my chest, palm silencing his cry as I slit his throat. I lowered him to the ground in the building's shadow, pulling his hood over his head to muffle the last of his gurgled breaths. There was no danger of him calling out to his friends.

One down.

I darted down the length of the building, peering around the next corner to make sure the coast was clear before creeping down the next side and turning my ear toward the sound of men talking.

“We agreed on two thousand,” a man was saying.

“She fucking bit me, man,” came another whiny voice. “I want three.”

The first man laughed darkly, and I knew what was about to happen because it was what I would have done.

“Fuck!” The second man’s scream cut off abruptly before I heard the thud of a body hitting the ground.

“Two or nothing,” the first man chuckled. “I guess it was nothing. Take the girl inside.”

The scuffling of shoes was silenced as the men entered one of the buildings, and I glanced around the corner to find a body on the ground. They hadn’t even bothered to cover it up. That spoke volumes about their confidence in their criminal endeavors, and I wondered who in the port they had on their payroll.

And if they could afford to have authorities on their payroll, how were they making that kind of money? The River Raiders were supposed to be a ragtag group of leftovers; by all accounts, they weren’t organized. But the cash had to come from somewhere. It sounded like some of it was from the flesh trade.

My fist tightened around my blade, and my mouth watered for the blood of the sorry excuses for men who would sell a woman as a sex slave. I needed to sate that need for violence and death.

The gang members didn’t leave men guarding the door they passed through, and I stood outside it, listening for their voices. There was silence on the other side, so I slowly turned the knob and slipped inside the dark warehouse. I could hear something coming from the rooms in the back, so I skirted the perimeter, keeping to the shadows as I drew closer to my targets.

A man stood outside another door, playing a game on his phone and paying no attention to his surroundings. He deserved to die for his stupidity. When he turned to lean his shoulder against the wall, I moved in, pocketing my knife and grabbing the man’s head in a bruising hold, wrenching and snapping his neck. His immediate dead weight nearly took me down, but I planted myself in a wide stance and dragged him off to the side.

Two down.

An electrical panel on the wall caught my attention, and I grinned to myself. If I believed in providence or fortune, I’d think some higher power put it there just for me. I shut every breaker off, the snap of the switches echoing like firecrackers in the silent warehouse.

The men in the room cursed loudly, and somebody knocked something over before the guy in charge barked out, “Go find out what happened!”

Two men burst through the door with guns drawn, the light from outside illuminating their silhouettes. Perfect. I went for the bigger of the two first, kicking his legs out from under him and reveling in the satisfying crack of his head hitting the floor before he could break his fall.

“Fuck, Tony!” The shorter man rushed to aid the bigger guy, and as soon as his knees hit the ground, I dragged my knife across his throat, the other man watching as his friend’s blood poured down on his chest.

He struggled under the weight of the dying man, but I was faster, quickly ending him with my blade.

Four down.

That left the man and the girl in the office, and things were eerily quiet. I could practically smell the fear radiating off the man behind the door as I pushed it open while standing safely off to the side. He panicked and emptied his weapon; the bullets flying across the warehouse and embedding harmlessly into a few crates and the cement walls.

“D-don’t come any closer!” he stuttered. “I’ll shoot!”

I laughed at his empty threat and stepped through the doorway. At first, I only saw the girl lying bound on the floor. Then I caught a movement under the window. The coward was hiding under the fucking desk, but his back was left exposed.

---