The Stray They Cast Out Five Years Ago Has Come Back

The thugs were scared out of their wits. Their steel pipes clattered to the floor.

My slap had sent Isabella stumbling into a meat hook. Half her face was swelling, and blood seeped from the corner of her mouth.

She stared at me in disbelief, still unable to process what had just happened.

"Who... who are you? You dare touch me in Black City?"

I didn't bother answering. I motioned for the soldiers who had cleared my path to fall back, then walked into the slaughterhouse.

A few thugs scrambled up to stop me. I flung them aside and they staggered into the wall.

Marco lay beside a pool of blood.

He was gaunt, almost skeletal, his face black and blue and covered in cuts.

But his eyes were the same blue I'd known five years ago. Even now, he stubbornly held on to the last of his dignity.

He looked at me, and his clouded eyes sharpened. A spark of life returned to them.

"Chi... Chiara?"

"It's me, Marco."

As soon as I spoke, he struggled to get up, but his injured leg gave out and he fell back hard.

The light in his eyes died, and he turned his face away in shame.

"What... what are you doing back here?

"Don't look at me...not like this. I'm filthy."

Five years ago, the head of my family had humiliated me with a suitcase full of cash and forced me to leave. Then I vanished.

I thought Marco would have the peaceful life he deserved by now. As a boy, he'd told me he would become our family's sharpest blade and bring it glory.

I never imagined he would end up like this, all to protect a lighter I had left behind.

My chest tightened at the thought.

I hurried over, crouched in front of him, and reached out to touch his battered face.

He flinched away from my hand.

"Chiara, you shouldn't have come back.

"The Leoni family owns Black City. I don't want to drag you down with me. Get out of here!"

I stayed. I gripped his cold hand and brushed my thumb over the dried blood on the back of it.

"Marco, I'm back. Nobody is going to hurt you again.

"Today, no one touches a hair on your head."

Isabella, holding her face, finally got up off the floor and staggered a few steps toward me.

"Well, well. I thought you looked familiar. Isn't this the broke little whore who got cash thrown in her face and hopped a freight train out of Black City in the night?"

She circled me, her eyes lingering on my leather jacket and its lack of a designer logo. She made no effort to hide her contempt.

"What happened? The old man you latched onto got bored of you? So you came back to beg scraps from this stray?"

The rich boys behind her burst out laughing.

"Marco, you're defying Ms. Leoni over this? You've lost your fucking mind."

She walked over to Marco and bent down, keeping her taunting gaze on me.

She jabbed a finger into his chest. "Come home with me like a good boy, and I might let her leave Black City in one piece. Otherwise..."

She raised a hand and snapped her fingers. The thugs closed in and surrounded me.

Marco went white.

"Isabella, come at me! She doesn't know anything. Let her go!"

He struggled to his feet to shield me, but a thug kicked him in the stomach. He curled up on the floor.

"Ms. Leoni, if you'll let her go, I... I'll do anything..."

He was ready to give up the last of his dignity.

Before he could, I stepped in front of him and gave Isabella a cold smile.

"He doesn't need to bow his head to trash like you."