Chapter 4

My uncle picked it up and turned it over. There were no jewels or diamonds, just an unfamiliar emblem of a raven fused with a crown.

He curled his lip and, in front of everyone, flung it into the pool of blood.

"A scrap of iron with no brand on it. Who are you trying to fool?

"Chiara, you think we're all hicks who've never seen the world, like you?"

Marco seemed to think the badge had been my last card. The hope in his eyes died.

Even so, he stubbornly spread his arms and put his slight frame between me and them.

"That's enough, both of you. Chiara has suffered too much for this family. I won't let you treat her like this."

Antonelli, the head of a minor Mafia family, stepped up to Marco and clicked his tongue in feigned concern.

"Marco, no offense, but you're really not too bright.

"A woman like Isabella? Every man on the East Coast would be on his knees for her."

Marco looked at him coldly. "Antonelli, this is Franco family business."

Antonelli flushed, spat, then turned to clink glasses with Isabella and wait for the show.

My uncle leaned on a pillar, shaking his head. "What a disgrace to the family."

My aunt kept muttering, "If you'd listened to me and let Marco go with Ms. Leoni, none of this would be happening."

Isabella sat swinging her leg, perfectly at ease.

Every few minutes, she checked the Vacheron Constantin on her wrist and looked at me like a cat playing with a mouse.

With five minutes to go, Isabella stood, walked over, and tilted her head at me.

"Time's almost up, Chiara. Where's your thirty million? Still stuck somewhere across the Atlantic?"

Her lackeys jeered along with her.

"Ms. Leoni, stop wasting words on this fraud. Just do it!"

"Yeah, teach her how Black City works!"

Isabella waved to her men. The thugs brought a thick spiked collar and threw it at Marco's feet.

"I've lost patience with this little game of make-believe. But I'm not letting my time go to waste."

She jerked her chin at the collar, then at me.

"New rules. Marco, put it on. Then get down on all fours and bark for me.

"Then strip your precious cousin naked with your own hands and throw her into the street. Melt that piece-of-junk lighter down yourself!

"Do that, and the Franco debt is wiped clean."

She lifted her head, and her voice went cold.

"But if you can't... I'll have this bitch's face cut up right here and sell her off to Mexico!"

Marco flinched, then stepped in front of me without a second's thought.

Before I could speak, my aunt rushed up and slapped Marco hard on the back.

"What are you standing there for? Do what Ms. Leoni says. Serve her properly!"

Marco shook her off and stepped back.

"Aunt, have you lost your mind? Do you even hear yourself?"

My uncle signaled two of the thugs.

"Hold that little bitch down. Strip her and make her apologize to Ms. Leoni!"

Two thugs came at me grinning. They seized my arms and pushed down on the back of my head, forcing me toward the blood on the floor.

Marco threw himself at them and sank his teeth into one man's arm.

"Don't touch her! I'll kill you!"

Isabella watched in delight, clapping wildly.

"Yes! Just like that! Push her face into the blood! Show her what a worthless bitch she is!"

I drew a deep breath and slowly raised my head.

The two thugs met my eyes and froze. Seeing her own men cowed by a woman, Isabella slapped the arm of her chair and cursed.

"Useless, all of you! Get in there and beat those two to death!

"Whatever happens, the Leoni family will cover you!"

That was enough for the thugs. They cracked their knuckles and closed in on me.

Marco lunged to shield me, but my uncle grabbed him from behind and held on.

With my aunt and uncle holding him back, he could only stand outside the circle and scream my name.

In the instant before the fists landed, Isabella's phone rang.

She pulled it out impatiently. The screen showed her father's name: Vito Leoni, Don of the Leoni family.

Isabella frowned, but she didn't dare ignore the call. She swiped to answer, annoyed by the interruption.

"Dad, I'm busy..."

Before she could finish, her father roared through the phone.

"You wretched girl! Who the hell have you provoked out there? You're going to get the whole Leoni family killed!"