All Chapters of The Stray They Cast Out Five Years Ago Has Come Back: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

The whole slaughterhouse went dead silent.Isabella froze. She couldn't believe the "broke little whore" from five years ago would dare speak to her that way.The thugs started toward me, then stopped short. Something about me made them hesitate."You really can't stop putting on a show, can you? A whore who slept her way up, playing savior?"What are you going to fight me with? Your connections? Your family name? Or that body God knows how many men have used?"Isabella strode forward and snatched the lighter from Marco's arms before anyone could react.I had won it on the street years ago and carved both our names into it myself.The letters were crooked and the casing scratched, but it was his most treasured possession."Give it back!"Marco lunged like a madman, and two thugs pinned him to the floor.Isabella held the lighter to her nose and sniffed. Then she tossed it to the floor in disgust and ground her diamond-studded heel into it.She lifted her foot, looked at the ruined ligh

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 gla

The hope that had just flared in Marco's eyes died again, and he sagged against me.My eyes went cold. I said nothing. I just looked down and sent another message."Since they prefer to settle things with bullets."Buy the entire Black City underworld."Isabella didn't notice what I was doing.She thought she had won again, and strolled over to me."Chiara, you came up with thirty million. I'll admit you've got something."Too bad. In Black City, money alone doesn't cut it. You have to live long enough to spend it."Triumphant, she picked the agreement up off the floor and flung it in Marco's face."Marco, this is your last chance."Sign this, sell yourself to me, and I'll clean up the Franco family's mess. And you'll be mine."Otherwise, one call from me and you're both dead in the street."My uncle grabbed a pen and forced it into Marco's hand."Marco, what good is her money now? It's all come to nothing. She's still useless!"My aunt clutched his hand, weeping."Marco, I'm begging y

The thugs stormed through the door, shouting obscenities, murder in their eyes.I glanced at Lupo.Lupo nodded and spoke into his collar mic. "Clear the room."The ventilation ducts overhead burst open.Dozens of ropes dropped, and a squad of heavily armed mercenaries in tactical masks rappelled down as if they'd appeared out of nowhere.Hidden doors around the building were kicked open at the same moment, and tactical floodlights made the place as bright as day.Before the thugs could react, red laser sights settled on their foreheads.Their leader had barely raised his machete when a mercenary kicked out his knee. His scream filled the building.It was a complete rout.In under ten seconds, dozens of hardened thugs were pinned in the mud, moaning and unable to fight back.My aunt had crawled under an abandoned truck, her arms over her head, hardly daring to breathe.My uncle went pale. His eyes rolled back, and he slid down the wall in a dead faint.Isabella stood frozen, her legs sh

At last, Marco and I were alone in the wrecked slaughterhouse.Marco stood in the middle of the mess with his back to me, his shoulders shaking."Chiara, who are you, really? What have you been through these past five years?"I walked over and stood in front of him.He looked at me with empty, dazed eyes."Five years ago you vanished. I searched everywhere I could think of, and I couldn't find you."Everyone said you betrayed the family and ran. I didn't believe it... but I really couldn't find you."I put my hands on his shoulders and said in a low voice, "It's a long story. But I'm back, Marco. I came home to take back everything that's ours."After I left, I meant to find work in Mexico. Instead, a group of men kidnapped me at the port."The man behind my abduction was the former head of the Raven Group, a reclusive old man with no heirs and little time left."He put countless young people like me—people with nothing but ambition—through brutal tests. I was the only one who survived