The Stray They Cast Out Five Years Ago Has Come Back

Five years ago, I took the blame for every crime my family had committed and was thrown out of Black City like a stray dog. Five years later, I returned as the Donna—the head of Raven, one of the world's most powerful mafia organizations. Only to find that my family had been framed and destroyed, and our stronghold burned to the ground. In an abandoned slaughterhouse, blood ran across the floor. Isabella, the arrogant heiress of the newly powerful Leoni family, was grinding her red-soled heel into my cousin Marco Franco's face. "You Franco piece of trash. Kneel and beg me, be my dog, and I'll toss you a scrap of food." Blood ran from Marco's nose and mouth, but he clutched the Zippo lighter—my lighter—to his chest and refused to give in. "Get away. Get away from me. Don't put your filthy hands on what Chiara left me." Isabella flew into a rage and slapped him. "You're still mooning over that disowned bitch? "She was disowned and driven out years ago. She's probably selling herself in some red-light district right now!" She raised her hand, signaling her thugs to break Marco's arm. Just then, an armored Humvee smashed through the slaughterhouse's metal doors. I walked across the broken glass to Isabella and backhanded her off her feet. "You lay a hand on a Franco? Who the hell do you think you are?" Chapter 1 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." Chapter 2 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 lighter lying in the blood, and scoffed. "Scrap metal from a garbage heap, and you treat it like treasure? "My dog's toys are cleaner than that. Marco, you really are a fucking lowlife!" Marco's eyes reddened. He tore free of the thugs and dropped to his knees, reaching for the lighter. But she'd crushed his hand under her heel, leaving it a bloody mess. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't close his fingers. Isabella waved a hand. A thug kicked Marco over. "Ha. You cherish a piece of garbage some bitch left you. "Once you're my dog, I can give you sports cars and mansions. If you want the Don's seat, I'll get you that too!" Marco sat in the blood, cradling the lighter in his good hand. He trembled as he tried to wipe it clean. I walked over and helped him up. He looked up at me, his eyes full of pain and despair. "I'm sorry, Chiara. I couldn't... protect it." I shook my head, stood, and fixed Isabella with a hard stare. "Your whole Leoni family is going to pay for that lighter." My stare unnerved her, but her taunts only grew bolder. "You want to settle accounts with the Leoni family? See if you can get out of here alive first!" I ignored her and turned to Marco. "Marco, tell me. How did they frame the Franco family?" Marco hesitated, then shook his head bleakly. "Chiara, you don't understand. You don't understand how Black City works. The rot goes too deep. "This wasn't a simple turf war. The Leoni family used every dirty trick they could to make sure the Franco family never recovered. "What we owe isn't money. It's a blood debt—one thirty million dollars couldn't begin to repay. "You were gone five years without a trace. I don't blame you... but what can you possibly do?" Isabella took a document from one of her thugs and slapped it against my face. "Hear that, beggar? This is what the Franco family owes the Leoni family. Principal and interest, thirty million. "Today is the deadline. "If it isn't paid, everyone in the Franco family's other branches goes to feed the fish, and Marco Franco spends the rest of his life as my dog. "If you're so capable, pay it for him. "Can't? Then shut your filthy mouth and watch me lead him away on a leash!" Marco caught my wrist, his voice thick with grief. "Chiara, don't. You can't win against them." I glanced down at the so-called "debt agreement." Thirty million. To the person I was five years ago, it was an unimaginable number. But now... I pulled the paper away from my face, patted Marco's shoulder, and smiled as if it were nothing. "Thirty million. That's all. "No problem. I'll pay the Franco family's debt myself." Chapter 3 "Thirty million. That's all?" Everyone in the slaughterhouse, Marco included, stared at me for a beat. Then the place erupted in laughter. "You talk about thirty million like it's a pile of fucking arcade tokens. Showing off to Ms. Leoni now!" "Chiara, I'll say it right here. "If you can produce thirty million, I, Isabella, will kneel right here on a livestream and lick the blood off the soles of his shoes!" I ignored her screeching and took out an encrypted military phone. "It's me. "Lock down every port and shipping route the Leoni family has. I want them gone from the East Coast by dawn." "Yes, Donna." The voice on the line was calm and efficient, though the speaker hesitated. "But shutting down the Leoni family's operations would affect several other families' interests. "And if we're going to destroy them completely, the council still needs to allocate resources. "Full deployment will take about three hours." "Three hours?" I frowned. "Yes. We need to make sure nothing is left of them. We'll move as fast as we can." "Understood." After I hung up, I sent a message to someone else. When I fell silent after the call, Isabella laughed until she cried. "What's wrong, moneybags? Show's over? "Just like that old man you latched onto. All talk when it counts?" She mimicked my voice in a pinched, mocking tone. "Lock down the Leoni family. Why don't you have galactic headquarters wire you some stellar energy while you're at it? "I'm in a good mood today. I'll give you your three hours. Let's see what trick you pull." She sat in one of the cleaner chairs, crossed her legs, took out her phone, and made a few smug calls. Within ten minutes, my uncle and aunt were brought in, flustered and out of breath. The moment my aunt saw me, she pointed and shrieked as if she had seen a ghost. "You jinx. How dare you show your face here again!" Then she noticed the thugs watching, changed her tune at once, and started shoving Marco toward Isabella. "Marco, Ms. Leoni wants you. That's the best thing that will ever happen to you. Why aren't you on your knees apologizing to her?" My uncle stepped forward and jabbed a finger in my face. "We threw you out of the Franco family years ago, and you dare come back and stir up trouble? You want to see us all dumped in the Hudson?" Then he turned and bowed low to Isabella. "Ms. Leoni, please don't lower yourself to this kind of woman. "Marco's just stubborn. We'll make sure he learns to behave." Isabella smiled, eager to humiliate me further. "Your little jinx here just made a call. Says she can produce thirty million within the hour." My uncle and aunt stared at me as if I'd lost my mind. I didn't give them a chance to keep yammering. I took an unadorned metal badge from my jacket pocket and tossed it on the floor. "A global lockdown takes three hours. But you can take that and go ask around." I nudged the badge with the toe of my boot. "Take it around and ask what it's worth—enough to buy the Leoni family ten times over." 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!"