They Threw Cash at Me, I Returned as the Don

Five years ago, the Franco family threw cash in my face, forced me to break up with their daughter, and ran me out of Blackhaven like a stray dog. Five years later, I came back as the Don of the Raven Syndicate, the most powerful mafia organization in Europe. But the Franco family had already been set up and destroyed, their old stronghold burned to the ground. In an abandoned slaughterhouse, blood ran across the floor. Isaac, the insufferable prince of the rising Leoni family, tilted Marcella Franco's chin up with the toe of his expensive leather shoe. "Franco trash. Kneel and beg me. Be my plaything, and I'll toss you a scrap of food." Marcella's hair was a mess and her clothes had been torn open, but she clutched the Zippo lighter—my lighter—to her chest and refused to give an inch. "Get away. Don't put your filthy hands on what Gian left me." Isaac flew into a rage and slapped her. "You're still mooning over that disowned bastard? "He was blacklisted and cast out years ago. He's probably hauling crates on some dock right now!" He motioned for his thugs to tear off Marcella's clothes. At that instant, an armored Humvee tore the slaughterhouse's iron door off its hinges. I crossed the broken glass, went straight for Isaac, and knocked him off his feet with one punch. "You lay hands on my woman? 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 punch had sent Isaac into one of the meat hooks. Half his face was already swelling, and blood ran from the corner of his mouth. He stared at me, still trying to process what had just happened. "Who... who are you? You dare lay a hand on me in Blackhaven?" I didn't bother answering. I walked deeper into the slaughterhouse, one step at a time. A few thugs scrambled to stop me. I flung them aside, and they staggered into the wall. Marcella lay beside the pool of blood. She was painfully thin, almost gaunt, her face black and blue and covered in cuts. Her eyes were just as blue as they had been five years ago, and she still clung stubbornly to the last of her dignity. She looked at me, and a spark returned to her clouded eyes. "Gi... Gian?" "It's me, Marcella." Before I could say more, she struggled to get up, but her injured leg gave out and she fell back hard. The light in her eyes died, and she turned her face away in shame. "What... what are you doing back here? "Don't look at me... I look awful." Five years ago, her father had humiliated me with a suitcase full of cash and forced me to leave. Then I'd vanished. I thought she would have married someone else by now and settled into the steady life she deserved. I never imagined she'd end up like this, all to protect a lighter I'd left behind. My chest tightened at the thought. I hurried over, crouched in front of her, and reached toward the cuts on her face. She flinched away from my hand. "Gian, you shouldn't have come back. "The Leoni family owns Blackhaven. I don't want to drag you down with me. Get out of here!" I didn't go. I took her cold hand and rubbed my thumb over the dried blood on the back of it. "Marcella, I'm back. No one is ever going to mistreat you again. "Today, no one touches a hair on your head." Isaac, holding his face, finally got to his feet and staggered a few steps toward me. "Well, well. I thought you looked familiar. Isn't this the broke little punk who got cash thrown in his face and hopped a freight train out of Blackhaven in the night?" He circled me. His gaze lingered on my leather jacket, which had no visible logo, and his eyes filled with contempt. "What happened? Your sugar mama out there get bored of you? So you ran back to beg scraps off this stray?" The spoiled rich boys behind him burst out laughing. "Marcella, you're defying Mr. Leoni over a piece of trash like this? I think you've lost your fucking mind." He walked over to Marcella and bent down, but kept his eyes on me, taunting me. He stroked her cheek with an insolent finger. "Well? Have you thought it over? I know a lot more tricks than that loser. I'll make you see stars. "While I'm in a good mood, I might even let this guy leave Blackhaven in one piece. Otherwise..." He raised a hand and snapped his fingers. The thugs closed in and surrounded me. Marcella went white. "Isaac, come at me! He doesn't know anything. Let him go!" She struggled to get up and shield me, but a thug kicked her in the stomach. She curled up on the floor. "Mr. Leoni, if you'll let him go, I... I'll do anything..." She was about to give up the last of her dignity and give in completely. I stepped forward, moved her behind me, and looked up at Isaac with a cold smile. "A few lowlifes like you can't make her bow to anyone." Chapter 2 The whole slaughterhouse went dead silent. Isaac froze for a moment. He couldn't believe the same "broke little punk" from five years ago would dare speak to him that way. The thugs who had been about to move stopped short. Something about me unsettled them. "You really can't drop the act, can you? A kept man who slept his way to the top, playing savior? "What are you going to use against me? Your connections? Your backers? You're a nobody mouthing off in front of me." Isaac strode forward and, before anyone could react, snatched the lighter out of Marcella's arms. Isaac held it between two fingers and studied it as if it were some rare treasure. He saw the two names scratched crookedly into it with the tip of a knife. Gian & Marcella. "Give it back!" Marcella lunged like a madwoman, and two thugs pinned her to the floor. Isaac hooked a finger under her chin and forced her to look at him. His gaze crawled over her face, down her neck, and over the rise of her chest. He didn't even try to hide it. "Marcella, you're a beautiful woman. How can you love that trash you picked up from a garbage heap?" His voice was low and oily, his breath against her ear. "You reek of poverty. It's disgusting. But that's all right. Once I've taken you home and had my fun, you'll smell like me instead." He leaned closer, almost touching her lips, and whispered so only the two of them could hear, "I'll show you what kind of 'treasure' a real man can give you." He laughed. Laughter went around the room. Marcella was shaking, her eyes red, but all she could manage was a helpless whimper. My knuckles had gone white and my nails dug into my palms, but my face showed nothing. Isaac was enjoying my "helpless rage." He straightened and waved the lighter at me with a contemptuous smile. "See that, beggar? Your woman and this piece of junk you gave her aren't worth a cent to me." He opened his hand and let the lighter clatter to the floor. Then he lifted his gleaming custom shoe and ground the lighter into the blood and filth on the floor in front of everyone. "Trash belongs with trash." He lifted his foot, looked at the mangled scrap of metal pressed into the mud, and scoffed. "Just like you." Marcella cried out in despair, tore free, and dropped to her knees, reaching for the lighter. But her hands shook so badly she couldn't grasp it. I walked over and helped her up. She looked up at me, her eyes full of pain and despair. "I'm sorry, Gian. I couldn't... protect it." I shook my head and straightened up. I looked calmly at Isaac's face. "You made her cry, and then you stepped on it." My voice was flat, as if I were stating a fact. "So by dawn, the Leoni name will cease to exist." Isaac blinked, then burst into wild laughter. "You want to settle accounts with the Leoni family? See if you can make it out of here alive first!" I ignored him and turned to Marcella. "Marcella, tell me. How was the Franco family set up?" Marcella hesitated, then shook her head bleakly. "Gian, you have no idea how deep the corruption in Blackhaven goes. "This wasn't a simple turf war. The Leoni family used every dirty trick they could to make sure the Franco family would never recover. "What the Franco family owes isn't money. It's a blood debt. It's a hole thirty million dollars couldn't fill. "You were gone five years without a trace. I don't blame you... but what can you possibly do?" Isaac took a document from one of his 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, every last Franco relative will be fish food, and Marcella Franco will spend the rest of her life as my plaything. "If you're so capable, pay it for her. "Can't? Then shut your filthy mouth and crawl out of here!" Marcella caught my wrist, her voice full of grief. "Gian, forget about me. Just go..." I glanced down at the so-called "debt agreement." Thirty million. Five years ago, that number would have been unthinkable to me. But now... I lifted the paper away from my face, patted Marcella's shoulder, and smiled. "Thirty million. That's all. "No problem. I'll pay the Franco family's debt." Chapter 3 "Thirty million. That's all?" Everyone in the slaughterhouse, Marcella included, went still for a moment. Then the place erupted in laughter. "You think we're talking about fucking arcade tokens? You say it like it's nothing. Trying to show off in front of Mr. Leoni?" "Gian, I'll say it right here. "If you can produce thirty million, I will kneel right here on a livestream and lick the blood off her shoes!" I ignored his 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, Don." The woman on the line sounded calm and efficient, but then she hesitated. "It's just... Don, shutting down the Leoni family's business will affect several other families. "And to wipe them out completely, the council still needs to assign the necessary resources. "Full deployment will take about three hours." "Three hours?" I frowned. "Yes. It's to make sure they're wiped out for good. We'll move as fast as we can." "Understood." After I fell silent, Isaac laughed so hard he cried. "What's wrong, big shot? Show's over? "Just like that sugar mama of yours. All talk, and nothing when it counts?" He mimicked my voice in a pinched, mocking tone. "Lock down the Leoni family. Why not call galactic headquarters and have them send over some cosmic 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." He dropped into one of the cleaner chairs, crossed his legs, took out his phone, and smugly made a few calls. Within 10 minutes, Marcella's uncle and aunt were led in, flustered and out of breath. The moment her aunt saw me, she pointed and shrieked as if she had seen a ghost. "You're a jinx! You've got some nerve showing your face here again! If it weren't for you five years ago, the Franco family would never have crossed the Leoni family!" Then she caught the thugs' eyes, changed her tune at once, and started shoving Marcella toward Isaac. "Marcella, Mr. Leoni is willing to take you. That's better than you deserve. Why aren't you over there apologizing to him?" Her uncle stepped up and jabbed a finger in my face. "The Franco family threw you out years ago, and now you dare come back and stir up trouble? Do you want to see us all dumped in the Hudson?" Then he turned to Isaac with a fawning smile. "Mr. Leoni, please don't waste your time on a man like him. He's not worth another word from you. "Marcella's just stubborn. We're her family. We'll make sure she learns to behave." Isaac sat there and twisted the knife with a smile. "This loser just made a call. Says he can produce thirty million within the hour." Her uncle and aunt thought I'd lost my mind. They turned to me as if I were an idiot. Before they could say another word, I took an old metal badge from my jacket pocket and tossed it on the floor. "A global lockdown takes three hours. But take this badge and ask around." I nudged the badge with the toe of my boot. "Ask whether it's enough to buy the Leoni family 10 times over." Chapter 4 Her uncle picked it up and turned it over. No jewels. No diamonds. Just an emblem he didn't recognize: a raven joined to a crown. He curled his lip and flung it into the pool of blood in front of everyone. "An unmarked piece of scrap metal. Who do you think you're fooling? "Gian, you think we're all hicks who've never seen the world, like you?" Marcella thought the badge had been my last card to play. The light went out of her eyes. Still, she spread her arms and put her thin body between me and them. "Enough! Gian is the only man I've ever loved. I won't let you treat him like this." A small-time family boss named Antonelli sidled up to Marcella, clicking his tongue in false concern. "Marcella, no offense, but are you out of your mind? "A catch like Isaac? What woman on the East Coast wouldn't throw herself at him? Yet you're standing against all of us for some pretty boy." Marcella looked at him coldly. "Antonelli, this is Franco family business." Antonelli flushed, spat, and turned to clink glasses with Isaac as he waited for the show. Her uncle leaned on a pillar, shaking his head. "A disgrace. A disgrace to the family." Her aunt kept muttering. "If you'd listened to me and let Marcella go with Mr. Leoni, none of this would be happening." Isaac sat swinging his leg, perfectly at ease. Every few minutes, he checked the Vacheron Constantin on his wrist and looked at me like a cat toying with a mouse. When there were five minutes left, Isaac stood, walked over, and tilted his head at me. "Time's almost up, Gian. Where's your thirty million? Still on its way across the Atlantic?" His hangers-on jeered along behind him. "Mr. Leoni, stop wasting words on this fraud. Just do it!" "Yeah, teach him how Blackhaven works!" Isaac waved to his men. The thugs brought a collar and threw it at Marcella's feet. "I've lost patience with this little charade. But my time isn't going to go to waste." He jerked his chin at the collar, then at me. "New rules. Marcella, put it on. Then get down on all fours and bark for me. "Strip naked, crawl into my bed, stick your ass in the air, and be my bitch like a good girl! "Do that, and the Franco debt is wiped clean." He lifted his head, his voice suddenly cold. "But if you can't... I'll have this worthless man crippled, chopped up, and fed to the dogs!" Marcella flinched, then stepped in front of me without a second's thought. Before I could speak, her aunt rushed up and slapped Marcella hard on the back. "What are you waiting for? You wretch, do what Mr. Leoni says. Serve him properly, and don't make this worse!" Marcella shook her off and stepped back. "Have you lost your mind? Do you even hear yourself?" Her uncle signaled to two of the thugs. "Hold that little punk down. Break him. Let that be his apology to Mr. Leoni!" Two thugs came at me with grins on their faces. They seized my arms and shoved my head toward the blood on the floor. Marcella threw herself at them and sank her teeth into one man's arm. "Don't touch him! I'll kill you!" Isaac clapped in delight as he watched. "Yes! Just like that! Stomp his face into the blood! Show him what a lowlife he is!" I drew a deep breath and slowly raised my head. The two thugs met my eyes and froze. Their grips loosened. When Isaac saw his own men hesitate, he slammed a hand against the arm of his chair and cursed. "Useless, all of you! Get in there and beat those two dogs to death! "Whatever happens, the Leoni family will answer for it!" That was enough for the thugs. They cracked their knuckles and closed in on me. Marcella lunged to shield me, but her uncle grabbed her from behind and held on. Trapped between her aunt and uncle, she could only stand outside the ring and scream my name. In the instant before the fists landed, Isaac's phone rang. He pulled it out impatiently. The screen showed his father's name: Vito Leoni, Don of the Leoni family. Isaac frowned, but he didn't dare ignore it. He swiped to answer, annoyed at the interruption. "Dad, I'm busy..." Before he could finish, his father's furious roar came through. "You useless idiot! Who the hell have you provoked out there? You're going to get the whole Leoni family killed!"