Chapter 3

CHAPTER 3

CESARE

S aul’s call to Fawn was successful. She was on her way home while we waited for her in Neil’s tiny living room.

“Are you going to hand her over to Dimitri?”

That was a fair question for Saul to ask. Normally I wouldn’t involve someone the girl’s age, but Neil’s debt wasn’t normal. Nor was the person he owed it to.

I leaned back on the old green couch and sighed. “Do you have a better suggestion?”

Saul’s brows knit in contemplation as his mouth opened, but no argument came out. There wasn’t one to give. Dimitri wasn’t like us. Yes, we all had our trafficking businesses. Ours was on the smaller side. I simply didn’t think the risk was worth the payout. Things like that tended to draw attention, not only from law enforcement but from family members and friends. It left a lot of needless clean-up, which was why I had certain parameters.

No one under the age of eighteen – people looked harder for minors – and no connections to someone who would look for them. Whether that meant said connections were taken care of beforehand, or if she was an orphan didn’t matter. I just didn’t want to see her face in the paper on or on the news. Were all of our girls willing, of course not. But no one was looking for them.

Dimitri didn’t have the same qualms about age, nor did he take debts like this lightly. One way or another he would get his payment. Giving him the girl was the best way to make sure Neil’s eight-year-old son stayed alive.

“You know what Dimitri will do to her.”

I was aware. “I’m sure it won’t be anything worse than what her step-father has done to her.”

It wasn’t like the girl was innocent. For all I knew she was complicit in Neil’s desires, and if she wasn’t… then at least I wouldn’t be handing over a sixteen-year-old virgin. I could live with that.

Saul huffed out a grumble and crossed his arms. “I don’t like it.”

“Neither do I.” But I’d done worse.

My hands were nowhere near clean. I had no delusions about that. There wasn’t an empathetic bone in my body. Tears and pleading for mercy did nothing but annoy me. My wife’s death was the only regret I had. And even then, I didn’t dwell on it. There was a point when I did. I sought revenge for years. The lives I destroyed in the process left behind a river of blood and misery that would be waiting for me in the afterlife. My son Giovanni was amongst them.

I could see him hating me as time went on, and I did nothing to stop it. He looked so much like his mother that it was easier to pretend that he didn’t exist, then to be the father I should’ve. I loved my son, but I couldn’t look at him without seeing her. Romeo was my heir, Atlas was my mistake, and Giovanni was the living ghost of my failure.

“We could kill him?” Saul suggested. “Prick deserves it.”

Neil did deserve to die, that much I’d agree with.

“His death won’t satisfy Dimitri.” And Saul knew it.

There was no other option.

“Besides, the girl is not our concern.”

Saul didn’t like my statement, but he didn’t argue, which was precisely why he was one of my top soldiers. He knew his place and rarely questioned me. That wasn’t something easily found in someone his age. He was only one year older than Romeo, and while my son had many strengths, not questioning me wasn’t one of them. Then again, I raised him to be the authority, not to respect it.

A click drew our eyes over to the front door as it slowly creaked open. The small brunette that walked in didn’t see us at first. She came in, closed the door, and hung her keys up on a sunflower hook on the wall. We remained watching in the dark, until she clicked on a light and jumped back with a gasp.

“W-who are you?” Fawn’s green eyes flittered around. “Where’s my father?”

“He’s tied up at the moment.” In the dining room while my men finished using her mother. “Please have a seat.”

I waved at the chair across from me to which Fawn tentatively walked over and sat down.

Her pictures didn’t do her justice. The girl was a vision who would make a breathtaking woman, if she ever reached adulthood. But it was the dull glint in her stare that caught my attention. I’d seen that glint before. It was the emptiness of someone who’d been broken so bad that a part of their soul died.

Veda Ford had the same stare.

It was a far cry from the spark of life I saw shining in her high school photos. Whatever Atlas did to her, killed the girl she was before. Now she was a timid little thing that jumped at her own shadow. I didn’t mind. In fact I enjoyed watching her skitter about. But I enjoyed watching her sleep more.

Those pills did more than help her sleep. They made sure she didn’t wake up when I creeped into her room. Three night’s I’d watched her now, but it was the last one I couldn’t stop thinking about…

Soft even breaths carried through the air as I made my way to the bed in the corner.

Veda was sleeping so peacefully, with her face lit up by the moonlight. She was such a pretty little thing, with a natural blush in her cheeks that match her pouty lips. Her sister had the same hazelnut hair and button nose, but Veda’s beauty was elegant and flawless, like a doll.

I leaned over to graze my finger up the side of her face. I could see why Atlas liked her. He enjoyed destroying perfection. A good man would feel guilty for the actions of his son, but I wasn’t a good man. My son and two other men raped her and left her for dead. And Veda survived. I saw strength in that, even if she didn’t.

“Burblft.”

My attention turned to the baby who was now sitting up in his crib.

I pressed my finger to my lips. “Shh, your mother is sleeping.”

The baby stuck his tongue out and clapped his hands. “Pbbbbt.”

The noise was enough to stir Veda.

“Okay Knox,” she sat up with her eyes still closed. “I’m coming.”

I stepped back as she sleepily crawled out of bed and padded across the room to lay the baby back down and stick a soother in his mouth. The entire time she her eyes remained shut. Knox rolled a curious eye my way as his mother headed back to bed. I waited for her to spot me and scream, but no such thing happened. She simply got back under the covers and drifted off. I wasn’t entirely sure she was awake in the first place.

Her son wasn’t far behind. Shortly after her breaths even out, his eyes began to shut. It was then that I spotted something tucked into the back of a bookshelf. The edge of a picture poked out from between the pages of Alice In Wonderland. The man in the picture was a government official we’d done business with in the past. Why would she have a picture of him? It made no sense.

Until I looked down at the baby sleeping in the crib…

Since that day I’d been asking myself what my son was doing with the Governor, and who else was involved.

“Are you my father’s friends?”

The way Fawn asked that question made me think that the term father’s friends didn’t mean a good thing for her. Unfortunately, neither did this meeting.

“No,” I said. “But your father does owe someone a debt.”

She seemed to catch onto my meaning. Her chest lifted with a heavy sigh as she whispered, “And I’m the payment.”

I nodded. “I’m afraid you’ll have to come with us. You won’t be coming back here.”

I expected her to scream or try to run away. So did Saul. He was tensed and ready to give chase. Fawn did neither.

She simply asked, “Will my brother be okay?”

“If you come quietly, then yes.”

She nodded and stood up. “Okay.”

Something about the way she hung her head led me to believe the girl had accepted her fate long before we stepped into this house.

Saul cocked a brow my way, and I could see the hesitation on his face. But guilt was a lesser man’s issue.