Page 114 of The Pawn

“They’re arriving,” Jet tells Cassian.

Cassian nods once. He turns to Angelo. “Go home and get some rest, Uncle. I’ll come by in a day or two.”

Angelo sets his hands on Cassian’s shoulders. His face is bruised, and he will always have a limp. His body is slow to heal. He looks older than that day I met him. What’s happened has broken him and I don’t think the physical beating he took was anything compared to the emotional.

“Thank you, Cassian. Thank you for forgiving him.”

I watch Cassian closely. His right eye narrows and he doesn’t speak, doesn’t make any gesture. I wonder if Angelo understands that Cassian didn’t forgive Enzo. He buried him for the old man’s sake. Perhaps out of guilt for the beating. Who knows? But no, Cassian did not forgive Enzo’s betrayal.

Two men are waiting to take Angelo home. Once he’s gone, Cassian turns to us.

“You ready?” he asks Jet.

Jet is his new consigliere. His right-hand man. Severin is pissed, which is making this that much sweeter for Jet.

“I’ve been ready for years.”

Cassian comes to me. He takes my hand, studies my face. He brushes a run-away tear from my eye.

“How about you? Are you ready to show them who their queen is?”

43

CASSIAN

The treaty is signed by all remaining members of the inner circle of Allegra’s family. There is not one man who stands in opposition. Both sides have lost too much.

Allegra and I stand side by side, me in my black-on-black suit, her in her black dress with its high collar and long sleeves. She doesn’t hide her bruises, the scar on her face. She doesn’t hide her hands. Those things show her strength. They know she was the one who killed Enzo. Who held the barrel of a gun inside the mouth of Malek Lombardi and watched him bleed out.

They know she is feral. And that I love her. And that if anyone touches a hair on her head, I will kill them and deliver them to her in pieces.

This is our vow, Allegra and me.

“Stay,” I say to her once the last man leaves and the door is closed so we’re alone.

She turns to me, her hands in mine. I study her features, the scar across her cheek, a new darkness there in thoseamber eyes. A shadow. The things she’s endured have left their mark both outside and in and they make her more beautiful than ever.

I reach into my pocket and take out a box, the thing I’ve been waiting to give her.

She looks at it, then at me. “What is this?”

I open it, look at what is inside, then turn it so she can see.

Allegra gasps, her hand coming to her throat. “Is that…” She reaches out a finger to touch it, but pulls it back just before she does. “Is that my mother’s ring?”

I nod. “Reset in a new band, the diamonds collected in their new shape.”

“A heart.”

A tear slides over her cheek, and she reaches out to touch it. The ring I’d given her was lost at the lake house, but that ring never mattered. It was a mere placeholder.

“Allegra?” I ask, worried now when a second tear chases the first.

Her eyelids flutter as she looks up at me.

“Is it all right? If it’s too soon or you don’t want it?—”

“Don’t want it?” she cups my face with her hand, tears streaming now. “How could I not want what was hers? What you saved of her?”