Page 99 of The Pawn

“Do it. I want her high in the sky when he gets here.”

Enzo grits his teeth, but bends to pick me up and even though I resist, he easily hauls me over his shoulder and begins to head to the stairs.

Malek follows and soon we’re on what was once thesecond floor which is now open to the sky, the air thick with fog. The roof is completely gone, and the walls are about waist high. A heavy wooden beam that must have been one of the supporting beams stands straight up in the middle of the space. I see sharpshooters with night vision lenses taking their positions behind sandbags. They are prepared for their ambush, and this is the perfect ambush. The house is set at the far back of the property. Behind us are woods. A single-track unpaved road leads to it. They’ll have to use that or come on foot. Either way, they’ll be walking to their graves.

Enzo sets me on my feet, and I pull back from him. “You fucking traitor. Why would you do this? Cassian trusts you.”

He doesn’t look at me. Instead, he’s looking beyond my shoulder where Malek has gone.

“Get her up there,” Malek commands.

“It’ll be a while before they get here. You can’t keep her up there that long.”

“Don’t tell me you’re growing a fucking conscience.”

I turn to the sound of a gun being cocked and find Malek taking aim at Enzo.

“You know what they say about cheaters, Enzo?” Malek asks. I have no idea what he’s talking about and from the looks of it, neither does Enzo. “Once a cheater, always a cheater. In my experience, it’s the same with traitors.” After a long, pointed minute, he disarms the weapon and puts it back into its holster. “Allow me to motivate you. Think of what he owes you. Think of all those years he’s treated you like trash when it’s his line that’s tainted, that’s unfit to rule.”

Enzo shifts his gaze to me. I instinctively tryto step backward and almost fall, but he catches me. He takes my arms and raises them over my head. He’s almost face to face with me for a moment.

“You’re really going to do this? To follow him?” I ask.

Enzo eyes narrow. “He’s right. Cassian’s line is tainted. Our family will be dead because he won’t step aside and let someone who can father a successor take over the throne. It’s selfish. I’m doing this for the greater good of the family.”

“Keep telling yourself you’re doing it for the family, but you know the truth as well as I do. Greed. Jealousy. You want what is rightfully Cassian’s.”

“I’m doing it for the family,” he repeats.

“And you think Malek is going to let you rule? You think he’s just going to hand you Cassian’s territory?”

“Trevino territory. Not Cassian’s personal territory. And I’m a Trevino.”

“You’re handing everything to Malek, you idiot.”

He glances over my shoulder at Malek and leans closer. “If he betrays me, I’ll kill him and take over both territories.”

“And Cassian? What happens to Cassian?”

He looks me square in the eye. “He dies.”

34

CASSIAN

Floodlights engulf the churchyard surrounding the house in bright light, but the rain coming down in sheets makes it hard to see, to hear.

Enzo.

It’s Enzo. Father and son. Both of them traitors.

There’s a dozen of us out here. Two men flank me as I stalk toward the gate at the far end of the house. The gates that were chained. Locked up tight. I can’t remember a time they were opened.

But they stand open now. No broken lock. Why would he need to break the lock? He had every key to every room. Because I trusted him. Because I fucking trusted him.

“Looks like tracks from two vehicles. I’m sending a car out,” one of my men says.

I nod, looking at the ground for signs of her.