Devil's Pawn

by SE Chardou

  Max nodded again before he left the room and closed the double doors behind him.

  It wasn’t hard to find Karina, after all, Max had a file on both his half-sister and her paramour, Marco Bassi. Although only twenty-one years old, the asshole was engaged to a very wealthy woman but it seemed like he would throw her to the wolves at any given moment to end up with Karina.

  Not that their relationship would go down too well. His half-sister wasn’t even, technically, legal. Though she recently turned sixteen and was legally emancipated thanks to their mother’s ingenuity, her current boyfriend being the age that he was would not suit the prearranged plans of the Bassi Mafia Family. He was promised to another and this was a hurdle the family would have to overcome.

  As much as the Bassi Crime family liked to think of themselves being in the same league as the Abandonatos, the fact was they weren’t. Although from a similar area of Italy, the Abandonato Family was much better run and had some of the top judges, state officials and even government officials in Washington, D.C. on the payroll. The Bassi Family could never compete with the sheer amount of power they had and unfortunately, wouldn’t ever be able to no matter how much they deluded themselves.

  Max walked into the Cosmopolitan Hotel and Casino, where he found his target and Marco playing craps. She threw the dice with zeal and wrapped her arms around his neck after every time she came up with the right numbers. He would have figured they were loaded if he didn’t know it was next to impossible to cheat in any Las Vegas casino. Instead, he knew she was just good; she probably had been gambling from the time she was able to sit upright on her father’s knee.

  That was one thing about Dimitri; he never coddled his children. He was from the old country and since girls had few uses other than their feminine charms, he liked to teach his daughters the fine art of gambling—craps, roulette, and poker—instead. Like a famous warlord from Liberia had once claimed, “A bullet from a child is just as deadly as a bullet from an adult.” Dimitri believed this too and Karina was no doubt schooled in not only gambling but guns and knives as well.

  She looked the same as he remembered. Slim and fine boned though she stood at five feet, eight inches. Long, highlighted blonde hair that hung in a curtain to mid-back and her father’s arctic-blue eyes. She looked completely Russian and Polish—her Irish genes shrugged off by the predominance of Eastern European blood in her veins. A strong yet feminine nose, cheekbones that could cut glass, and a face that held a sloe-eyed, almost exotic beauty despite her pale skin and Nordic attributes.

  Karina seemed to sense his presence as she turned to face her older brother. She whispered in her lover’s ear and when the dealer pushed the dice back in their direction, Marco declined as he grabbed his stacks of chips and began to walk in a different direction while Karina walked toward Max.

  Meanwhile, he sat at a half full Texas Hold ‘Em table and she joined in, carrying a stack of chips of her own.

  “What the fuck are you doing here, Max? Checking up on me?” She smirked with those cold blue eyes as he quickly glanced in her direction while continuing to pay attention to the game.

  “I could ask the same from you. Why aren’t you in boarding school? Aren’t you a bit young to be playing a grifter? I thought Vegas was famous for checking IDs of all their patrons,” he replied in a voice low enough only for her to hear.

  Karina laughed out loud, the sound almost musical. “They are. However, we also know what Dimitri is capable of. I have identification and a passport that declares me to be twenty-one years old. It’s all above board. In the motherland, you can get anything for the right price.”

  Max smiled though it never reached his cool aquamarine eyes. “I know that all too well. Unfortunately, your . . . presence has not gone unnoticed. With no help from Dimitri and our mother washing her hands of you, you’re unprotected. Let me remind you that is not a position you want to have while fucking around in the underworld, my dear.”

  “You mean me being the sister of the notorious Maksymilian Gillespie—formerly known as Maxwell Cartier—buys me absolutely no protection?” she questioned facetiously.

  “No, I’m afraid not.”

  “Even though you are partners with that cunt, Magnolia Abandonato? By the way, why did she stop using the Reynolds name? Isn’t that her birthright?” Karina glared at him with icy blue eyes as she collected her freshly dealt cards.

  “Yes, however, Abandonato carries much more weight than the last name of a two-bit, former MC member who’s been dead for more than a decade,” he replied before he laid his cards on the table.

  “How very ingenious of her. I assume the two of you are in love?” She stared at her cards before throwing them on the table face down in disgust.

  “That’s none of your business.” Max stood, collected his stack of chips from his recent win and pocketed them. “I would prefer to speak to you somewhere . . . more discreet. I have a one-time offer from the family. If you don’t like it, you’re free to decline it but believe me when I reiterate that opportunities like this don’t come around very often. If you decide not to take the deal then I can’t protect you. It’s as simple as that.”

  “Let’s have dinner.” Karina stood as well. “I have to freshen up and give Marco a reasonable excuse to go out with his boys. He wouldn’t dare miss an opportunity to play gangster for the night. How about we meet at Morton’s Steakhouse? I love their veal. Give me an hour or so?”

  Max nodded silently. “I’ll make reservations. Don’t be late. If you refuse to listen to what I have to say, you might regret it for the rest of your short life. Let me assure you that you cannot survive in this game without someone looking out for you. If you betray me in any way, I will kill you myself.”

  She laughed out loud. “Brother dearest, I don’t think you have the balls—”

  “Try me, Karina,” he cut her off, his voice like ice. “Do you really believe I hold any sort of allegiance to you or our mother? My place is with the Abandonato family and thus the paternal side of a family lineage you and I don’t share. I no longer have any loyalty to Dimitri—it ended when he tried to have me killed—and that includes trying to protect you or Mila. If you continue to cop a shit attitude then I’ll wash my hands of you and whatever happens . . . well, I’ll consider it to be no longer my concern.”

  Karina gazed at him before she looked away, the truth slowly sinking in. “Wow. I never thought you could be so . . . cold.”

  “Why not? I learned from the best,” he snapped in a shrewd voice before he turned away and walked toward the casino’s main exit.

  Max needed to talk to Mags. He hadn’t heard her voice in forever and it bothered him she hadn’t reached out. Then again, why would she when aware the reason why he was in Vegas had little to do with pleasure and everything to do with business?

  He couldn’t delay it any longer and against his better judgment, he placed a phone call to her burner phone number. The phone rang twice before she picked up.

  “Hello?” her voice questioned sexy as always but there was a tinge of annoyance or maybe guilt etched into her tone.

  “Hey, babe. I know I shouldn’t be calling but I wanted to make sure you were okay. How are you?”

  “I’m fine, sweetie,” she replied, her voice softening. “I’m just busy right now but I can’t wait to see you. How’s everything in Vegas?”

  “Same old. I gotta take care of some family business before I head to Lake Tahoe but I’m dying to be buried balls deep inside you. I just need to . . . fuck this past twenty-four hours away, you know what I mean?”

  She chuckled. “A little too well. We’ll be together soon. I’m just finishing up some loose ends here in New Orleans and then I’m catching the first flight out to Nevada. We’ll see each other before long—I promise.”

  “Take care of yourself and call me when you’re on your way to Lake Tahoe, all right?”

  Mags remained silent for a moment before she whispered, “Will do. Love you and ta
lk to you soon.”

  “Love you too.” Max ended the call and pressed the phone to his lips.

  He couldn’t get the whole thought out of his mind she’d sounded distracted and not at all like her usual self. He didn’t even know if he bought her story of still being in New Orleans. If he didn’t understand the life they lived so well, he could have sworn she sounded like she was on a job. The way she answered the phone with such detachment before her voice warmed to him.

  If anyone thought it was easy being an assassin then it was plainly obvious to the most casual of observers they’d never killed anyone before. Their occupation didn’t get easier as they lived unless they allowed themselves to turn into psychopaths. Neither he nor Mags were that far gone.

  Were they sociopathic? That was a question he knew the answer to without much introspection. There was a crossed wire in their brain they had nothing to do with but the lack of empathy made their jobs a whole lot easier and allowed them to sleep at night. However, they hadn’t gone full psycho and neither planned to . . . and with a death’s grip hold on to a shred of their humanity came the guilt, anger and depression of what they did for a living.

  They murdered people—albeit those who’d done terrible things and committed crimes themselves—but that didn’t mean one lost their ability to sympathize with them somewhat. Max and Mags had also sinned against an absent God and committed atrocities but when they died, someone would mourn for them.

  Max knew it was as simple as going to Angelo and asking him point blank if Mags was on a job but her uncle might not give him the answer he wanted. In the back of his mind, he knew he would rather not know what she was doing. Ignorance was bliss in certain situations.

  Instead, he gave the valet who pulled his car up a fifty-dollar-bill and climbed into his exclusive, late model Cadillac Escalade. As he pulled off, all he could think about was he had enough on his plate. If he didn’t manage to turn Karina then she was good as dead.

  As much as he could play down her death to his associates in the Abandonato Mafia—if the situation came to that—of course he would grieve if something happened to her.

  Karina was his sister after all.

  Chapter Three

  Mags

  I looked at my phone before I noticed the blood stains on my hands and dropped it on a ratty, black sofa next to my handbag.

  Mila hung on by a thread after the almost full night of torture we’d put her through. I was ready for this to be over. No matter what Vincent and I did to her, it couldn’t change the course of my life nor would it bring my parents back. She’d never feel the weight of their deaths and know what she’d done to the once innocent¸ young girl I used to be. I was a casualty of her impulsive and selfish decision-making and yet, after all this time, she still couldn’t bring herself to feel pity for anyone but her own broken body.

  The bitch was designed that way; and feeling empathy for others wasn’t even part of her genetic makeup.

  “Shadow,” I began in a quiet voice. “Put her out of her misery.”

  “I thought you would want to do the honors,” he replied cautiously. “She did plan the murder of your parents after all.”

  The thought of what she’d done and how she had thrown my whole life into upheaval was enough for me to forget any sympathy I’d once I felt for her. I grabbed my forty-five—a Smith & Wesson variety that was a throwaway weapon—complete with a silencer and pointed it at her head.

  Her blue eyes, glazed with pain and barely coherent, widened with as much breadth as the Botox allowed her to show expression.

  “Goodbye, Missus Koslakova. I’ll see you in Hell.” I fired once, twice, three times until there was very little of her head that was still intact.

  I breathed out loud and dropped the weapon as I walked away from the body toward the sunlight streaming into the building where we’d brought her.

  The abandoned warehouse was in an unsavory part of Miami most tourists never saw, not unless they got lost. In that case, they usually ended up being part of the twenty-four hour news cycle when they were carjacked and/or murdered for being at the wrong place at the wrong time.

  It was the kind of neighborhood where no one asked questions and when crime was committed, the residents never saw or heard anything that had, unfortunately, happened. In any case, perfect for what Shadow and I had to do to Mila and still escape unscathed for our crime.

  Shadow placed a hand on my shoulder. “Are you okay?”

  I turned around and smiled wryly. “It’s kind of hard to be okay after you’ve just lied through your teeth to the man you supposedly love before you hang up and kill his mother. No, I’m not fucking okay but I will be . . . eventually.”

  “Yeah, I would think your position is particularly hard but she also murdered your parents—even if she didn’t do it directly. We both know she played her part in their deaths. You have nothing to feel guilty about if I may be so blunt to speak the truth. If I know Max’s type, he’s similar to a snake. He’s shed his skin and his former family. You’re all that matters now. He’ll be heart broken about the death of his mother but that’s why you’re there. You’ll help him get over it and in a year . . . or two . . . no one is going to give a shit. Surely you already know this?”

  I turned toward my co-conspirator, so handsome and deadly in his expensive suit. “Yes but . . . how do I look him in the eyes when he finds out? How do I play this off? I’ve never murdered anyone this close to a loved one and had to see . . . the wreckage it caused. This is all so new to me.”

  He smiled, his blue eyes cold. “You stare at him with those gorgeous pale green-gray eyes of yours and you lie as if your life depended on it. Don’t ever mention the murder unless you want to bring suspicion on yourself. When he tells you, you will be there for him in every capacity. Don’t ever flinch or give away what you know anything other than what he tells you and for God’s sake, don’t offer any information. You have to be careful . . . cautious. If he ever suspects you, he might not trust you again, and that, my dear, is a much more deadlier issue than a dead future mother-in-law.”

  I nodded in agreement even if a part of me felt completely numb to the whole discussion. I would rather not talk about a dead future mother-in-law at all. The sooner I could leave Florida and return to Nevada, the better.

  “When’s our flight back to Reno?” I questioned Vincent as I grabbed several lemon-scented wet wipes and cleaned the blood off my hands.

  “This evening. Why don’t you go back to the hotel to shower and grab several hours of some much needed sleep? I will be there by six this evening to pick you up. The sooner I get you back to your new home, the happier you’ll be. Putting distance with all of this is bound to clear your mind and give you a fresh perspective on the issue,” he explained as he began to gather all the tools we’d use to torture the former Mrs. Koslakova.

  I nodded and slid on a long black trench coat, grabbed my burner phone before stuffing it into my handbag and walking out of the warehouse.

  It was another bright and sunny Miami day but it might as well have been overcast and raining. I didn’t give a shit about the weather and no matter how great the sun felt on my skin, it couldn’t erase what I had done.

  This whole conscience thing was something new but I instinctively realized I wouldn’t have felt anything at all had Mila not been Max’s biological mother. It was something I couldn’t change but it didn’t make me feel any less guilty about the carnage I’d had a direct hand in inflicting. I worried more about how my fiancé would react when he found out his mother was dead than the fact I’d brought about her demise. She deserved it and that was the running mantra in my head.

  The chauffer opened the back door and I stepped inside before he closed it and got back into the vehicle. The ride back to the hotel was uneventful. I immediately sent him back to pick up Vincent even though I knew the man was perfectly capable of taking care of himself. We were in this together now; conspirators to a crime no one else could ever kno
w about—at least no one close to Max who could spill the unfortunate details with him.

  I knew I should have been more aware of my surroundings but when I boarded the elevator and a handsome dark haired man walked inside, he didn’t get any attention from me more than a cursory glance. Not because he wasn’t attractive. In fact he was very good looking with alabaster skin and dark hair slicked back away from his face. His features were sexy yet exquisite and his eyes were hidden behind a blacker-than-black pair of Ray-Bans.

  He smiled in my direction before he pressed the same floor I was staying on and the doors closed before we began our ascent.

  Something about him came off as cold, and predatory; I knew my own kind after all. However, all my fractured mind could concentrate on was how much pain I’d eventually cause Max when he found out his mother was dead. It wasn’t a hearty enough excuse because I should have never dropped my guard, no matter how distracted I was but in that moment, I did and soon I would understand why no one was completely unreachable, not even me.

  The elevator pinged and I walked off without another glance in the stranger’s direction. The whole weight of the evening and endless night crashed down on my body and I felt exhausted. All I could possibly think about was taking a long hot shower and crawling between the sheets, sleeping the day away and waking shortly before Vincent came to retrieve me. I mentally reminded myself to put my burner on the charger as soon as I got to my suite so it would have a full battery on the plane ride home.

  I slid the card key into my door, the light flicked from red to green, and I opened the door just as I felt a gun—either a nine-millimeter or a forty-five—pressed into my side.

  “Walk inside, chica. You and I have to talk.”

  I turned slightly but it was enough to see the strong male voice belonged to the same man I’d shared the elevator with much to my chagrin. I’d left myself open and vulnerable but there was no way in hell I would allow this to be my last day on earth. There was so much I’d yet to do but my own stupidity had caused this situation to happen in the first place.