CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Chicago – 1932

“You ready to go?” Athan asked, coming into our room.

“Yeah,” I said as I finished tying my shoe.

Every night Athan and I headed to the underground casino that was run by Renzo. We kept an eye on the tables to make sure the house won. If someone were cheating or getting lucky, we’d step in and throw them out, or compel them to forget how to play and fold all their good hands. If I’d had compulsion when I was a human, I would have been a rich man and maybe not have been playing the night I was turned.

“Boss wants to see you.”

I looked up to see Samuel enter the room. “What for?” I asked.

“Does it matter?” he questioned back.

I looked at Athan, and he shrugged. I fucking hated Renzo Cavalli for what he’d made me do to my family—for what he did to Mary—and for the past four years, I’d tried to stay out of his crosshairs by just being the card guy and making him money—making sure the house came out on top.

“Enter,” Renzo ordered when I knocked on his door.

I walked into the room, and Athan stayed in the hall to wait for me. “You wanted to see me?”

“Why haven’t you handled Malone?”

I balked. “Malone?”

“Yes, fucking Malone,” he roared. “He’s stealing my money. That’s a problem.”

“No one’s stealing from my den. I make sure of it.”

“So you’re too stupid to have noticed there are fewer humans walking through the door?”

If older vampires weren’t stronger than the younger ones, I would have ripped this fucker’s heart from his chest a long time ago, and especially now for calling me stupid. I wasn’t fucking stupid. “I suppose some nights are a little slower, but what’s the big deal? We’re still making money.”

“The big deal is you’re letting Malone run his own den.”

“Malone’s—”

“Just fucking deal with it, Draven.”

“Deal with it how? That’s not my job. I’m the card guy.”

“Your job is to do whatever the fuck I want you to do. Here’s the address.” He held out a piece of paper, and I took it from him.

“So you want me to take him out?”

“Yes, but since the feds were onto Capone and he’s locked up, we know better now. Make it look like an accident and not a bloodbath.”

Al Capone—the face—was picked up by the cops last year for tax evasion. Everyone knew what he was doing, just not who was doing the actual ordering.

“If I make it look like an accident,” I asked, “then how will our competition know we’re sending a message?”

Renzo leaned back and rested against his desk, arms crossed. “They might not get the message at first. But if all of our competitors seem to keep having what the bulls report as accidents, then problem solved. The point is, the feds won’t think differently. Now, get the fuck out of here and deal with it.”

Now, because Malone was invading in my territory, I was apparently the one who needed to put an end to it. If it were up to me, I’d compel him to close his doors. But it wasn’t up to me. Renzo wanted to send a message to those who might be thinking that they could do the same. If Malone were killed (the competition), word would get around that there was still a mob presence even though Capone was locked up. No one would dare step on our toes. I knew that Renzo was looking for a replacement for Capone and word was Capone’s cousin, Nitti, was going to be the face when he got out of prison this year after his eighteen-month sentence. That didn’t mean people like Malone could move in while the transitioning was happening. I got it. I just didn’t want to be the one to kill.

I turned to leave, but Renzo’s words stopped me. “No witnesses, Draven. And don’t fuck this up.”

I walked out of his office, and Athan joined me as we made our way toward the front door. “Can you believe this shit?” I knew he’d heard every word that was said.

“What are you going to do?” Athan asked.

“Fuck if I know. It’s not like I can just go into his house and get the job done.” Vampires needed to be invited into a human’s home, and there was no way Malone would let me into his house given we were his competition. Sure, I could compel him if we made eye contact, but I didn’t want to. Even though I was a vampire, it didn’t mean I liked killing. I wasn’t a killer.

Athan and I got in the car and drove to where Malone lived. I had no idea he’d opened a casino because last I’d heard, he ran a brothel.

“What if you push him down the stairs?” Athan suggested as we sat, parked on the street outside of the two-story house.

“Again, how am I getting in?”

Athan thought for a moment. “Just tell him you’re here to make a deal on behalf of Capone.”

“You think he’d think Capone sent me to make a deal? Capone didn’t make deals. He went in guns blazing.”

“And look where that got him.” Eleven years in prison. “Knock on the door and tell him we’re changing our ways then. Say anything to get in the door.”

I sighed. “We’re finding a broad after this.”

“I’m keen on that.” He chuckled.

I walked up to the front door of the two-story home and rang the doorbell. Footsteps sounded from the far end of the house. They were heavy as they moved closer to the front door and I knew instantly it was Malone.

“Delano,” he stated as he opened the door and looked over my shoulder as though he was expecting there to be more than just me. Malone used to frequent my casino, and we knew each other. I actually liked the cat. “What are you doing here?”

“Invite me in.”

“No,” he spat.

“No?” I questioned back.

“I know why you’re here.”

“Of course you do. Did you think I wouldn’t find out?”

“It’s business, Draven, and Capone is in the pen.”

“Capone ain’t the boss.”

Malone chuckled. “Well, not now.”

“Not ever. He was just an underboss for Cavalli. Renzo Cavalli.”

“Never heard the name.”

“Doesn’t matter. He sent me to make a deal.”

“Make a deal?”

“Invite me in, and I’ll tell you all about it.”

He stared at me for a few moments. “Fine. Come in.”

I moved past him, and as he stepped aside, I glanced over my shoulder. Athan gave me a nod of approval.

“Whiskey?”

“Sure.”

Malone poured two glasses, and I took a seat in his living room. He handed me a glass, and then took a seat across from me. “So what’s the deal?”

“There’s no deal,” I stated.

“No deal? Then why the fuck are you here?” His heart started to beat faster in his chest.

“To send a message.”

“You going to take me out?”

I took a sip of the whiskey just as I heard footsteps above me. I was so caught up in what I needed to do, that I hadn’t heard or sensed there was another person here. That wasn’t good, and if Renzo ever found out, he’d take me out. I wasn’t cut out to be a killer even if the curse was in the blood in my body.

“Who’s here besides you?”

“My wife.”

“You have a wife?”

“Of course I do.”

The footsteps started to come down the stairs, and I looked over to see a woman in a silk robe descending them.

“Go back upstairs, Annie,” Malone barked.

Annie’s gaze met mine, and it was then I realized I heard two heartbeats coming from her. I looked down at her belly. She was pregnant. Very pregnant. She looked as though she was going to give birth at any second.

I couldn’t go through with it.

I could kill her too. I could make it look like a robbery or even compel her to kill her husband and then herself. Except there was no way I was going to take a woman’s life, let alone a pregnant one. That wasn’t who I was deep down even if I was a monster.

“Is everything all right?” Annie asked.

“I said to go back upstairs,” Malone ordered. After a moment of hesitation, Annie turned and did just that. When she was out of earshot, he asked, “You going to kill me with my wife upstairs? She saw your face.”

I couldn’t do this. I didn’t know what the consequences would be, but killing someone because they were a rival, wasn’t what I wanted to do. Especially since he was going to be a father—something I’d never be now that Renzo had taken that from me.

I stood and downed the rest of my drink. “It’s your lucky day, Malone.”

He balked and then breathed out a sigh of relief. “So what now?”

“Today it was me ordered to take care of you. Tomorrow it will be someone else. My advice to you is to pack a few bags and get you and the missus the fuck out of here.”

“You want me to run because I opened a casino?”

“It’s because you opened a casino in competition with the devil. He won’t let it go, and he will kill Annie with you watching before he takes you out.”

Malone stared at me. “Why are you telling me this?”

I moved to the door. “I’m warning you to never make a deal with the devil because once you sell your soul to Satan, you’ll never get it back.”

“So, you’re just going to run me out of town?”

I knew what this decision meant for me. I needed to get out of town and far away from Renzo too. “You can do what you want. I’m giving you a break because despite Renzo killing my unborn child, the woman I loved, and my family, I still work for him. I won’t do the same to you.”

“Won’t he kill you then?”

“Not your problem, Malone. Go upstairs, pack a bag, and leave at sun break. Never travel at night.”

“Never travel at night?”

I closed the door behind me, not telling him anything further, and walked back to the car where Athan was waiting.

“Well?” he asked as the door slammed shut.

“I need to get out of town and fast.”

“You didn’t do it?”

“He has a pregnant wife.”

“Shit.”

“Yeah.”

We were silent as we stared out the windshield of the car.

“Renzo’s going to kill you.”

“If he can find me.”

“What?” Athan snapped his head toward me.

“I need to run.”

“You don’t think he’ll find you?”

“Do you think he’ll leave his empire to find me?”

“I don’t know, D …”

“I have to do this, Athan. I don’t want to kill innocent people.”

“I don’t like killing either, but we have to survive.”

“There are other ways than feeding off humans.”

“What? Animals?”

“Yes,” I said dryly.

“Where will you go?”

“West. There’s no one here for me anymore.”

Athan chuckled. “West?”

“There’s more ground to cover that way.”

He thought for a moment. “I’m going with you.”

My eyes widened. “You are?”

He smiled. “I can’t let my best pal make tracks all by his lonesome.”

“He’ll kill you too if he ever finds us.”

“If,” he emphasized the word, “he ever finds us.”

“Then we better go now. Get as far away as we can before the sun rises.”

We drove out of town, leaving everything behind except the clothes on our backs, and we never looked back.