Escaping the Pawn, Ensnaring the Don

Isabella POV

The coarse rock salt ground into the raw, weeping flesh of my knees, sending fresh waves of white-hot agony up my thighs. The July sun over Little Italy was merciless, baking the cracked concrete of the tenement courtyard into an oven, but I refused to make a sound.

I kept my back straight, my chin tipped up, and offered my father the one thing I knew would infuriate him: a small, defiant smile.

Silas Rossi's face turned a mottled, ugly purple. "You think this is a game, *puttana*?" he spat, pacing in front of me. "You disappear all night? You jeopardize the deal? Rico Moretti is not a man who waits!"

Rico "The Vulture" Moretti. A sixty-year-old Capo from a rival family with a taste for young, untouched girls and a reputation for leaving them broken. My father, a low-level Associate with a gambling addiction, had accrued a debt he couldn't pay. So, he traded me. Seventeen years of my life, sold to clear his ledger.

When I found out a week ago, I tried to run. Silas's men caught me in the back alley. My own father beat me until I couldn't stand, a brutal lesson in obedience. During my feverish recovery, my stepsister, Clara, had maliciously mixed rock salt into my bandages, smiling as I screamed. That betrayal had killed the innocent daughter inside me. It left behind something cold, hollow, and desperate enough to do the unthinkable.

If I was going to be fed to a monster, I would choose my own.

My mind drifted from the blistering heat of the courtyard to the dark, mahogany-paneled suite above *The Gilded Cage* just hours ago. The Falcone family's high-end speakeasy had been packed for the St. Gennaro's Feast. It took every ounce of my wits to secure a temporary serving shift, and even more courage to slip the heavy, tasteless sedative into the bootleg whiskey of the most dangerous man in New York.

Damien Falcone. The Underboss.

The memory of his private suite still made my hands shake. The air had been thick with the scent of expensive cigars, spilled liquor, and danger. I had bribed a maid for the key, slipping inside to find him passed out on the silk sheets. He was a lethal predator, beautiful and terrifying even in unconsciousness. Climbing onto him, forcing my trembling body to take what I needed, was the most terrifying gamble of my life. I needed a shield. I needed a Falcone heir in my belly to make me untouchable.

But when dawn broke and I looked at the cold-blooded killer sleeping beside me, the reality of what I had done crashed over me. I had drugged and used a Falcone. If he woke up and saw me as an enemy rather than an asset, my death would be far worse than anything the Vulture could invent. I had fled back to the tenement, only to be dragged into the courtyard by Silas.

"You will learn respect," Silas snarled, kicking a fresh handful of sharp salt toward my bleeding knees.

From the shade of the fire escape, my stepmother, Carla, and Clara watched me suffer. The clinking of ice in their lemonade glasses provided a mocking soundtrack to my punishment. Clara's eyes gleamed with spiteful satisfaction.

Then, the low, heavy purr of an engine cut through the oppressive summer heat.

A gleaming, black Cadillac pulled up to the curb just outside the wrought-iron gates of our building. It was a vehicle that screamed immense Mafia power, a stark contrast to the poverty of our street.

Silas froze. The anger on his face melted into a mask of delusional, greedy triumph. "Look at that," he breathed, his chest puffing out. "The Vulture sent his best car. He sent a Cadillac to collect my offering. A sign of respect!"

My blood ran ice-cold. The Vulture didn't drive cars like that. That was Falcone money.

A man in a sharp, dark suit stepped out of the driver's seat. A Soldier. He didn't bother entering the grimy courtyard, merely standing by the open car door, his voice carrying over the hot asphalt.

"I'm here to collect the girl."

Silas turned to Carla, practically vibrating with glee, completely blind to the reality of the situation. "You hear that? The deal is done. Get her cleaned up, Carla. Now."

I remained kneeling on the blood-stained salt, the sharp crystals biting deeper into my bones. My heart hammered against my ribs like a trapped bird. The gamble had been called. I just didn't know if the man in the Cadillac was here to save me, or to execute me.