She Cheated With A Pawn: The King's Wrath

My wife, Elena, walked into the Grand Boardroom and placed a possessive hand on her lover's chest.

Julian, a low-level associate I'd only hired as a favor to her, sat in my chair with his muddy boots on the polished mahogany table.

He blew smoke in my face and laughed.

"You're just a figurehead now, Dante. The Syndicate belongs to Elena. And since I'm the one keeping her happy at night, it belongs to me too."

Elena looked at me with cold eyes, delivering the ultimate betrayal without a shred of remorse.

"I'm pregnant, Dante. It's Julian's. We need the Moretti name for the baby, so sign the transfer papers and leave."

She believed the power of attorney documents I signed while delirious with fever had given her my empire.

She thought the mercenaries standing behind her were loyal to her checkbook.

She truly believed she could fire a Don like a mid-level manager caught stealing office supplies.

But she didn't know that in our world, loyalty isn't bought with stolen money.

And she certainly didn't know what was actually in the leather folder she was holding.

I looked at the traitor and the rat, feeling a strange, lethal sense of calm.

"You want to talk about papers?"

I tossed the real file onto the table, watching their smiles falter.

"You didn't sign a transfer of power, Elena. You signed a Renunciation of Protection."

I signaled my Enforcers, and the room exploded into motion.

"Now," I said, staring at Julian's terrified face. "Let's see how much the streets respect you without my name."

Chapter 1

Dante Moretti POV:

The text message on my phone was simple, two lines that signaled the end of the war before the first shot was truly fired.

The assets are secured. The cage is ready.

I slid the device back into the inner pocket of my tailored suit, feeling the cool glass against my chest like a shield. I looked up. The air in the Grand Boardroom was thick, choking on the stench of cheap tobacco and expensive betrayal.

Julian Russo sat to my right.

He leaned back in the high-backed leather chair that had belonged to my father, and his father before him. He looked small in it, like a child playing dress-up in a giant's armor.

With a grunt of exertion, he lifted his foot, clad in a scuffed designer boot, and slammed it onto the polished mahogany table.

The sound echoed like a gunshot in the silent room.

I didn't blink. I didn't flinch. I simply categorized the scratch he'd just left on the wood as one more debt he would pay.

Julian took a drag from his cigarette, his cheeks hollowing, and blew a cloud of grey smoke directly into my face.

"You're too quiet, Dante," Julian said, his voice dripping with a confidence he hadn't earned in blood. "You look like a man who knows he's already lost."

He was a parasite. A low-level associate I had allowed into the building only because Elena asked me to. He had no blood oath. He had no honor. And yet, here he was, acting like a king in a castle he didn't know how to defend.

"Get your feet off the table," I said. My voice was low, a rumble of thunder rolling in before the storm breaks.

Julian laughed. It was a wet, ugly sound.

"Or what?" he sneered, stubbing his cigarette out on the wood, leaving a black, permanent scar on the pristine surface. "You going to fire me? You don't have the power anymore, old man. As long as Elena is the Queen, I'm untouchable."

He stood up and prowled around the table, trailing his hand along the edge as if he owned the grain.

"You're just a figurehead now," he continued. "A mascot. This Syndicate? It belongs to Elena. And since I'm the one keeping her happy at night, it belongs to me too."

I looked at the stack of papers in the center of the table. Resignation letters. Or rather, retracted loyalty oaths. The men standing along the walls-new faces, mercenaries bought with cash instead of respect-smirked at me.

"You think these men follow you?" I asked, gesturing to the hired guns whose loyalty would expire the moment the check cleared.

"They follow the money," Julian said. "And Elena holds the purse strings."

The double doors at the end of the room swung open.

Elena walked in.

She looked breathtaking. God, she always did. She wore a white dress that hugged her curves, the kind of innocent fabric that made men do stupid, violent things. I should know. I broke every rule in the book to marry her five years ago.

She was a waitress then. A girl who stitched up my bullet wound in a pantry while the police sirens wailed outside. I made her a Queen to repay that debt.

I never thought she would use the crown to try and hang me.

"Boss," the mercenaries chorused, bowing their heads.

They weren't bowing to me. They were bowing to her.

Elena walked past me without a glance. The scent of her perfume-jasmine and gunpowder-hit me like a physical blow. She went straight to Julian, placing a possessive hand on his chest.

"Is he giving you trouble, Julian?" she asked, her voice soft, the same voice she used to whisper promises to me in the dark.

"Just the usual," Julian said, grabbing her waist with a familiarity that made my trigger finger itch. "He thinks he's still the Don."

Elena finally turned to look at me. Her eyes were cold. There was no love there, only the hard, glinting steel of ambition.

"Dante," she said. "I told you. If you touch Julian, if you even look at him wrong, I will burn the legitimate businesses to the ground. You built this empire, but I hold the matches."

I looked at my wife. I looked at her lover.

I felt a strange sense of calm settle over me. It was the calm of a judge who had already written the verdict and was simply waiting for the bailiff to clear the court.

"Matches are dangerous things, Elena," I said softly, my eyes locking onto hers.

"Especially when you don't realize you're already standing in a room full of gasoline."