I Took Half, He Kept His Queen

hadow behind Dominic Falcone, the

year in a row, he

crape my untouched birth

She is having a se

ushed off to comfort his Co

was just a ward he was s

tom armored SUV he bough

front of his soldiers, letting her

h a severe fever, his fierce protection was solel

al distance was simply the

e with terrifying devotion could now completely er

t in a one-sided war just

nally realized it is not difficult to surr

y lease expired, I packed

of the living expenses to

Don's number and van

pte

ena

ical thermos, its metallic rasp against the porcelain setting my teeth on edge, I knew I had pr

was not a man wh

ering the extermination of a rival family. His authority was a physical pressure, and when he entered a room, the air thicken

ar in a row, he had

pack the meal I had spent three hours preparing-a pale, delicate assembly of poached fish and steamed vegetables, a monument to my own erased prefe

of a soldier packing a field kit, his gaze ne

frosting smeared against the sides, the elegant script of my name melting into a pathet

planation but a decree. He snapped the lid onto the th

e panic attack," he ad

nd unreadable; there was no apology in their

died saving Dominic's, and with that act, a blood deb

eavy metal doors slid shut with a final, pneumatic hiss and a dull,

found emptiness, the kind that follows a long fever. The ange

ndurance. I was done waiting for a

, electronic bell, cut through the

e Manager stood in the hallway, clutching a lea

apologies for the late hour. I came about the penthouse security lease. It

treated this penthouse like a temporary barracks, blind to the

moving ou

se crossing his disciplined features bef

all I direct the secu

inic's offshore acc

aking on the polished floor. His brow furrowed. Pr

s are cleared before the extraction d

and close

hone. I scrolled through my contacts to find the name of

pressing firmly against the cold glass. "T

as almost i

the Falcone Family

. Five years were woven into the fabric of that name, and to unp

ed the

he place or not

commend a crew of trusted cleaners. Th

raction in three d

sion finally settling in my bo

uzzed. It w

nsw

ordered, his voice tight with a stress that had nothing to do w

n in my lungs feeling thin and used,

ce barely a whisper. "Do

er the line, thin an

birthday with a fierce, terrifying devotion, locking us in a hotel suite f

r, the date had been

suddenly thick with a misplaced solemnity, completely oblivious to the agonizing weight of

o think. My birthday-the one day that was supposed to be mine-had been overwritten by a date that belonged to her. And in that moment, I understood with per