Chapter 1
Javier Romano’s knee pressed into Leo’s back.
The eight-year-old boy’s cheek was against the grass.
His fingers dug desperately into the lawn.
“Say it.”
Leo tried to twist his head.
“I didn’t—”
“Say it.”
Mia ran toward them.
“Get off him!”
She grabbed Javier’s arm.
He shoved her away.
The seven-year-old fell onto the grass.
That was when Leo screamed.
“Dad! I can’t breathe!”
Twenty yards away, Dante Romano stopped speaking.
Three senior family men had been standing around him beside the barbecue tables.
None finished their sentence.
Dante turned.
He saw Mia on the ground.
Leo beneath Javier.
The world narrowed.
He crossed the lawn.
Javier looked up only when Dante’s hand closed around his shoulder.
Dante tore him backward.
Javier stumbled.
Leo rolled onto one side coughing.
Dante’s voice was low.
“Take your hands off my children.”
Mia ran behind her father.
Dante immediately crouched beside Leo.
“Look at me.”
Leo tried.
“Can you breathe?”
He nodded weakly.
Dante looked at the red mark along his son’s cheek.
Something old stirred inside him.
He stood.
Javier straightened his polo shirt.
Guests had stopped eating.
Music had stopped.
Even the bodyguards looked uncertain.
Dante took Leo’s hand.
Mia pressed herself against his other side.
Javier walked toward him.
“You’re making a scene.”
Dante stared.
“You had my son under your knee.”
“He stole from me.”
Leo shook his head.
“I didn’t!”
Javier ignored him.
Dante looked toward his cousin.
“What did he steal?”
Javier did not answer.
Interesting.
“Javier.”
“Something that belongs to my side of the family.”
“What?”
Javier stepped closer and shoved Dante in the chest.
The entire garden became silent.
“What are you going to do about it, Boss?”
The word Boss came out like an insult.
Dante looked down at the hand that had pushed him.
Javier swung.
Dante moved aside.
Caught his wrist.
Turned the arm.
Javier hit the lawn face-down.
Dante controlled him without striking again.
Not rage.
Control.
That frightened the witnesses more.
Leo and Mia were moved behind two bodyguards.
Javier struggled.
“Get off me!”
Dante leaned closer.
“You put your knee on my son.”
“He needed to learn—”
Dante tightened his hold just enough to stop the sentence.
“You wanted to teach my son strength.”
He released Javier.
Then shoved him away across the grass.
Javier rolled and crawled backward.
Dante stood between him and the children.
“Remember who taught you fear.”
For a moment Javier’s face showed pure hatred.
Then Leo spoke.
“Dad?”
Dante turned.
The boy was holding something.
A small black chess knight.
Old wood.
One side burned darker than the other.
Dante stopped breathing.
“Where did you get that?”
Leo pointed toward the garden house.
The small brick building had been locked since Dante’s father died.
Nobody used it.
Nobody had a reason to.
“I found it under the floor.”
Javier stood too quickly.
“Give me that.”
Dante turned toward him.
Javier froze.
That reaction said more than any confession.
Dante took the chess piece from Leo.
Underneath was a tiny carved letter.
R.
His father’s mark.
R for Romano.
But Dante knew what the knight meant.
His father, Salvatore Romano, had used black chess pieces whenever someone inside the family was accused of betrayal.
A pawn meant suspicion.
A bishop meant warning.
A rook meant removal.
The knight meant something worse.
Blood had betrayed blood.
Twenty-seven years ago, the last black knight Dante ever saw was placed in front of one man.
Javier’s father.
Mateo Romano.
Mateo vanished the next night.
No body was ever found.
Javier looked at the piece.
Then at Dante.
His voice changed.
“Where exactly did Leo find it?”
Dante’s eyes narrowed.
“You knew it was there.”
Javier did not answer.
Dante looked toward the locked garden house.
Then back at his cousin.
May you like
The barbecue was over.
But whatever had begun twenty-seven years earlier had just returned to the table.
