His Cursed Heart (Cursed Men #1)

Prologue

Darkness surrounds me but somehow, I keep walking on the empty, dusty road. Blood leaks out of my chest, leaving a trail behind me.

I feel my body going numb, falling on the hard ground. I don’t know how much time has passed before I feel a pair of soft hands grabbing my head, caressing gently, looking for injuries.

“Can you hear me? If you do, nod your head.” And I do. My vision is blurry and because of that I can’t put a face to the sweet, raspy voice that is talking to me. “What’s your name?”

I try to speak but my throat is too dry. I hear a deadly sound in my ear, and because of that, I can’t remember her voice.

“E-Everette.” I say in a hoarse voice.

“Your name is Everest? Were you conceived on that mountain?” I stop a laugh, my chest hurting, the lack of the oxygen making me breathe harder.

“Everette Moretti.” I say more clearly.

“Moretti, ha? The heir of Chicago Outfit. That’s a nice surprise.”

“Yeah well, can you help me or are you just gonna make fun of me?” I’m not going to lie, I’m interested in her, and the fact that she called me ‘Everest’ like it’s the

funniest thing in the world, makes me desperate so see her.

“Stay alive, Everest. I don’t want to explain to my father why is the heir of the American mafia dead in front of our house.”

“Gee thanks.”

I feel her soft hands leaving my face, already missing her touch. I try to open my eyes, the light making it harder for me.

I wait for her a couple of minutes and then I feel a weight on my chest. I force my eyes to open and I freeze.

The lightest shade of blue is looking at me with panic.

“What’s your name?” I ask the Italian mafia princess.

“Keres.”

I made a promise three years ago when I proposed to Keres.

Protect her.

After I decided to marry the girl who saved me, I feel like everything went down. And it’s not her fault. Keres was the girl who never judged you, who would always put herself first. That’s why I liked her.

She would’ve made the perfect mafia queen.

Until I found her with a bullet in her head in our future bedroom. I was shocked. Furious that someone broke into my house unnoticed, that she died being innocent.

But I was never hurt.

My desire to know her was simply because she intrigued me so much when she saved me. Her laugh was angelic but sarcastic, her voice was soft but hoarse. She seemed different.

And maybe it was because I was almost dead. I lost so much blood that day that I stood in a coma for almost a week.

I started to date her because I thought my feeling will change. But they never did.

Our families saw us together and decided to unite the two mafias, so I proposed to her as a duty to my people.

I was going to become the future Capo. There was never room for love.

As I am standing in front of Keres’s coffin, I’m realizing how much she gave up for me. She left Italy and her family, her home in which she grew up and came in Chicago to live with me. I don’t think she loved me either. We lived in each other space, but we never actually cared what we are doing without the other. While she was always in the house or in the garden, I was in my office or away for business.

But I protected her from everything. I kept my promise for three years until days ago. Her beautiful face covered in blood will haunt me forever.

“Keaton?” I hear my right-hand voice, Allan. His blonde hair is styled perfectly and he is wearing a black simple suit.

Like mine.

Keres’s funeral is today and many families came here to show respect for my dead fiancée.

“What happened, Allan? I’m trying to say goodbye.” I murmur, still looking at her pale face with the white patch on her forehead to hide the gunshot.

“I’m sorry, but we finally have the footage from the day she died.” I hear him say behind me.

“And?” I want to find the bastard who dared to underestimate me. I will skin him alive for what he did to her, for daring to question my authority and killing an innocent woman.

“A shadow. We can’t figure out who is it. No camera shows a clear imagine of him.”

“So, he knew the house quite good.” I assume.

An outsider.

“Or maybe he hacked the system.”

“You’re telling me we have no lead?” I ask frustrated.

“Just that he’s not from here. The gun is foreign and a very hard one to find. Arsenal Firearms ‘Strike One’.”

“Russia or Italy.” The best guns or even armor is in those countries. “That doesn’t mean the guy is foreign.”

“It’s a possibility. That’s all we have, Boss.” That bastard. For how long did he planned this?

Yes, I didn’t have the romantic relationship I thought I would have with Keres, but we were friends. She usually told me about her day when we had diner and she definitely told me if someone crossed the line. If she was in danger, she would’ve told me.

“Do you know someone good with computers?” I ask Allan, my eyes never leaving Keres.

Is her family here? And not some aunts and uncles that never cared about her. I know Hanibal, her father, would be here even if there’s a war on her grave.

But after everything that happened between them, all the unfinished conflicts, would she come to her sister’s funeral?

A hot feeling of anger takes control of my body when her face ruins my mind. Anger and another feeling that I can’t put my finger on.

“Arius Novak. The Empress’s most loyal soldier.”

“Is there a way to contact him? Preferably without the Empress knowing.” Allan looked at me like I had pink hair. It’s risky doing this behind her back, but I don’t want this publicly. “Just- stay with her until I’m back.” And I leave the room.

I take out my phone and contact Orion, my personal hunter. If I want to find someone that it’s practically invisible, he’s the guy who can find him.

“Keaton.” His hoarse voiced filled my ear. Everybody calls me Keaton. The only one who called me ‘Everette’ was Keres when she saved me. But just in that moment. I wanted her to keep calling me like that but she never did. Like she can’t even remember calling me like that.

“I need you to find me a way to talk with Arius Novak.” I get to the point.

“You wanna die?” I hear his small laugh.

“Clearly. Can you do it?”

“You know I can. Give me a couple of days. That bastard is smart.” And with that the call ends.

I want to get back to where Keres is, but Allan is at the front door with wide eyes.

“What is wrong with you?” He may be my right hand, but he is a clown sometimes.

“I know it may sound stupid, but I think Keres knocked in her coffin.” I sigh at his stupidity.

“My dead fiancée knocked from inside her coffin?” I asked him already tired of his childish behavior.

“I know what I heard.” I move him aside, entering the room but I freeze when the black, empty coffin stays in the middle of the room.

The windows are closed, no sign that someone was here. Even the white sheets inside the coffin are impeccable. Allan was out for maximum four minutes and her body is gone.

My dead fiancée disappeared.