Revenge of Sin (Atlantic City Kings #1)

Chapter 1

Vincenzo

Anna Cassone…

I knew who she was the very night she walked into the lower-level DeLuca X Club masquerade party; no mask or anything else was going to hide her identity from me, although I was guilty of hiding mine from her.

Too late now. She knows exactly who I am and how the boss of the DeLuca crime family misled her, at least, didn’t tell her the truth. Intentionally not giving her my name, keeping the fact that I knew exactly who the dark-haired beauty was the minute she walked through the sex club doors.

My eyes scan the vast area, having searched through the crowds of people moving in and around the casino tables and machines, and now focused on the halls that lead to that exit. Everything I should have done differently keeps replaying in my head.

Fuck, I should have told her right away but in my defense, she never asked. And I did plan to tell her, just not until… I rake a hand through my hair in frustration.

What a fucking mess.

Anna Cassone is smart. For a moment, she even had me fooled. Letting me think maybe she hadn’t heard the loudmouth saying my name in the casino clearly, maybe she didn’t make the connection or really know who I am, and who she’s been playing with at the club.

One minute she was walking toward me in the casino, giving me a gesture that she’s going to stop in at the ladies’ room. And then minutes later, I turn my back for one minute and she’s fucking gone, vanished right under our noses.

The eldest Cassone daughter has been trained well, fooling not only me but my soldiers as well with a little sneak into the bathroom, change clothes, and a walk right out the fucking door routine without being recognized at all.

My blood races furiously as we make our way through the casino halls and toward the exit where she’s fled. “Find her! Do not let her get away,” I growl at my soldiers.

The minute Anna Cassone realized DeLuca was my last name, I knew. The desire she felt for me, no matter how intense, it was over. A Cassone with a DeLuca was never meant to be. I knew it and chose to ignore it, at least for a while.

Damn that man at the bar and the way his loud voice carried throughout the casino.

I knew she heard him say my name without even looking her way.

The energy in the room changed just that quick, as though I could feel her fear rippling through the club and her immediate desire to get away. I should have known she would run.

The moment she realized she’s been playing with the devil himself, attracted to a man with the darkest soul around and boss of Atlantic City it was over.

The DeLucas are definitely not a crime family her family will want her associating with at all.

We may not be outright enemies with the Rosellis and Cassones after what I did for them, but we’re far from fucking friends.

My jaw tightens with anger. She didn’t even give me a chance to explain why I didn’t tell her who I was and my very valid reasons for the deception.

And our soldiers should have caught sight of her right away.

The truth is, she got the best of us all with a cutesy little parlor trick that shouldn’t have worked.

My jaw locks tight with the realization that she’s out there with no protection at all now.

The minute my men came out of the bathroom holding up Anna’s wet clothes, hidden in the fucking toilet tank, it was always going to be a chase of the most intense kind.

“Move! Seal off the exits.” It’s a command not one of our men better mess up, because beyond the safety of our Atlantic City casino could be absolute mayhem, especially for Anna.

Wanted by a rival family of the most brutal kind with a bounty on her head worth a billion dollars, she won’t survive what they have planned.

Not for an hour, much less a night, week, or lifetime. They’re going to find her if we don’t first.

Of all nights for things to go to shit. All I can think of is her getting captured by those brutal Gallini fucks.

It spurs my feet faster, racing through the casino toward the exit to catch up to my soldiers. Nicolo catches up, syncing in step with me as we make our way to the front door with no time to spare. My voice is so gruff I barely recognize it myself. “Tell me something I want to hear.”

My younger brother, the best underboss in the state, doesn’t hesitate. “We’ve got this whole city wired and watching, Vincenzo. It’s only a matter of time before they find Anna and I get an update on her location.”

The warm air and dampness coming off the ocean hits us with a wall of mugginess as we leave the well-lit casino front entrance, my eyes scanning the cars pulling in and out of the entrance picking up and dropping off patrons as we head to the black Lincoln Town Car he’s got ready and waiting.

I jump into the back as he slides into the passenger seat next to Terry who catches my eyes in the rearview mirror.

“Out to the highway,” Nicolo instructs. “We’re looking for a black car heading north.”

Terry’s eyebrows raise and I blow out a breath.

A fucking black car in the city leaving the casino is going to be almost impossible to locate.

I know it and so does our driver. My brother’s not one to lose though, and his grit and determination have gotten us through more than one fight that otherwise we could have lost.

We’re going to find her, because we fucking have to. Now that I’ve learned the woman I saved and spent the last six months thinking about is alive and have gotten a taste of her sweetness, she can’t just fucking disappear where any monster out there could take her for a paycheck.

I ball my hands by my sides as Terry navigates the highway, waiting for something to fucking happen, a phone to ring, a car to appear, fucking something besides driving down the highway with no Anna Cassone to speak of in sight.

Nicolo picks up his phone as it finally rings. “Yeah, stay on them. We’re about ten minutes out. I’ll text you back with instructions.” He turns to Terry. “Straight ahead. Put your fucking foot on the gas. We found ‘em.”

Patience is sure as fuck not one of my virtues, especially when one of our rivals or the Cassone rivals could have Anna, but I also have respect for my brother’s role in the organization and give him space to breathe as he works.

He turns to me. “Our guys are out on the highway. They have a car following a black limo they believe has Anna in it. It’s dark, but one of our men had his buddy run the plates, and they tie to a place up north. And they’re heading toward Jersey City. I’d put money on it being them.”

My chest pounds with unprecedented speed. “Don’t fucking lose them.”

Nicolo doesn’t look up from his phone, just keeps on typing while giving me a nod. “They’re in heavy traffic now. It’s going to clear in about ten minutes, and we’re going to have about twenty minutes of minimal activity on that stretch of road.”

His head turns and his dark eyes meet mine. “What do you want them to do?”

I know what my brother is really doing, giving me a chance to pause, to back out, to not get involved with another crime family’s act of revenge. To keep our family out of the war.

Six months ago, my answer would have been different.

Before I carried Anna Cassone from that stench-filled place they had her holed up in, barely alive in my arms after being left for dead, and only just a few nights ago held her in my arms again, this time passionate and willing, and tasted the angel I’ve been dreaming of ever since.

No, like it or not, we are very much already in this fucking war whether we like it or not.

Anna and her sister Sophia Cassone are not the reason Gallini’s brother is dead; may the sorry son of a bitch never rest one moment in peace. But I’m also pretty certain that’s not how Gallini sees it even though he should be blaming old man Cassone and his brother Barcelo.

The way Barcelo left Anna before he died, I’m pretty sure he thought he had killed her too, or that she would die soon after he left her there to rot in that fucking hideout.

As did everyone in the fucking crime community, because that’s what the Roselli family told people. Which is probably the only reason Massimo Roselli got away with making everyone, including me, think Anna, his sister-in-law was dead.

Massimo and Sophia even had a fucking funeral and all to make sure everyone thought Anna was dead.

The angel is very much alive and was supposed to be in my bed tonight but instead she runs.

The soldier who got the license plate of the vehicle she got into, and her friend’s account of the vehicle she was supposed to get into—fuck, it’s the only way we knew she was kidnapped and in the back of a black car carrying a man who’s about ready to learn exactly what happens when you fuck with a DeLuca or take what belongs to them.

“Take the fuckers out of commission but try to keep them alive if possible,” I growl.

“Just keep Anna safe. One hair on her pretty little head gets mussed tonight and I’m going to hold them personally fucking responsible in a very ugly and personal way.

” They better pray the men get to them before I do, because there will be no mercy from me.

My brother’s eyes go wide, but he nods and doesn’t argue.

Nicolo already said his piece about my obsession with Anna a few days ago.

He knows that we’re taking this all the way now.

There’s no turning back, no not being part of the crime family war that will ultimately ensue when whoever took Anna gets wacked and we take her back.

There’s no way I’m letting someone come onto the DeLuca property, take what I already consider to be mine, and get away with their life. Tonight, the Gallinis or whoever they paid are going to pay the ultimate price for fucking with her and with us.

There’s no doubt in my mind the Cassone rivals, the Gallinis, are behind this, specifically Bastian fucking Gallini.

They aren’t going to let it end. Barcelo’s brother is going to want his pound of flesh, and I know exactly how he’s going to want his revenge.

The thought of that fuck with his grimy hands on Anna twists my stomach into knots. “Drive faster.”

Terry doesn’t hesitate, just accelerates faster than he was already going, passing one car after another until the exit ramps spread out and the traffic thins to little or nothing.

Nicolo reads a message on his phone a few minutes later. “They’ve got the car. Driver’s dead.”

They didn’t have a choice.”

“Anna?”

“She’s alive, but unconscious. Our soldiers said they overpowered her with some kind of chemical in the back of the car. She’s not coming around any time soon, Vincenzo, but she’s sure to be wigged out when she wakes up.”

My jaw tightens at the thought of her waking up scared and alone. “How far?”

Nicolo looks down at his phone and back up at me. “The way Terry’s driving, we’ll be on top of them in two minutes.”

I nod, and true to his word, a black car is pulled over to the side of the road just up ahead.

Our soldiers must have put the car’s hazards on.

To anyone else it will just appear that someone’s pulled off with car problems. In this neck of the woods, it’s not likely many people are going to stop.

They may use their phone to call it in, but nowadays, no one’s going to pull over and take the chance of getting robbed, kidnapped, or stabbed.

Especially in this desolate of an area. All kinds of bad things happen here, and I would know firsthand exactly what goes on.

I’m out of the car the minute it pulls to a stop. One of our soldiers is leaning into the back seat far too close to Anna for my liking. I grab his shoulder rougher than intended. “I’ve got her.”

His eyes go wide when he sees me. “Yes sir, boss.” He steps aside, and I gather Anna into my arms, rescuing her for the second time in just over six months, pressing her limp body against my chest, thankful that this time she hasn’t been battered and beaten like the last and they’ve had no time to do anything else or get her to their lair.

I walk with her back to the car, and Nicolo holds the back door open, closing it as I settle inside with Anna, keeping her cradled on my lap as Terry and Nicolo get back into the car.

The DeLuca family has been fortunate. Until now, we haven’t had to fight for our territory, too rich, powerful and in control to come up against other crime families close enough in the state to want the area.

But the tides are changing…

The Sarones must be working for someone with more power than themselves to have tried hitting our club last week.

And now this. Nicolo’s not wrong in his assessment that I’ve just brought a war to our door, but my guess is we were long overdue and after the Sarone’s attempt last week it was coming anyway.

If not for one reason, for another.

I look down at the dark-haired beauty, watching her shallow breathing. The realization that this obsession with Anna is worth going to war settles over me and can’t be ignored.

I knew full well who she was the moment I first saw the angel in my club, allowed her to be there, and took liberties that will no doubt be the cause of Roselli retribution for years to come, but she fucking loved it whether she’ll admit it now that she knows who I am or not.

Every fucking minute was worth it, and I’d do it again in a heartbeat. And I fully intend to.

Nicolo turns to me. “Where to?”

“Back to the penthouse.”

My brother’s eyes go wide. “Are you fucking serious, Vincenzo? You can’t just keep Anna Cassone. You have to give her back to the Rosellis to protect. Massimo is going to be searching high and low for his sister-in-law. He’s going to come unhinged, and we all know what that looks like.”

The blood races with fury through my veins. “If Massimo had kept her safe, protected, she wouldn’t be running around in the middle of the night where someone could snatch her. If we hadn’t gotten to her, she could have been subjected to torture for the rest of her natural born life.”

Nicolo starts to say something, but I cut him off. “Home.”