Page 68 of Hers To Keep
“Evangeline had a six-year-old daughter, Lilith, from a previous marriage,” he says, ignoring my question and jumping straight into Roman’s earlier statement. “My father had me and my sister Gianna, I was ten, my sister was five, and when he married Evangeline Steele, that’s when my father brought his family back to Hillcrest Hills. It had been almost seventy years since the Marchesi family set foot in Hillcrest. We were once again powerful. But our time here didn’t last long.” He moves to sit upon the chair I was on, as he continues to speak. “When I was thirteen, he sent me away. Now the head of the New York Branch of the Italian Mob on the West Coast, my father couldn’t deal with the fact that his eldest son was a psychopath. After all, you can’t have a psychopath as the head of a crime family. Like Roman said, when I came back after graduating, ready to prove to my father that I could take over his business, I realized they’d once again been sent away. What was worse, is what they had done to my baby sister, to my angel. The day I came back was the day my sister took her own life.”
A sense of dread fills me but not for him, but for Gianna. For whoever she was, and how she, like me, didn’t deserve the fate she was given. “You wanted revenge,” I say, understanding the meaning of his presence here.
“So, I created a new identity for myself and rejoined this world as someone else entirely. I became Professor Evan Macallan. Nobody here remembered me. They were all too young when I was sent away and those that would have remembered, never believed the prodigal son would return. I came to avenge my sister. Gianna was an innocent soul, a naïve girl who fell for the wrong guy. But worst of all was betrayed by those she believed were her friends. You reminded me so much of her when you showed upthat first day. As you walked into my class, with that lost look in your eyes. Your beauty took my breath away.”
His wanton gaze sends a frightful chill through me. “You infiltrated their kingdom, all the while plotting to destroy their world, the very world you became a part of.” His grin widens proving I guessed correctly.
“Sound familiar?” he asks, assuming that’s exactly what I’m doing. Infiltrating Ace’s world, all while planning its demise. My vengeance.
“What do you want from me?” I ask, standing and stepping toward him.
“I need you to help me bring down the Servites and all of those who have poisoned this town.”
I laugh, not because of his plan, which in a way sounds exactly like mine, but because he somehow thinks I’d be of help. “What could I possibly do to help?”
He stands, closing the space between us, my body shudders as he stops before me. “More than you’d think, Scarlett.”
“I won’t help you. You’re a mobster, you are no saint in all of this, you’re just as bad as he is, if not worse.” I back away but he moves to follow, crowding my space until I crash once again into Roman.
“My father is a mobster, my half-brother is at the helm of his corrupt empire, not me. My father had another son soon after sending me away. That is who will one day take his place at the front of the outfit. We are just a small branch on the West Coast. The main famiglia, The New York Marchesis are the ones in charge. My psychotic cousin Enzo will soon be at the helm of that empire, but that’s a story for another day. They want nothing from me, as I want nothing from them. My vengeance is here. I will bring down Wesley Servite and Lilith Steele and anyone else who stands in my way, including your little toy.” I freeze at the mention of Ace, my body stiffening with a mixture of dread and fear.
“Why would I ever help you? Especially after what you did tome. You drugged me, put your hands and mouth on me without my lucid consent. Took advantage of me while I was still a minor. Why the hell would I ever help you or believe anything you say?” Bile threatens to rise in my throat, the memory of what he did still so fresh in my mind. My anger threatens to erupt violently.
“You did what?” Roman shouts furiously. I’m not sure why, but I reach my arm out to grab him, holding him back, not allowing him to step toward Macallan. The last thing I need is for Roman to end up dead tonight.
“You’ll help me because you wouldn’t want anything to happen to your lover boy Ace,” Macallan sneers, but it only causes me to laugh, obviously irking him more.
“Nice try. Wesley has already threatened anyone and everyone who means something to me, you’ll have to try harder than that, Macallan, or should I call you by your birth name, Marchesi.”
“Only if I may call you by yours, Smoak.” I’m stunned that he knows about my father, but it doesn’t surprise me. Of course he knows. “But I don’t mean your friends any harm, my dear. Besides, I made a deal with Roman when he came to work for me, when he became a double agent of sorts, that his sisters would always remain unharmed.”
“Then why threaten Ace? What has he ever done to you?” I ask, but it comes out sounding more like a plea.
“I know about Wesley’s threat to hurt Ace were you to not comply with his demands. Personally, I don’t want to hurt Ace, not physically at least. But in order to bring down this corrupt kingdom, I need to make sure nobody will be here to take over once Wesley and his group of goons is gone, once this town is mine.”
His demeanor instantly changes, he’s now smugly grinning as if he’s won here. I won’t be easily convinced. I’ve been dealt a hell of a lot these past few weeks, I won’t be so easily coerced.
“How is Ace a threat to that? Ace hates his uncle, hates his father, and everything about this place. He’d never want to sit on the throne.”
“Oh but I disagree, my dear. You see, something you may not know about your sweet Wallace is that he would do anything to see this town, his home, cleaned up and rid of all the evil that threatens to consume it. It is, of course, why he and his friends were created. They were all conceived to become the Four Horsemen. To rid the town of all the dangers that would threaten to destroy it, destroy them. But what they weren’t planning on was that he’d one day see right through their façade. After all, he’s not the monster he believes he was bred to be, he is the savior they mistakenly created.”
Macallan moves to a table located to his right where a decanter of sorts filled with what can only be red wine sits. He pours two glasses of the wine, turning and handing me one, which I reluctantly take.
“Ace would do anything to save me, to make sure I am not harmed,” I say, holding the glass of wine out, not daring to take a drink of the surely drug laced liquor.
“I’m counting on that, and on the fact that you’d do the same. You see, there is something you don’t know about the Servites. All first-born sons of the four families, previously five, are to be the next generation of leaders. Stephan Silver is at the head of the drug cartel along with Wesley Servite. Mayor Malcolm Smoak leads The Citadel, aiding the corruption flowing through the government officials. My father, Gabriel Marchesi, was in charge of organized crime while Prescott dealt with international alliances, other syndicates, and organizations worldwide that do business with Hillcrest, and Wesley, well although he thrives off of the drugs, his true pleasure is in The Gallows, prostitution. As you now know he has Lilith to help with that. The seven sins live inside the homes of Hillcrest’s Elite. They are the evil that must be destroyed.” He takes a drink of his wine motioning for me to do the same, but I refuse.
“I still don’t understand where Ace fits in all of that. When he discovered what really goes on at The Gallows, after that night youtook advantage of me, he realized he wanted nothing to do with this world.”
“Yes, my dear, but that is not why I want to end him. Ace will soon realize the only way to rid this town of the evil here, will be to save it himself. I won’t allow that. I will be the one to save it, therefore the hero Hillcrest never knew they needed. Ace will not give up until I am defeated as well.” It all makes sense, but I refuse to believe Ace would want anything to do with this place.
“He’ll stay away if I ask, we’ll leave this place, never come back,” I say, practically begging for him to stand down and not hurt Ace.
“If it were only that easy.”
Rage rises in me, I’m tired of the grown ass fuckheads dictating what happens in my life. A life they have no fucking control over. “I won’t help you. I’m tired of cowering down to bullies who think they’re all powerful. To cowards hiding behind their influence and status. You don’t scare me, Marchesi.”
“I might not scare you, but I know something that will.” He walks over to me, dipping a finger into his wine and running it over my bottom lip. The wine is bitter as I close my lips over his finger, trying hard not to bite him. “There is a reason Warren Servite is not sitting on the devil’s throne, but it’s his much younger brother. The coward that is Warren Servite, is incapable of being in charge. Did your curious mind ever wonder why that is?” he asks, clearly not expecting an answer.