The black Escalade growled beneath us like a coiled beast, tires eating pavement as we sped through the city's underbelly. The scent of gun oil and leather clung to the air like a second skin. I'd traded in silk for something sharper—black pants tight as sin, a holster on my thigh, matte lipstick blood-dark.
Tonight, I didn't need to play the pretty pawn.
Tonight, I was the queen.
"He's baiting you," Matteo said from the passenger seat, voice low and edged with grit. "Dante wants you out in the open."
"Good," I murmured, my eyes on the rain-slicked streets ahead. "Let him see what happens when you corner a queen."
From the back seat, Luca let out a grunt. "He doesn't think you've got it in you. Still sees you as the girl behind the bar, not the woman who burned his last safehouse to a
