Page 3 of Autumn Ritual

She glanced at me, momentarily tearing herself away from Pink Barbie Maria, who was flirting hard with an uninterested Lucian. “Oh, okay. Bye!”

I gave her a wave, but before I stepped away, Maria’s hyena giggle made me cringe. The writer in me wanted to tell her it was never going to work. My brain started to do that thing where I analyzed my surroundings and cataloged them like a book. Lucian hadn’t been interested in any of the local girls and never would be. Maria’s big tits weren’t enough. He wanted something real. I watched for a moment, calculating how his story would happen. I could see it play out. A mystery woman, blown into town, who didn’t look at him as the don, but saw the man under the title. He would fall hard, trying to catch her attention.

There was a soft noise, eerie under the chaos of the people.

I jumped.

The shadows to the left shifted, and a man stepped into view. The pulse in my throat made it impossible to breathe. I was frozen, rooted to the ground as the feeling of facing a real monster spread through me. This wasn’t an actor or a ghoul.

He was a living, breathing devil.

He entered the event area from the pumpkin patch, unfolding from the dark as though he’d been part of the night. I blinked and pushed my glasses up my nose, trying to hide the physical response to flee.

Oh! It’s just…him.

Camillo Ravello, cousin to the don, and his enforcer.

But it wasn’t the killer’s title that made my heartbeat speed up. It was the specter, ageless and still as hot as when we were younger and he’d lived next door. What had it been? A couple of years? Crap, no…. More like five. Maybe six since we’d last spoken. It would have been before I left the Cove. I rarely saw Cam when I came home for the holidays. And the last two years, my parents had come to visit me.

The wind picked up, and a shudder rattled my bones. He looked good. Tall, and fiercely independent. He could take on any Made Man here and win. It wouldn’t even be a fair fight. He was built differently. The Ravello Famiglia dealt in mercenaries. They were hitmen, the best assassins in the world. But in a town of men who walked on the wrong side of the law, men who were hired to kill, Cam was the monster who kept them in line. He was the don’s enforcer. The man who hunted down and ended killers.

His light brown eyes took in the scene as he walked toward Lucian. Up close, they had a golden quality, the brown of a setting sun. A small ache formed in my chest, and I took a step forward before I stopped myself. His wild hair was buzzed short. A scar cut through an eyebrow. Maybe the last few years had changed him more than I’d realized.

“The harvest ball is this weekend,” Maria gushed, her falsetto tone snapping me back into reality. “Are you coming?”

Lucian looked like the collar of his dress shirt was going to cut off his air. “Cam and I will be there.”

The enforcer stopped beside his cousin, shooting daggers from his gaze.

I couldn’t help it. A laugh bubbled up my throat, but I clapped a hand over my mouth before it could escape. Cam looked downright venomous!

The enforcer must have heard the sound, because his gaze cut to me. It was as though the carnival fell silent around us. A breath dragged into my lungs. For the first time since we’d come to the haunted corn maze, I was warm. I gave Cam a small wave—

And then realized people were looking.

To remedy the awkward moment, I gave everyone a wave, turned on my heels, and began to walk away. If anyone in our friend group noticed I tripped over a stone, they didn’t say. But someone saw. I felt his gaze long after I left the autumn attraction. It burrowed in my spine like a solid presence. And I wasn’t in a hurry to get rid of it.

Chapter 2 – Cam

The tree’s bark bit into my back. I crossed my arms over my chest, resisting the urge to reach for a cigarette. The package was in my front pocket, taunting my weakness. It had been four years since I bought it, but I kept it on me at all times. I suffered quietly…because she’d asked me.

“You know those things are poison, Cam?” Her laughter echoed through my mind. “I wish you wouldn’t smoke them.”

I’d quit that very day. The reminder of my promise to her stayed with me, however.

I gazed up at the black window. I would need a ladder to climb the colonial structure and peek through the window.

Or I could just pick the lock and wander through the unlit halls.

My legs twitched at the thought, ready to step into action. But I couldn’t be caught breaking into the Caputo’s residence. Lucian would have my head. Saverio Caputo was his numbers guy, and Lucian more than tolerated him. I wouldn’t go so far as to say the don liked him—Lucian liked very few people. Most days I doubted he liked me. But Caputo was valuable. There was never a cent missing, and sometimes, he was able to find money where none of us would think to look. Caputo hid those funds too. His knack for setting up offshore accounts, for funneling the dough, and for making sure our operations were financially solid was a treasure to the famiglia.

That meant his house was off limits, even to me.

But…she’s back.

Cazzo! She looked good. How many times had I gone to the city to visit her? I always stayed in the shadows. We took walks together where I was the only one who knew we shared them. At times, I had to physically hold myself back from intercepting her. Leaving the Cove was her choice. I respected that. I let her have her shot at freedom.

But she was here now.