The Mafia Kings Pawn

Two days after Christmas, I stood on a deserted sidewalk and lifted my head to the top of the skyscraper across the street.

I swallowed as my gaze caught his penthouse. I couldn't do it. Marry him? It was impossible, except I had to do it.

"I'm not scared," I muttered to myself and tightened my grip on my tattered backpack.

I had to marry the devil himself to save my sister. That was my last option. I had assumed it would never come to that. I always believed that the police would help me out and rescue my sister. Instead, they mocked me each time I shared my story.

"Let me get this straight." the first policeman I met said. "Your older sister wagered herself in a poker game and lost to her ex-boyfriend?"

I had cried and begged for help, but none was coming. One of the police officers had even threatened to arrest me for illegal gambling.

Now, I was shivering in the cold in front of a massive penthouse. No one was coming to save Illyra. It was just me and my backup plan.

I had to take responsibility for everything. After all, I was responsible for getting Illyra into trouble in the first place. If I hadn't stupidly accepted my boss's invitation to a poker game, she wouldn't have tried to save me.

Clever Illyra, five years older than me, had been a poker game expert and a con artist in her childhood. But after we abandoned our dangerous life and she began to work as an honest waitress, her skills became rusty. How else could I explain that instead of winning, she had lost everything to her hated ex-boyfriend with the turn of a single card?

Andrei Andreevich separated us immediately after he won. He forcefully sent me back to the mainland on his private jet, and I had spent my last dime to fly back, desperate to get Illyra away from him.

For the past forty-eight hours, I had managed to keep everything together after meeting dead ends because I had one final fallback plan.

But now, I had to actually fall back on the plan, and it felt like falling on a sword.

I looked up at the skyscraper again and studied the penthouse. I had caused my sister to lose her freedom, so now, I had to save her by selling myself in marriage to Andrei Andreevich's worst enemy.

His younger brother. Viktor Andreevich.

"The enemy of my enemy is my friend," I muttered, trying to convince myself that I wasn't doing the most dangerous thing ever.

I would marry the devil himself.

I sighed and forced my feet off the sidewalk to the skyscraper. There was no backing up now, and I knew it.

"Excuse me, how can I help you?" the doorman asked inside the lobby, eyeing my dirty clothes.

I licked my lips. "I am here to see one of your residents. I mean, marry one of your residents."

He didn't bother to hide his disbelief. "You? Marry someone who lives here?"

I nodded. "Yes. Viktor Andreevich."

His eyes widened immediately. "The prince? Oh, you must be delusional. Get out of here before I call the police."

I was beginning to get desperate. "Please, just call him. Tell him that Lyra has changed her mind. My answer is yes now."

"Call him? I would never do that." He narrowed his eyes at me. "If you think you can come in here and..."