Serpent King's Bride: A Dark Mafia Romance Trilogy

Nathan’s muscles tensed beside me, a silent promise that he would unleash hell if Kenny pointed his finger at me. Nathan would kill for me. I knew that without question.

My gaze flitted to Knuckles, who stood a silent sentinel near the door. His posture was rigid, the lines of his face etched with tension. When his hand brushed the gun at his hip—an involuntary twitch or a deliberate warning?—my breath caught. He’d been stoic this whole time, playing the part of Kenny’s righthand man and bodyguard…but something had shifted.

Was there any chance he would help us? Would self-preservation drive him to act against Kenny?

Or was he merely another serpent waiting to strike?

“Remember,” Kenny’s voice sliced through the haze of my thoughts, a steel trap snapping shut, “loyalty is everything.”

It was like the air was sucked out of the room.

The tense silence was shattered as Kenny’s finger jutted out like an accusatory dagger, piercing the veil of nervous anticipation–not at me, but across the table.

“Sun Mengyao of San Diego,” he declared, his voice carrying the weight of a final verdict. “You have betrayed the Serpents.”

I turned my head slightly to catch a glimpse of the accused. She was a quiet woman, her presence up till now almost ethereal. Mengyao’s eyes darted from face to face, the color draining from her features. Beside her, the man I presumed to be her husband registered the shock first with a gasp, his face twisting into an expression of disbelief and horror. His mouth opened, but no words emerged—only the sound of a life unraveling at the seams.

“Seize her,” Kenny’s command sparked immediate action among his men, who surged forward with predatory efficiency.

But Mengyao clearly wasn’t resigned to her fate. With a sudden burst of desperation, she bolted up from her chair, her hand plunging into the pleats of her dress. The glint of metal flashed as she pulled a knife from its concealed pocket—an act of defiance, a refusal to be taken without a fight.

The room erupted into chaos. Chairs scraped against the floor, voices raised in alarm, and bodies moved in a frenzied dance of survival. Yet throughout it all, I remained frozen, Nathan’s grip a constant reminder that any false move on my part could spell disaster.

We both stayed put, watching as she held the knife out toward anyone who came close to her. She was desperate, terrified–rightly so–but I felt a kind of kinship with her as a fellow viper, the women who worked in the shadows. For a moment, our eyes met across the room, and I saw a flicker of something—resolve, fear, determination.

“Careful, Abby,” Nathan whispered, his voice a low rumble against my ear. “Don’t let them see what you’re thinking.”

I nodded, schooling my features into an expression of shock that mirrored those around me. Inside, I was anything but composed. Beneath the surface, my mind churned, already calculating the implications of tonight’s events and how they would affect our cause. Mengyao was screaming at Kenny’s guards to get away as if she was terrified…but her eyes narrowed, then, and she looked straight at Kenny before launching herself onto the table.

The sharp sound of a chair scraping against the floor jolted me back to reality, and my gaze snapped to Knuckles as he lunged forward with predatory precision. The glint of steel in his hand caught the dim light, a blade drawn with a lethal grace that chilled my blood.

He moved faster than she did. In her dress, she was too slow, too clumsy.

Before anyone could react, the edge of the knife whispered across Mengyao’s throat. A crimson line bloomed on her yellow dress, stark against the pale fabric. It happened so fast, a nightmare unfolding in the time it took for a heart to beat once, hard, in a chest.

Lily’s scream pierced the sudden silence, raw and terrified. Evelyn, her face a mask of forced calm, reached out to cover Lily’s eyes, protecting her from the brutal reality their family business entailed. Blood spilled on the decadent spread we’d been feasting on just minutes earlier, splattering a few of the people sitting near Mengyao as well.

Nathan’s grip on me tightened, an unspoken command to remain still. His touch was like iron bands, preventing any movement, any protest. I could feel the tension radiating from him, controlled fury at the display. But his face remained impassive, a stone mask that revealed nothing of his inner thoughts.

He’d practiced this; seen too much, had to endure too much.

I didn’t move, didn’t flinch—at least not until I felt Kenny’s eyes on me. He watched us all, gauging our reactions with the calculating gaze of a serpent studying its prey. My heart pounded as I met his stare, knowing full well what he sought in my expression.

Feigning horror, I let out a gasp, my hands flying up to cover my mouth, mirroring the shock I should have felt. It was a performance worthy of an award, but in this den of vipers, it was survival. Inwardly, I cursed myself for needing to act, for not feeling the revulsion that the scene warranted.

But I was an FBI agent planted deep undercover, emotions buried beneath layers of deceit. This was my world now and I knew I had to play my part flawlessly. I was shocked–really, as far as I knew, this kind middle-aged woman was completely innocent.

I completely believed that Mengyao was just a victim of Kenny’s wrath.

As Mengyao’s body hit the floor, my resolve hardened. I would end this, bring down the Golden Serpents from within, even if it meant staining my soul in the process.

“Shocked, Abby?” Nathan’s voice was barely audible, a murmur meant only for me. He gave me a look that almost suggested he was amused, playing his own part: the battle-hardened heir to the San Francisco Serpents.

“Terrified,” I whispered back, letting the lie roll off my tongue as easily as the truth used to.

“Good,” he replied, his breath warm against my ear. “That’ll keep you alive.”

In that moment, surrounded by the macabre tableau of the Serpent’s Den, I clung to those words, a lifeline in a sea of darkness. And as Kenny’s smile lingered on me, promising retribution and pain for those who dared defy him, I focused on the task at hand.