They Hurt Her Loyal Dog for Fun, Thinking She Was Just a Weak Widow — Then They Discovered the Woman They Humiliated Was the Mafia Queen Who Ruled Them All

Chapter 2

“Stop!”

The voice cracked like a whip, and it didn’t come from Mara.

It came from Dale Holt, Ty’s father, who had been watching from the porch with his arms crossed, and who now shoved through the crowd with his hands up, his face the color of old ash. “Stop! Stop it! Your dog is alive!”

Mara did not loosen her grip. “You expect me to believe you monsters?”

“I swear! I swear on my mother!” Dale’s hands were shaking now. “We didn’t touch the damn dog! The whole live stream — it was for show! We just wanted the views!”

In the grass behind him, Beau’s tail thumped once. Twice.

Mara saw it. The world came rushing back in through her ears — the night sounds, the traffic, the wet smell of the yard — and she dropped the chain and went to her knees in the dirt and gathered her dog up in her arms, and Beau whined and licked the salt from her chin, and the Holts stood around her in a loose, awkward ring, the way people stand at a funeral where no one knows what to say.