I remembered each of Patrice’s smiles and jokes when I entered their house. You’d have never guessed that underneath his charming facade hid a disgusting man. He’d kept the same job at Dad’s company for ten years, always presenting himself properly and well.
“By reading people with ease and discovering their secrets, you can only be disgusted by them. The sooner you learn that, the better.” Levi’s voice dripped with cynicism.
I curled my hand into a fist. “I wish he had paid.”
I was glad my father fired him, publicly humiliating him, but it didn’t feel like enough.
Levi’s fingers traced my cheek. “He did. I found him a year later at some bar. I was there to force him to end his pitiful life.” His eyes searched mine, but I didn’t flinch. “When I saw him being thrown out of the bar, drunk, homeless, and pitiful, I couldn’t bring myself to do anything. I simply laughed. I’m not a nice man, Dalia, but murder is a line I wouldn’t cross.” A dark smile stretched his lips. “Except for you.”
I gulped, sparks skittering down my spine. “I care about you, Levi.”
He shrugged. “So that means no movie, I suppose?”
I knew that just like that, he was deflecting, closing himself off. I nodded and pointed at his marble chess set, which hadn’t moved an inch since the last time. “How about chess? You could teach me.”
He gestured to me to take a seat. “But if I win, you’ll have to do a dare, and it won’t be an easy one.”
“What if I win?”
“You’ll win everything you want from me.”
“Fine, game is on.” I took a seat facing the white pieces. “But first, I want three games where you teach me all your tricks.”
He flashed a sly, cutting-sharp grin. “Sounds fair. First lesson.” Levi picked up the white queen, her alabaster hair cascading like a ghostly veil around her shoulders. “If you want to checkmate the king, you’ve got to wield the queen wisely. You can’t get her out too quickly, or your opponent’s pawns will attack her.” He trapped my queen between his black pieces. “You can either trap your opponent’s queen in your ranks, caging her to your will, or…” He took out his black queen and lowered my white king onto the board, emphasizing, “Free your queen and craft a strategy around her to take the useless king down.”
We were playing for two and a half hours. While I could have ended the game an hour ago, watching Dalia find new ways to attack me was fun. She wanted my king dead, and her queen was ruthless—just like her.
With some training, she could be a strong opponent. She had already mastered her favorite opening, the Queen’s Gambit, wanting to push me into a defensive position. She had a drop of sweat on her forehead and squinted her eyes to focus on every move while my eyes were locked on her solely.
I sacrificed my bishop, knowing this offer would be too tempting for Dalia to resist.
“Check,” she said, taking my bishop with her queen with a proud smile as if she had won the game.
It was exactly where I wanted her.
That was my thing: making my opponents pretend they were winning only to destroy them harder. They were too focused on the prospect of winning that they didn’t see my trap closing on them.
“Impressive,” I said, sliding my rook into position to protect that king.
She retracted her attack so I wouldn’t get her queen, and it’s only then that I launched my assault, anticipating each of her moves and the weakness of her position.
“You’re stuck, Dalia. Check.”
She frowned and pouted, trying to flee.
“Check.”
“Oh come on.” She threw her head back and groaned. “How? How do you do this every time!”
“I’ve practiced since I was four,” I said, trying to make her feel better.
“Playing against you is no fun. You’re cruel,” she pretended to be surprised by this, still contemplating her escape routes.
“But losing against me is another story,” I hinted, my lips turning into a thin line. Her white king found itself cornered as my queen descended on him protected by my tower. “The Kiss of Death.”
That was checkmate.
She blinked, her lips parting. “What did you say?”
