2. SPOILER ALERT … The Rumors About Dante Caruso are True
TWO
SPOILER ALERT … THE RUMORS ABOUT DANTE CARUSO ARE TRUE
S hit, shit, shit, was all Dante thought as he slammed their bodies into the back seat of the car. He couldn’t explain it. It had just been a gut feeling that he needed to get out of the way, and fast. His instincts taking Ms. Brooks with him.
“Get us the fuck out of here!” he growled.
Amo had already thrown the car in drive. “On it.”
The car being punched forward, which threw the back-seat car door to an automatic close.
Dante was thankful that, while he had been talking to Ms. Brooks, Amo was getting into the driver’s seat.
One of his soldiers, Vincent, had driven Leo up, and they would all be fucked if he was the one driving them away from this shit show.
Amo was one of his few men left who wasn’t stuck up a girl’s ass, so he was one of the only ones he trusted willing to be his guard for the weekend.
It was a dark time for the family if his men couldn’t leave their women for a few days to go party on a fucking yacht. God, he really missed the old days.
“Leo?” His fatherly instinct had him yelling out for his son.
“I’m fine.” Leo’s voice came from the passenger side. It seemed to be dropping octaves more and more each day.
Able to focus on the woman in his arms now, he studied her. “Are you hurt?” When she didn’t answer, he nervously began checking her body. It was strange, the fear he felt banging in his chest. He hadn’t felt fear like that since …
What the fuck! Nadia’s heart pounded in her chest. She had wanted to scream, but the shock didn’t allow it.
Then her shock turned into even more shock, if that was possible, when she felt Dante’s hands searching her body for a gunshot wound.
She could practically feel the relief radiate off him when he realized the reasoning for her silence.
“Ms. Brooks, I think you’re in shock.”
Was that a … s mirk on his face? What about this is funny? She was repulsed that her internal monologue was braver than she was on the outside at the moment. It would take her until the fear of imminent death wore off, she supposed.
“Uh-huh,” was all she managed with a little nod to confirm that he had hit the nail on the fucking head.
That slight smirk on his face grew a touch bigger as he began to sit up.
“Sir, I’d stay down,” Amo said, looking serious in his rearview mirror.
“Why—Oh shit,” he groaned when he was thrown back into the seat when a car rammed into their rear end.
“Christ!” Nadia yelled, seeming to have found her voice upon the second hit. The only reason she hadn’t gone flying was because the grip Dante had on her was becoming slightly painful at this point.
“Hang on,” was the only warning Amo gave before he suddenly jumped on the freeway.
Well, if the car behind them wasn’t going to be the one to kill them all, it certainly was going to be the breakneck speed the Caruso bodyguard was sure to impend upon them.
“Why am I getting the feeling this is normal for you three?” she asked, exasperated at being the only one showing any emotion.
She had expected Dante to be the one to answer. Instead, it was his son, Leo, who ominously said, “It is.”
Nadia couldn’t see much of the boy yet, with Dante’s body blocking her sight, but from what she could see, she guessed he was definitely a teenager, and the cut of the dirty blond hair told her that he probably didn’t fall far from the tree in the good-looks department.
Calling his son pretentious was going to be an understatement if he looked half as good in the front as he did from the back, especially with kids these days.
The back seat of the car was small, anyway, but with her height and fat ass, along with Dante’s tall … firm … muscular frame, which she had delightfully discovered over the last few minutes of being pressed up against him, only made the seat smaller. She desperately needed a breather.
“Okay, I think it’s safe enough to sit up.”
Dante’s warning wasn’t fast enough as she fought to get out from under him. “I wouldn’t—”
This time, the three-word phrase had no trouble coming out when a bullet hit the back windshield. “What the fuck!”
“It’s bulletproof,” he told her, “but it’s best not to test it.”
“You think?” Sarcasm was an understatement for how her words came out as she slammed her body back down with Dante’s. Bulletproof glass was like airplanes—it was something you couldn’t explain how it would even fucking work and only had one explanation. Witchcraft.
“I think he just wants to take you out, sir,” Amo stated, seeing he and Leo were clearly not the target.
“That bullet was meant for me,” Dante darkly confirmed. It was clear he didn’t have a shadow of a doubt on his mind.
Amo gripped the wheel tighter. “It looks like our friend is done with the games and has decided to go straight to the top.”
“ Your friend ?” Gulping, Nadia’s mouth slowly started going dry while she stared at Dante. “How many of your men has your friend taken out so far?”
“A few,” he admitted after a few passing moments. “And then some.”
Nadia didn’t know what “ and then some ” meant, but she really didn’t like the sound of that. It somehow seemed worse than death.
Seeing the fear flash across her features, he reassured her, “I promise to get you home safely, Ms. Brooks.”
Okay, that she liked the sound of coming from his hot lips.
“Don’t worry, boss,”—Amo took the car to new heights, trying to lose the person following them, for good this time—“I don’t plan on any of us dying from One-Shot today.”
“ One-Shot? ” Nadia repeated the name drop as if it was casual. Whoever, or whatever, it was that was chasing after them had clearly earned a reputation badass enough to warrant a nickname like that.
I’m fucked, aren’t I?
I’m fucked aren’t I? Dante didn’t know how to tell her that One-Shot had gotten his name because he only needed one bullet to shoot someone right between the eyes.
Clearing his throat, he hoped to change the subject. “Leo, get Lucca on the phone—”
Before he could finish, his son had his phone pressed to his ear. “Vincent already told him. He heard the gunshot as he was walking into the casino. He tried to go after the car but lost it. Lucca’s been tracking us, but no one’s been able to catch up to us.”
“Won’t matter much now; we lost him,” Amo said, glancing sternly into the rearview mirror.
Leo listened to the other end for a few moments before hanging up.
Having mixed feelings about losing One-Shot was an understatement for Dante at the moment. If Leo, or Ms. Brooks, hadn’t been in the car, he and Amo would have chanced their luck at taking him out.
“I think it’s safe now to sit up,” Nadia had to remind him.
“Right.” Dante shook his head slightly before muttering, “Sorry.”
Feeling his grip on her loosen and disappear, she quickly sat up.
Her body might’ve enjoyed being pressed up against him, but her mind was becoming more claustrophobic in this death trap of a car by the second.
The sweat on her brow and racing heart had her wondering if she was becoming lightheaded or car sick.
“Can we slow down now?” she asked the crazed driver, whose foot hadn’t left the gas.
Amo acted as if he hadn’t heard her.
She wiped the bead of sweat that was sliding down her temple, her voice seeming to become weak as she said, “Please.”
“Slow down.” Dante’s order carried strongly to the front of the car and, almost immediately, the car began to slow to a more legal fast speed. “Take your jacket off …”
Huh? she thought in a haze.
“Before you pass out.”
Oh.
Watching her struggle, he scooted closer to her to help her get her black blazer down her arms. His cold eyes followed the perspiration sliding down the side of her face, to the beads that were beginning to form on her chest. He watched one of the salty beads fall from her clavicle, slowly traveling down to her breasts, before it disappeared under her white tank top that was being revealed.
Dante no longer “supposed” the woman was beautiful, as Nadia was, in fact, beautiful.
Her hair was silky black and didn’t quite touch her shoulders.
He found himself liking the style of it.
It was a smart, chic style that suited her bone structure.
It was parted to the side, with one side of her hair being fuller than the other, in a bob-like cut.
It was the type of haircut only women with strong, beautiful features could pull off.
Being a part of the Italian mafia, it was a bad habit to want to know what ethnicity a person was, as they mostly dealt with people of the same bloodline as themselves, since the beginning of time.
He wasn’t quite sure what bloodline Nadia had.
While they shared many of the same features on paper, she didn’t look Italian.
Her tanned skin had more of a bronzed look than his; her strong, black brows weren’t as thick but shaped thinner; and her nose, while long, was perfect.
He didn’t know what word he was looking for to describe her features until it popped in his head … Sculpted.
Another thing Italian men couldn’t help but notice were clothes. Her suit that consisted of a pencil skirt and a one-button black jacket might have suited her, but it didn’t take him feeling the material in his hands to know it was probably picked off a department store rack.
He began to wonder how she would look in a tailor-made suit with expensive Italian fabrics, like he wore …
Quickly folding up her jacket, he placed it between them on the seat as he slid over abruptly and put his face forward.
Nadia didn’t know what had happened. She was simply counting down from ten in her head, trying not to pass out, when she felt the cold chill of Dante’s eyes on her.
The moment she turned to look at him, his almost kind demeanor from when he had helped her get out of her jacket had quickly dissipated to a cold shoulder that matched his eyes.
She wasn’t sure if it was the coldness from him or taking her jacket off that had instantly cooled her enough to focus on the situation at hand.
With the fear of passing out finally subsiding, she went for her phone but couldn’t find her purse.
It must’ve dropped outside the car when Dante had thrown her in.
Shit. She couldn’t even check how Haley had managed the meeting with Desmond Beck. I bet she wants to kill me right about now …
The help Haley was banking on clearly wasn’t going to happen.
Nadia wasn’t sure if Haley was going to even believe her excuse.
Taking a side glance over at Dante, she thought, He might be hotter than Al Pacino, but he’s clearly as dangerous as Tony Montana , as she was thrown into full-fledged Scarface . There was no longer any doubt in her mind because, SPOILER ALERT … the rumors about Dante Caruso are true.
Thank God Haley hadn’t chosen Dante’s folder. She managed to find some relief in the situation. Then, looking heavenward, she made a silent wish.
I sure hope Haley had a better meeting than me …