Chapter 29 #2
It's not a pleasant expression. There's too much pain in it. Too much rage barely contained beneath the surface.
"The Sartoris took everything from both of us," he says. "Giuseppe is dead, but his legacy lives on. His sons. His empire. The family that benefited from our suffering while we bled in the dark."
I wait.
"I want them destroyed," Alejandro says. "Not just killed—destroyed. Their businesses. Their reputation. Their power. Everything Giuseppe built on the backs of women he violated and children he abandoned."
"And you need me for this."
"You know them better than anyone." Alejandro leans forward. "You know their weaknesses. Their secrets. Their vulnerabilities. You've spent twenty years learning exactly how to protect them."
"Which means I know exactly how to break them."
"Yes."
"Tell me," I say to Alejandro. "Tell me everything."
Marina
The safe house apartment is cold. Sparse. A couch that smells like dust and a folding table with nothing on it. The guards positioned me here and told me to wait.
So I wait.
I pull my knees to my chest and wrap my arms around them.
The door handle turns.
I freeze. My heart stops beating. The guards outside didn't knock, didn't announce anyone. Which means—
The door opens.
Dante steps through.
He's alive.
"Marina."
His voice breaks something inside me.
The tears come without warning. They pour down my face in hot streams, and I'm sobbing before I can stop myself. Ugly, gasping sobs that shake my entire body. I never believed he would come back.
But he's here.
Dante crosses the room. His arms wrap around me, pulling me against his chest. I bury my face in his shirt and cry harder. He smells like sweat and cold air and something metallic I don't want to identify.
"I'm here." His hand strokes my hair. "I'm here, cara. I came back."
"I thought—" The words choke in my throat. "I thought you were dead. I thought he killed you."
"No." Dante's arms tighten around me. "No, I'm here. I'm not going anywhere."
I cling to him like he might disappear. My fingers dig into his back, feeling the solid warmth of him. Real. Alive. Not a dream or a desperate hallucination.
The sobs slowly subside. I pull back just enough to look at his face. His eyes are dark. Hollow. Something happened in that warehouse. Something that left marks I can't see.
"What happened?" I wipe my face with shaking hands. "Tell me everything."
Dante's jaw tightens. He guides me to the couch and sits beside me, keeping one arm around my shoulders.
"Alejandro is just a man who wants more money and territory," he says. "That's all this is. Business."
I stare at him.
"Business."
"He thinks I owe him for killing his cousin years ago." Dante's voice is flat. Controlled. "He wants compensation. Money. And he wants me to do two jobs for him. Undercover work."
The words sound rehearsed. Practiced. Like he's reciting lines from a script.
"And then he'll leave you alone?"
"Yes."
I wasn't raised in their world. I don't know the rules of cartels and crime families and blood debts. But I know Dante. I know when he's lying.
"It's not that simple," I say quietly.
Dante's arm stiffens around me.
"Marina—"
"Don't." I turn to face him fully. "Don't lie to me. Not after everything. Not after I sat here for nearly three hours thinking you were dead."
Something flickers in his eyes. Pain. Exhaustion. A darkness I've never seen before.
"I'm buying time," he says finally. "That's the truth. Alejandro wants things from me, and I agreed to give them. Money. Jobs. Whatever he asks."
"Why?"
"Because it keeps everyone alive while we figure out how to kill him."
The words hang in the air between us. Cold. Final.
"Lorenzo knows?"
"Not yet." Dante shakes his head. "I made a deal, Marina. A deal that requires silence. If Alejandro finds out I'm working against him, he'll kill your parents. Vittoria. Aria. Everyone he has under surveillance."
My stomach drops.
"So we can't tell anyone."
"Not yet. Not until we have a plan. Not until we can move against him without getting people killed."
I search his face for something—reassurance, maybe. Hope. But all I see is exhaustion and that terrible darkness lurking behind his eyes.
"Is this deal going to get anyone hurt?"
Dante takes my face in his hands. His palms are warm against my cheeks.
"I won't let anyone face a single moment of pain," he says.
"Including yourself?"
He doesn't answer.
"Dante."
"I'll do what needs to be done." His thumb brushes away a tear I didn't know had fallen. "That's all I can promise."
I close my eyes. The weight of everything presses down on me—the attack on my apartment, the surveillance photos, the warehouse meeting, and now this. A deal with the devil that Dante won't fully explain.
I don't want any part of this.
I don't want to know what jobs Alejandro demanded. Don't want to know what Dante agreed to do. Don't want to carry secrets that could get people killed.
But I want to be safe. I want my parents safe. I want this nightmare to end.
"Okay," I whisper.
Dante's hands still on my face. "Okay?"
"If this keeps everyone safe..." I open my eyes and meet his gaze. "Then do whatever the hell you have to do. Just don't lie to me."
"I won't."
"And don't die."
Something shifts in his expression. The darkness recedes slightly, replaced by something softer. Something that looks almost like hope.
"I'll try my best," he says.
It's not a promise. We both know it. But right now, it's enough.
I lean into his chest and let him hold me.