24. Dante
24
DANTE
M y shoulder is screaming like a bitch, but I can’t stop fucking her. I can’t bring myself to break the connection, not when I can feel her clenching around my dick again. Is that her fourth orgasm, her fifth? After I branded her, I climbed inside her, and we’ve been bound together like this ever since.
My lust will never be satisfied with gentle lovemaking. We fuck hard and fast to quench that need in both of us. I have to feel those tight muscles pulling me under, drowning me in her essence. I can’t let her go, but I must. It’s too dangerous for her by my side.
“Dante!”
Her quiet sobs draw me back to her again. Her voice is weak with fatigue. I’ve been rough with my touch, taking her deep for at least an hour, but she hasn’t resisted until now. It’s like she can’t bring herself to break our connection, either. I contemplate pushing her legs back and taking her ass, but my angel is faltering. The time has come.
I surge forward with one final thrust, my balls flush to my body. I can almost taste the oblivion, and then I’m there, my stifled groan shattering the space between us as I fill her up with everything I have left.
“My angel…”
“My devil,” she cries.
Her words stab like blades. She’ll never know how right she is. She thinks she knows the worst about me, but here’s the deal…
She’s barely scratched the surface.
Afterward, we shower together, frozen like statues beneath the falling water. Heads hanging, the water streaming down our faces like a never-ending flow of tears.
My hands are resting lightly on her hips. She won’t speak to me. She won’t even look at me. I reach out to switch the water off, and gently tilt her chin up.
“Talk.”
She bites down on her lower lip. It’s a new trait of hers, like the nail-biting thing. It tells me she’s fretful and uneasy.
“Is this it?” I hear her say, her melodious voice hitting all the minor keys. “Will I ever see you again?”
I run the pad of my thumb across her lip to stop her biting down. “I need to end this…this war with my brother.”
“All that bloodshed, and for what? A crooked empire to preside over?” She rests her head against the frosted glass, her face turned away from me.
If only it were that easy. I swear I can taste the innocence on her skin.
“This is your chance to leave it all behind, Dante. You have the money so go buy yourself another fortress, go invest in stocks and shares, banks, nightclubs… anything but this!”
Her faith in my ability to transform into a law-abiding citizen is touching, but I’m too entrenched in this world to ever let it go. The organization needs stability, and it’s time for me to step up and take control.
“I need to finish him, my angel, before he finishes me.”
“So, you like pushing coke and wrecking lives, is that what you’re implying?” She brushes past me and steps out of the stall to grab a towel from the rail.
“It’s never been about the drugs, Eve. You know that.”
“No, it’s about bloodlust. You left the military, but you missed the kill, so you seek your kicks elsewhere.”
I’m staggered by her perception. And here I was thinking I’d kept it so well hidden.
She catches my eye in the mirror above the sink. She has no idea how perfect she looks with her ethereal skin and her dark hair, now jet-black from the water and falling in damp tendrils around her face.
She drops eye contact first. It’s like she can’t bear to look at me anymore. My lack of morality is a black hole that even she can’t fathom. She thinks she can fix me, but it’s too late for that. I’m damaged far beyond anything her sweet salvation can touch.
“What can I do?” I hear her say, her voice laced with despair. “How can I make you see that there’s another life for us.”
“I will find you again, Eve.”
She nods, but I know she doesn’t believe me.
I step out of the stall as well, and slide my arms around her waist, pulling her back against my body. She feels so breakable in my embrace.
“Distract yourself with words when I’m gone,” I murmur into her damp hair. “Find a part of me in every flawed hero. Use fiction to erase every wrong I’ve ever done to you with the deeds befitting of a good man, a better man.”
She flinches as if I’ve struck her. “I don’t want to replace you. You’ve broken my heart more times than I can count since you held a gun to my head, but I can’t simply erase my feelings…” She trails off as her eyes widen in comprehension. “Is that the real reason you gave me your gun? Was that your messed-up Santiago way of trying to redress the balance of our first night?”
“No, my angel,” I say grimly. “That was me giving you the chance to reap vengeance for my part in your brother’s death.”
I curse myself, a thousand times over, as I watch her eyes fill with tears. I’ve gone and reminded her of what a fucking monster I am.
We’re going around in circles.
Dropping my arms, I head for the closet to select a fresh pair of jeans and a clean shirt. She follows me out of the bathroom and stands behind me. I can feel her gaze flickering over my wounds constantly.
“Jesus Christ,” I exclaim, attempting to dress one-handed. Every movement jars my broken shoulder.
“Here, let me help you.” She bends down to guide my feet into my jeans as I lean against the wall, dizzy as fuck. Damn, this pain is intense. Joseph has already sent for our medical team.
“What happened to you in Colombia?”
“We were ambushed.”
“Did you lose many men?”
I pause. “Some.”
I’m playing fast and loose with the truth again. In reality, ninety-nine percent of my army has been obliterated. Every single man that I sent to New York and Florida was rounded up and pumped full of bullets, and Sanders is still off the grid. Fuck knows what Emilio’s done with him. If I wasn’t so goddamn tired, my rage would be irrepressible.
“How bad is the damage to your compound?”
“Outhouses are still burning. Sector six is destroyed.” Millions of dollars’ worth of firepower stolen.
“Is that where you made the co—”
“There’s no production here,” I say sharply. “Our processing plants are elsewhere.”
This is one discussion I’m not prepared to have. I trust her not to reveal my identity, but beyond that it’s a gray area. She hates my business. Her feelings for me have caused a ripple affect with everything she holds dear—her family, her job, her future.
“I’m going to resign from my paper.” She sounds reluctant but accepting. “We’re quite the conflict of interest, aren’t we? The cartel boss and the reporter. I can’t give up writing, though. I’d miss it too much.”
“I wouldn’t want you to.” I lean over and catch her lips in a hard kiss. “Just focus on another criminal for a change. I hear Wall Street’s full of them.”
She doesn’t smile. It’s like she hasn’t even heard me. “I need justice for my brother, Dante.”
Those words.
Once again, my past has chucked a bucket of water at the portrait of our future.
“Shall I turn myself in to the DEA, the FBI or the CIA, or is this a citizen’s arrest?” I drawl, shrugging into my shirtsleeves with difficulty. She reaches out to tug the tails across my abs, and I catch her staring. “It’s quite a dilemma, isn’t it?” I add, my voice softening. “We’re all about the lust and the hate, and that fine line you dance in-between.”
“There’s a part of me that will never forgive you for what you did, Dante. I miss him every day.”
I don’t answer.
I can’t.
I hate seeing the hurt reflected in her eyes, and the knowledge that I caused it wounds deeper than any bullet.
I punch a number into the safe in the wall. Picking up the gun there, I slide it into the waistband of my jeans. “If we get through this, I’ll spend the rest of our lives making it up to you.”
“There’s only one thing that will make this better.”
She doesn’t need to elaborate. What did she label my affliction again? An unquenchable bloodlust? Sounds about right… Whatever the fuck it is, it isn’t going away soon.
“Get dressed. Time to go.”
She drops her towel and bends down to pick up her bra and top from the floor. I can feel myself growing hard again.
“What happens after I’m gone, Dante? ”
I drink myself into oblivion before I commence my bloody retaliation.
“The less you know about that the better.”
She pauses. “Because you don’t trust me?”
“No, mi alma , quite the opposite.” My expression relaxes as I tug her back into my arms and nuzzle down deep into her hair. “It’s because I don’t trust myself.”
Exiting the bunker through the main house is too risky. The fires are nearly out but the joists have warped, and the roof has partially collapsed. It’s going to take months to rebuild. Until then, I’ve instructed Joseph to source and purchase another fortress—this time a private island off the southern coast of Australia—to serve as a base while we set about planning our counterattack.
There’s another reason, too. All the men that I left here to protect Eve have been mutilated and dumped in a bloody pile on my driveway, all except for Manuel.
Every single one of these men have earned my thanks and abiding respect. Their families will be exceptionally well compensated for. No one talked. Not one of them let slip the location of my secret bunker, despite hours of torture. My men fought and died like fucking soldiers.
“This way.” My hand tightens around Eve’s as I drag her along the tunnel toward a second concealed entrance near the beach. I can feel her wincing at my grip, but I don’t loosen it, not for a second. Her touch is the only thing that’s stopping my darkness from overwhelming me .
I punch another code into the wall. The door slides back and we’re blinded by the sun’s harsh glare. The sound of crashing waves is acting as some sort of conduit as we stand there waiting for our eyes to adjust.
“I know this place,” she says in surprise, blinking and looking around. “We’re next to the beach by the house. You had men stationed here.”
Not anymore.
Joseph steps into view. He nods briefly at Eve, and I watch her eyeing up his bloody head wound. “Medics are here. Everything else is arranged.”
“Good,” I say briskly. “Let’s get to the aircraft. We’ll discuss more, then.”
We move in single file along the narrow path that cuts through the dense vegetation. I’m mindful to keep the house and Emilio’s parting gift out of view at all times. The stench of death and smoke is ripe in the air, and the palm trees either side of us are charred and smoldering.
My brother meant to destroy everything before he panicked and ran. Somehow, he got word we’d escaped, though I’m fucked if I know how. We killed all his men and left his mansion burning. We’ve effectively razed each other to ground, and now we’re locked in a deadly race to see who can rise from the ashes first.
Did he align himself with our enemies to pull this off? How long has he been plotting my downfall? This isn’t just about business… I see that now. He meant to hit me harder, and that’s why he came for Eve.
“Dante, the horses!” she cries suddenly, yanking me to a stop. “Did you manage to save them? ”
I shake my head slowly. As I do, I catch Joseph’s eye. If what my brother did to my men was bad, what he did to my horses was unimaginable.
“Can we double-check? They might have escaped to another—”
“They’re dead, my angel.”
Dead.
Dead.
Dead.
Like every other fucker I give a shit about, except for her and Joseph.
I watch her face skip through a range of human emotions, from shock and disbelief until finally settling on anger.
“I see,” she says tightly. “More innocents caught up in the crossfire. When the hell will you people ever learn.” She goes to push past me, but I grab her arm and spin her around.
“There’s nothing we could have done for them.”
“You should have left them alone. You never should have brought them here!”
She goes to push past me again and this time I let her, even though the movement sends red-hot pokers through my shoulder. I deserve the pain. I know she’s not referring to the horses, and the worst thing is she’s right. If I’d carried on walking past her that night, I never would have given Emilio the ammunition he was seeking. None of this would be happening right now.
“Don’t say a fucking word,” I snarl at Joseph when I catch him watching me.
“I wouldn’t dare,” he says mildly, but he’s giving me the benefit of his coldest, most unflinching of gazes. “How’s the shoulder?”
Nothing escapes his attention. I know he just saw me wincing.
“Hurts like a bitch.”
“You want morphine?”
I shake my head as I watch Eve draw further and further away. Her head is down, her slim shoulders hunched over… She’s fucking furious.
He follows my gaze, and his lips start to curve. “If I didn’t think you’d kick my ass, I’d say she was growing on me.”
“I will, so keep your damn mouth shut.”
“Fair enough.” He shrugs, and true to his word he doesn’t speak again until we reach the landing strip.
Eve heads straight for the aircraft steps without so much as a backward glance. Tomas is hovering nearby, and his eyes flicker to mine for instruction. I shake my head. Let her go. If she liked the damn horses so much, I’ll buy her a dozen new ones. Everything is expendable and replaceable in this game.
Everything except Eve.
“We have a location on Sanders,” he says, coming over to join us.
“Since when?” I say, going very still.
“Couple of hours ago.”
Anger rises up from the pit of my stomach. “Why the fuck am I only hearing about this now?”
“You were ‘otherwise engaged’,” murmurs Joseph, and I turn to glare at him. That deadeye shit of his is getting on my nerves today. He better wind it in before my fist connects with his face.
“So, Sanders isn’t decomposing in a body bag. ”
“On the contrary, he’s in Thailand. He was spooked after Colombia, sensed something was about to go down. He’s been laying low. We intercepted a coded message from him this morning. I’ve arranged transfer to a safe house of ours in Singapore. As soon as Tomas delivers Miss Miller back to Miami, he’ll fly straight there and collect him.”
I glance over at the aircraft where Eve’s pale face is glaring down at me from one of the cabin windows. I remember Rick’s warning in Colombia, something about beautiful women and starting wars…
“Is he still loyal?”
“I believe so.”
I savor my satisfaction. I knew Sanders would never betray me. He’s got the connections to help us rebuild our army, too.
“Get me an ETA on the other aircraft,” I say, turning toward the steps. “I want it here within the hour. Anything salvageable goes onboard with us.”
“Sure thing, jefe .”
I find Eve at the back of the plane talking with Manuel.
Jesus. If I was mad before, I just found a whole new trigger.
She keeps her face turned away as I prowl up the aisle toward them. Manuel’s not so cool about it. He glances up, and his face pales beneath his bruises.
“Leave us.”
“Yes, se?or.” He scrambles to his feet immediately.
“Hang on a second.” Eve places her hand on his arm, and I nearly explode. “You don’t have to go because of him .”
“No, se?orita, I really do.” Manuel backs away from her like she’s covered in anthrax.
“He saved my life, Dante,” she says quietly once he disappears outside. “Can’t you try and tone down the irrational jealousy thing and be a little appreciative?”
“I’m appreciative of no man who gets to spend time with you, mi alma . No one except me.”
“Stop. Just stop.” Her head flops back against the leather seat as if she doesn’t have the strength to deal with my unreasonable behavior anymore. A knot of disquiet settles in my stomach. “How long until we’re airborne?” she asks.
There’s a pause. “I’m not coming with you.”
“What do you mean?”
I swing into the spare seat next to her. “My path lies to the east… Away from you.”
“But I thought we’d travel this part of the journey together?”
My fears evaporate when I look and see the devastation on her face. She’s trying hard to conceal it, but the color spreading across her slanting cheekbones tells me otherwise. She always blushes when she’s struggling to get a hold on her emotions.
“Then I guess this is goodbye.”
I force a grim smile to my lips. “It will never be goodbye for us. You know this.” I lean over and press my lips against hers, closing my eyes as I do, drinking in her unique scent. That knot of disquiet is moving up to my throat now.
Her fingers find the back of my neck, her lightest touch enticing me even closer until I’m pivoting the whole of my upper body to bask in her warmth. I press my chest against hers, pinioning her to her seat with the strength of my lust.
“Thank you,” she whispers, her breath lacing my upper jaw.
“For what exactly?” I pull back to frown at her. “Holding a gun to your head, causing you and your family untold pain, or for kidnapping you twice?”
There’s another pause. “For bringing me back to life.” And fuck if those aren’t the sweetest words I’ve ever heard. “I gave up everything when Ryan died. I shied away from love, from danger, from anything that might cause me pain. I know I can’t live like that anymore. You’ve opened my eyes to that, Dante. You’ve taken so much from me, but you’ve given me so much in return.”
My hand drops to the armrest of my seat, my fingernails digging deep into the leather. “Hold fast to that thought, Eve… I’m the only one who can open them wider.”
“Oh, yeah?” She forces a smile as I surge forward, catching her chin between my thumb and forefinger.
“Careful, my angel. Your acts of defiance will only lead to me bending you over this chair. I don’t care how fucking sore you are.”
“And yet, here I am, still fully clothed,” she taunts softly. “I better brush up on my disobedience skills before we meet again.”
I lick my lips and gaze down at the only woman I see; the only woman who holds all the cards with me, and the only one who ever will. “Really, Eve? Is this how you want to play it?”
I love corrupting her.
I love feeling her body tremble with desire beneath my touch .
“I’ll play any game you want me to, Dante, and I’ll love every minute of it.”
“Then I look forward to doling out your punishment in due course.”
She grins at me, and I feel myself sliding like an avalanche to an unknown destination. My dick is straining against the inside of my pants. I want nothing more than to fuck her inside out for the second time today. Instead, I’m left tussling between my hunger and my conscience again. If I truly cared for her, I’d let her return to America and never resume contact, but I’m far too selfish a man to ever make that sacrifice.
I let go of her chin and run a finger down the smooth plane of her cheek. So soft, so innocent— Mine, I think savagely.
“As much as I applaud this newly re-acquired lust for life, Eve, I need you to stay out of trouble. Keep my knife close to your heart. You’ll be under surveillance all hours of the day and night. If Emilio so much as breathes your way—”
“I guess that means no hot dates, then.” Her grin widens.
“Not unless you want their deaths on your conscience.”
We stare at each other, a single moment frozen in time. Our faces are barely inches apart as I soak up every dimple and curve. I’m fighting all my instincts to let her go. It might be months, years , before we see each other again, but there won’t be a second when I’m not thinking about her, silently worshipping her from afar, fucking her, over and over, in my dreams.
Exhaling on a harsh breath, I trail a line of kisses from one corner of her mouth to the other, and then I force myself to pull away.
I’m hollow with grief when I do. I’ll be a husk of a man without her. Eve, with all her light and grace, has gone and staked a claim over whatever blackened ashes were left of my heart.
I rise to my feet and walk swiftly toward the exit, my emotions in a state of fucking anarchy. Before I disembark, I can’t resist one final look. My resolve nearly evaporates when I see my own pain mirrored back to me on her face. It’s a sight that both kills and cures me. I did this. I took her, I made her desire me, and now I’m cutting her free.
It’s this decision that will torment me during the long, long weeks ahead.