Chapter 18 - Alisa
My lungs couldn’t catch up with my racing heart as Dante guided me out through the café door. My legs felt like jelly, and the world blurred around me. Even voices and sounds were muffled under the roaring in my ears, like I wasn’t really there.
And in a way, I wasn’t.
Once Dante came to my table and took over, once Papa confirmed what he’d done, there was no going back to believing he could be redeemed.
My throat hurt. My eyes burned. Everything I thought my life was felt like a fairy tale. I felt different because the old Alisa believed her father to be good.
Now, he’d become the monster I feared.
“Who are the Pavlovs?” I asked in panic, my voice sounding like a stranger’s to my ears. “Why did my father look so terrified when he mentioned them?”
Dante pulled me close as we weaved through the midday crowd. “The Pavlovs are the most ruthless crime family on the East Coast. Arko Pavlov makes my family look like saints.”
My stomach dropped. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, they don’t just kill people, Alisa. They enjoy it.” His eyes darted around us, and I followed, seeing that he was checking if his bodyguards were in proximity. They were. “I’ve heard rumors of Arko’s violence. He… enjoys toying with people who he thinks have betrayed them.”
I felt sick, bile rising in my throat at the thought of who my father promised me to. A man who would use me and discard me when he grew bored?
“We need to get to the car,” Dante said, urging me to walk faster. “Federico has men watching the perimeter, but it’s not safe out here with your father still around.”
I followed on weak legs, my brain running circles in itself while trying to figure out what my life would look like now.
I had stayed married to Dante in the hope that I’d find something to someday help Papa out of his mess.
But now there was no need for that, was there?
And I couldn’t go back home. What did that mean… for me?
We turned the corner, and I saw his black SUV parked half a block ahead. Just a few more steps to safety.
“I’ve been living a lie,” I whispered, the truth hitting me like a punch to the gut. “All those times he showed up for me with love, was any of it real? Or was he just raising me to cash me in when the time came?”
“Oh, Alisa.” Dante clicked his tongue with sympathy that cracked my chest open in a way where the walls felt the need to defend it.
“Stop, please.” I pulled away from him suddenly, backing up against the brick wall of the building beside us. “No, don’t say anything. I don’t need your pity.”
Tears sprang to my eyes as a memory flashed in my mind and—Papa surprising me with a new computer just as I was heading off to college, Papa visiting every Sunday, Papa sitting by my bedside all night when my appendix burst.
“Alisa,” Dante said gently, like he was trying not to scare me as he reached for me again. “Please, let’s get in the car and talk. We need to keep moving.”
My father wasn’t the man I knew. Was Dante?
I slapped his hand away. “Don’t touch me.”
Dante looked stricken.
“I’m done,” I said, my voice stronger than I felt. “I’m done with this life and want no part of it. Whatever criminals my father is involved with are men like you, and your world isn’t one I belong in. I want a simple life, Dante. One where I’m not always looking over my shoulder. I… I want out.”
His eyes flashed with hurt. “Alisa, please, we can talk about this in the car. Trust me.”
I laughed bitterly, the contempt clear in my voice. “Selling daughters, buying wives, fighting over territory? It’s all sick. I’ll disappear, use my degree, get a job somewhere no one will find me.”
“That’s not how this works,” Dante said with urgency. “Men like the Pavlovs, they don’t just give up. They have resources, connections. They’ll find you, and when they do—”
“What do you care?” I spat. “You’re one of them!”
I knew I was being unfair. Dante had saved and protected me. But in that moment, all I saw was the world that had claimed my father’s soul and now threatened to swallow me too.
“I’m nothing like them, you hear me?” Dante growled, stepping closer. “Nothing.”
“Oh, okay then!” I scoffed. “Prove it by letting me go.”
His jaw clenched. “I can’t do that.”
I pushed away from the wall, wiping angrily at my tears. “See? You’re just like them. You bought me, and now what? You think you own me? I’m leaving, Dante.”
I turned to walk away, but his hand shot out, grasping my wrist. “Alisa, please. You have no idea what these people are capable of.”
“Let. Me. Go.”
“I can’t lose you again,” he said, his voice breaking on the words.
Something in his tone made me pause. The raw emotion, the pain—it was too genuine.
But before I could respond, a car screeched to a halt at the curb beside us. The window rolled down, and I caught a glimpse of one of the men who had grabbed me outside my father’s office.
“That’s her!” the man shouted, and the back doors flew open.
Dante cursed, pulling me behind him as two men stepped out onto the sidewalk. “Run!” he yelled, shoving me toward his SUV.
My feet moved before my brain caught up, adrenaline flooding my system. I sprinted down the sidewalk with Dante right beside me. Behind us, I heard shouts and men chasing.
“It’s the Volkov crew,” Dante panted as we ran. “The ones who put you up for auction.”
“You think they work for the Pavlovs?” I gasped.
“I think so,” he huffed as we ran. “Your father, the Volkovs, the Pavlovs—they’re in this together, of course.”
We reached his SUV, and Dante opened the doors with the remote key. “Get in!”
I yanked open the passenger door and dove inside, slamming it shut just as a bullet snapped off the car frame. Dante slid behind the wheel.
“Stay down, Alisa,” he shouted as he peeled off. Near us, I heard more cars.
“Where are your bodyguards?” I cried out in fear.
“They’ll be following, but we don’t have enough men to throw them off our tails.” Dante’s eyes slid to the rear-view mirror.
I stayed down and pressed my face against my knees as more shots rang out. The windshield cracked but held as Dante floored the accelerator.
“Are you hurt?” he demanded to know, though he kept his eyes glued to the road.
“No,” I gasped, my heart hammering so hard I thought it might break my ribs. “You?”
“I’m good,” he said, jerking the wheel hard to the right as we took a corner. “Call Federico. My phone’s in the center console.”
I fumbled for his phone with shaking hands. In the side mirror, I saw the black car from before in pursuit, gaining on us.
“They’re behind us,” I warned, finding Federico’s name in Dante’s contacts.
Dante cursed and swerved sharply, cutting through a narrow alley. The SUV barely fit, scraping against the brick walls on either side with a sound that set my teeth on edge.
Federico answered on the second ring. “What’s up?”
“It’s Alisa,” I said, my voice trembling. “We’re being chased by the Volkov crew. They found us at the café.”
Dante took another hard turn, which threw me against the door.
“Where are you?” Federico’s voice sharpened.
“I… I don’t know,” I cried out in panic. “Some alley nearby. We’re trying to get away from them any way we can.”
“Don’t worry, Alisa. Share your live location, and I’m sending back-up,” Federico said. “Stay on the line with me, okay?”
I sent the location just as we exited the alley.
For a moment, I thought we’d lost them. Then the black car appeared again, joined now by a second vehicle.
Dante cursed. “Federico, there’s another car. They might have more… “
“Get to the highway if you can,” Federico advised.
Dante accelerated, and cars honked around us as we cut off other drivers, racing toward the highway entrance ramp.
“Almost there,” Dante murmured, looking over at me with wide eyes. I could see then, in that moment, the concern in his eyes that said he was more afraid for me than for himself.
We hit the ramp at nearly ninety miles per hour, and I gripped the door handle until my knuckles turned white. As we turned onto the highway, I chanced a look back.
“They’re still following,” I said, watching the two black cars force their way into traffic behind us.
“I see them,” Dante hissed. “Federico, where’s that backup?”
“Okay, listen up,” Federico answered through the speaker. “There’s an exit coming up in half a mile. Take it, then loop back under the overpass. We’ll intercept them there in two minutes. Our convoy is almost there.”
“You sure?” Dante checked through gritted teeth.
“Trust me, brother. Move!”
Dante shifted lanes to prepare for the exit, and when the cars behind us realized what we might be doing, they picked up speed to close the gap.
I held on tight to the seat just as Dante cut across three lanes to make the sudden turn.
I screamed as we narrowly missed clipping another car, then felt my stomach drop as we took the exit ramp far too fast. The SUV fishtailed, and for a heart-stopping moment, I thought we would flip.
Somehow, Dante controlled the skid, and we shot down the exit ramp. Behind us, one of the pursuing cars spun out and caused a block for the second one.
“Thank god.” I let out a sigh of relief, and my heart calmed just a little as we went for the underpass Federico told us to reach.
Just then, I saw one of Dante’s vehicles positioned across the road ahead.
“They’re here,” Dante said, finally letting out a whistle. “The back-up’s good to go.”
“Get home as quickly as you can,” Federico laughed through the phone. “We’ll handle the rest.”
***
Dante didn’t slow until we reached his house. He drove past the gates, stopping to instruct the guards to be extra careful tonight around the perimeter, and we drove in silence up to the house.
He parked and killed the engine, and suddenly, the silence felt deafening.
For a long moment, neither of us moved. I stared straight ahead, my body still vibrating with adrenaline and my mind racing with everything that had happened.
“Alisa,” Dante said softly at last. “Are you okay?”
The gentleness in his voice broke something in me. A sob tore from my throat, and then I was crying so hard I could barely breathe.
“Am I okay?” I choked out between sobs. “My father sold me to monsters, and he doesn’t even care if I live or die. He just wants to save himself.”
Dante unfastened his seatbelt and mine, then pulled me across the console into his arms. I should have resisted, should have maintained the anger I’d felt earlier, but I was too exhausted and far too broken. I collapsed against his chest and let him hold me as I cried.
“I’ve got you,” he murmured against my hair. “I won’t let anything happen to you. I promise.”
I just lay there in his lap for what felt like ages, until the soft patterns he drew on my back helped soothe my nerves. When I finally managed to stop sobbing, I remembered all the mean things I’d said to him earlier.
“Dante.” I pulled back enough to look at him. His face was lined with worry… for me. “About earlier, I didn’t mean it when I said you’re the same. I was just… “
“Overwhelmed?” He gave me a small, kind smile. “Wouldn’t anyone be?”
Once again, his kindness took me by surprise and made me question all the biases I had about him, all because he belonged to a world I knew little about but not enough to paint with one singular brush.
“I need to know why you’re doing this for me,” I asked in a hoarse voice. “By keeping me, even now, aren’t you asking for war with the Pavlovs?”
“You know why,” he said quietly.
I considered his answer. In my heart, I think I always knew. Dante had never treated me with cruelty, only with spectacular kindness. He’d saved me, protected me, respected me when I pushed him away.
He’d treated me just the same as he had when we had been together all those years ago.
“You’re nothing like them,” I admitted again. “I’m sorry for what I said.”
He brushed a strand of hair from my face with a feather-light touch that sent sparks shooting down my spine. “You were right about some of it. My family isn’t clean. But I swear to you, Alisa, I would never use you to gain something for myself.
I believed him. God help me, I believed him.
“There’s one more thing I need to know,” I said, gathering my courage, because even now, despite knowing he meant what he said, I feared it might change someday soon like it had back then. “Something I’ve wondered for four years.”
His expression turned guarded, but he nodded for me to continue.
“Why did you leave me?” I asked, the old pain surfacing alongside the new. “Four years ago, when things were good between us. You just… disappeared from my life. No explanation, no goodbye. Why?”
Dante’s eyes held mine, and I saw in them a regret and pain so deep that my breath hitched.
“How about we head in for a drink while we talk?” he asked, hoarsely, before turning his gaze from mine.