23. Dante
23
DANTE
Dante
N ina stayed with me as we ran down the hall. It seemed counterintuitive to rush toward the gunfire erupting on the main floor, but it had already died down.
There was no way one group could enter and take out all the guests here. Too many celebrities and politicians had guards and security details. Of the criminal organizations present here, numerous soldiers and men stood on the ready to defend their leaders and capos inside the ballroom.
As I ran down the stairs, I guessed it was a case of two rivals snapping and attacking among the civilians. It happened, but every time we erred and caused too many uninvolved and innocent casualties, it seemed that all the crime families were accused and put under an even closer scrutiny with the law enforcement.
“Who is it? Who opened fire?” I shouted at Romeo as he ran up the steps to intercept me dashing down them. Franco hurried Eva off to the side, but several Constella men were surrounding us. All through the commotion of the massive ballroom, leaders were being encircled and protected. Guns were up. Eyes were open. But I saw no easy target to aim at.
Nina remained close to me, her slender fingers tight in my hand. As long as I felt this connection, knowing she was with me, I could stay levelheaded.
“I don’t know. Gunfire came in from the side entrance,” Romeo called back, frowning as he checked that Nina was all right with me.
I’d never given a shit about coincidences. Someone breaking into this gala now , this time, when the event had been put on for many years, meant something.
Nina.
If we hadn’t just overheard those two men talking about wanting to kidnap her so I’d be free for Vanessa to claim, I wouldn’t have gone there. I wouldn’t have jumped immediately to that conclusion. But we had. Moments ago, as I fucked her to distract her from the horror of eavesdropping on a pair of men talking about taking her, those two guys had discussed it.
Is it a diversion? Fighting so they can take her from me? Anger pounded through my veins at the concept. If anyone dared to get in my way and steal Nina from my grasp, there would be no end to the wrath they would incite.
“Is it—” More gunfire cut me off, and I ducked and shielded Nina. She shook beneath me, but the shooting didn’t last long.
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing here?” Romeo demanded.
I leaned up, glancing over Nina. Down below, past the remaining six or seven stairs I had yet to descend with Nina, was a pair of men. My son was right. They didn’t belong here.
Mafia families—the main criminal presence gathered here tonight—did not consort with bikers. The last time a Mafia family attempted to face off with a motorcycle gang was when the Domino Family took them on.
Which was why seeing the members of the Devil’s Brothers MC striding in here, guns blazing, made no sense.
“Get the fuck out of here,” I ordered, standing tall and aiming my gun at them. Others tried to get through the crowded hall, but with the commotion that the gunfire had caused, people were fleeing and panicking, and there was no easy way to cut through the throngs. Behind the bikers was utter chaos, but these fuckers weren’t bothered in the slightest.
“I don’t think so,” Stefan Giovanni said as he approached. He walked up closer, coming from behind the pair of leather-sporting bikers. One was bald. The other had long, graying, and greasy hair. But both looked like immature idiots with those black and white bandanas tied on their heads.
“What’s going on?” Romeo asked as Stefan placed one foot on the first step up the staircase my son and I blocked Nina on. Soldiers filed in, all aiming their guns at Stefan and the two bikers he’d rounded up to face me.
“What’s going on?” Stefan laughed dryly at Romeo as more bikers fought security closer to the doors. “I’ll tell you what’s going on. The joke is up, Dante.” He sneered at me, then lowered his stare to Nina. “You’ve intercepted and had your fun. It’s time to hand the girl over.”
Nina plastered herself to my back, trembling and tucking in close.
“That woman belongs to Reaper,” Stefan insisted.
“The hell she does. According to who? You?” I kept my gun trained on the greasy biker since Stefan wasn’t pulling his gun on me. Yet.
He canted his head to the left, as though I’d said something ridiculous. “According to the fine, upstanding men in this MC.”
Romeo cursed, mocking Stefan’s assessment of the bikers’ club.
“And Ricky.” Stefan narrowed his eyes. “You remember Henry’s son, don’t you?” Leaning toward the side, he tried to look at Nina crouched behind me. “It looks like you’ve been really busy making your acquaintance with his daughter.”
I didn’t respond, letting the asshole squirm under the pressure of my quiet.
He rolled his eyes. “He lost her in a bet—fair and square.”
“How the fuck would you know?” Romeo asked.
Stefan shrugged. “I heard about it at the gambling rooms. You know how word spreads and all.”
“She’s not going anywhere,” I told him.
“Oh, but that’s just what I promised my new friends.” Stefan pushed his hands into his pockets and rocked on his heels. It was a stupid maneuver, and I knew why he was doing it. To look casual and non-threatening. Too bad. I would never, ever lower my guard around my former friend from so long ago. He wouldn’t dupe me. Not after he spread word that he could always count on me to back him and align with him when it wasn’t true. Nor after his daughter’s pushiness to claim me as her husband. And especially not after he sided with the Domino idiots.
“Friends?” I mocked, emphasizing the aim of my gun at the biker. “What, you couldn’t beat them with the help of the Dominos, so you’re going to join them?”
“I like to stand with power, Dante.”
It was a dig, an implication that because I wanted nothing to do with him, I lacked power. What a joke. “And they represent power?” I mocked.
“Yeah. Once I heard about how you’d taken Reaper’s new lady, I figured I could help them get a little closer so he could claim what he’d been promised.”
“Oh.” I grunted. “And in exchange, they’d let you in on a deal or two with the regional gun routes? Milk the pot and set up a supposedly mutually beneficial partnership?”
“Don’t tell me that you’re jealous of me for diversifying.” He smiled, smug. “After all, I reached out to you first. I tried to get your support with those gun routes.”
“You didn’t reach out to ask for my flexibility or willingness to side with you on anything. You assumed it—incorrectly. Just like you are now in thinking you can invite these stupid fucking bikers in here and do a favor for them.”
“That bitch isn’t not yours,” the bald biker said. “She belongs to Reaper now.”
“The hell she does.” I firmed my grip on her hand. “She’s not going anywhere with you.”
“It’s time to give her to whom she belongs,” Stefan said. “The Devil’s Brothers are merely collecting.”
I shook my head. “No.”
“You’ve had your fun,” Stefan repeated. “But she’s not who you’re going to partner with or marry.”
Hearing that argument from him , of all people, irked me to no end. He intended to have me choose his daughter and further secure a connection between the Giovanni and Constella names.
“Not happening.” I gritted my teeth and shook my head again. “It’s not happening. Nothing will ever happen between me and Vanessa. I will never want your spineless, selfish daughter.”
“Watch what you say,” he warned. His threat didn’t hold much punch, though. As I stepped down, bracing to lunge at him and beat the shit out of him, he staggered back, almost bumping into the bikers.
“No. You watch what I say. Listen to me. For the last fucking time, I do not want anything to do with Vanessa.” Leveling my glare on him, I raised my voice to be heard over the fighting happening further in the room. “Or you.”
Stefan shook his head. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“You’re trying to fucking gaslight him?” Romeo scoffed. “Get the fuck out of here. Take your new friends with you, and get the fuck out.”
Stefan didn’t move, but the bikers reacted. The bald one started talking shit with him, spewing stupid nonsense that left little impact on my son. The greasy guy didn’t move his attention away from me. At least he had the common sense to wise up with a gun aimed his way.
“You’re not welcome here,” I told my former friend. Romeo and I were a unified front here. Father and son. Boss and second-in-command. Together, we represented the mightiest power of the criminal world, and whoever had paused long enough to witness this standoff would see it. They’d recognize the significance of what was happening here.
I’d already refuted Stefan’s claims that the Constellas would always back and stand with the Giovannis. Here, in live action, I was showing the world that we never would.
“Don’t dare to concern yourself with what I do. Ever again.” Reaching back, I took Nina’s hand. I felt the tremble in her grip, but she maintained a tight hold. She wasn’t weak. Scared, but not so vulnerable that she was reduced to a crying, hysterical mess.
I watched as Stefan turned slightly, addressing the older biker. He spoke too quietly for me to hear what he said, but the thunderous expression on his aging face conveyed enough.
He was livid. Cornered. And pissed that I’d pushed him to admit defeat. He was a moron to risk bringing the Devil’s Brothers bikers in here just to try to get Nina out of my protection. He was even stupider yet to align with the MC and count on them for getting ahead.
Holding Nina’s hand, I waited for the fucker to turn tail and retreat. He did, and I was content to let the rest of the guests here deal with his invasion. I wasn’t the only leader who was bothered with his bringing those assholes to this place, where we were all gathered. And as he tried to exit with his biker friends, multiple soldiers and capos targeted them on their way out, demanding an explanation and warning the MC men to never cross their paths again.
“Dante?”
I hated the fear in Nina’s voice as she pulled slightly on my hand, ripping my concentration from watching Stefan leave.
Turning to her, I resolved to erase that tight expression of anxiety from her gorgeous face. Her features should never be taut and strained with such worry, and I despised that she was ever put in this position at all.
“Can we go?” she asked. Her throat tightened with the difficulty of her swallow, more evidence of how tense she was.
“Yes.” I exhaled, wishing one simple breath out could purge the tension and rage bottling up inside me. “Let’s go home.”
She nodded, grateful and clearly at ease that I wouldn’t force her to stay here any longer. After the way the MC and Stefan had made their arrival known, with gunfire and anger, I doubted the gala would finish.
Romeo approached us, and Franco wasn’t too far behind him. Eva remained off to the side, speaking with the soldiers who stayed with her for security.
“I’m taking her home,” I told my son.
He nodded once. Franco did as well before he said, “I’ve asked more men to follow them out.” He narrowed his eyes, seething as he gazed in the direction of where Stefan led the bikers away. “We already knew those assholes were going to cause us trouble.”
Romeo smirked. “Sooner than later.”
“I’m sorry?—”
I tugged Nina to my side, hugging her tighter and silencing her. “None of this is your fault. None of it.” Once she lifted her troubled gaze up to meet mine, she frowned.
“I don’t want to hear another goddamn word of an apology from your lips,” I scolded.
She pressed her mouth shut in a firm line. I couldn’t tell if it was stubbornness that had her peeved that I was controlling her like this or that she was refraining from speaking up again.
We had to talk. She had to listen. But not here. As soon as we had some privacy again, we’d discuss it all. Before we arrived, I planned to tell her that I wanted her for good. Now, it seemed I would need to reiterate that, anyway.
Because no one was taking her from me.
Not the Devil’s Brothers MC. Not Stefan. No one.
Nina would be mine for good.