29. Dante
I stayed at the Hound and Tea long enough to see that Reaper and his gnarly friend were tossed out. The security staff consisted of professionals, and it wasn’t anything as dramatic as dragging the bikers out by the collars of their ugly shirts.
They kept their hands on them as they ushered them to the door, and from the third floor windows, I watched the pair of MC members get in a car and speed off.
“I would’ve thought they’d come on their bikes,” Romeo said. He stood next to me, watching the pair leave.
“I bet they have all manner of vehicles for disguises.” Just like how they snuck in here, dressing up more like the usual clientele that gambled here. I turned away, satisfied that they’d left. I had no doubt they’d try to come back. The Devil’s Brothers would be a problem until they were all six feet under.
“I want more men on it. Follow all their vehicles. Track them.”
Romeo nodded, leaving with me.
“I want to know how many of these fuckers are in that club.” Because if I’ve got to be the one to rid the world of them, I’ll need to prepare accordingly.
“Everything. I want to know every single fucking thing about them. You and Franco have already started to gather intel about them. Now is the time to step it up.”
“On it.”
Romeo drove off in a different direction, likely one of the other properties he preferred when he didn’t want to stay at the mansion. That was where I headed, impatient to see Nina. She was the reward I could look forward to after dealing with scum like Reaper.
On the drive, I thought back to how I’d referred to her—potentially knocked up. That was another way of belittling her. She wasn’t here just to bear my child. She wasn’t important in my life just because thrusting into her pussy was a lot like coming home.
She was a friend. A support system. A listening and level-headed woman who would make a good partner, even outside the bedroom.
Is that why she’s still so guarded? Over the last couple of weeks, we’d fucked almost nonstop. It was, like Franco had teased, a honeymoon period where we couldn’t get enough of each other. While connecting in a physical way was easy and enjoyable, I realized that she still maintained a slight edge of distance, as though she was waiting for the other shoe to drop.
It wouldn’t. But how would she know? I told her I wanted to keep her with me forever. I was clear that we weren’t pretending anything anymore.
I had yet to express how I felt , though, the more emotionally charged kind of relationship.
Love. I hadn’t given her an indication that all I did for her and wanted to give her was an act of love.
“Time to fix that mistake,” I muttered as I pulled into the drive. I didn’t want Nina to go another moment of thinking she was just someone to fuck consistently.
Inside, I didn’t see any sign of her. But the person who was waiting for me in my bedroom pissed me off.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” I narrowed my eyes at Vanessa sitting on a chair near my and Nina’s closets. That piece of furniture would be removed and destroyed, now tainted from her being in this place and touching the cushion.
She had no right to be in here, no allowance to be present on the property at all, much less inside the home I now shared with Nina.
“Welcome home, Dante.” She smiled slowly. It was a practiced expression meant to make men drool and drop to their knees. Seductive and cunning, that was how I could sum it up. She’d given me this very same smile countless other times, and it always resulted in the same reaction—anger and annoyance.
“Cut the sex-kitten bullshit. What the fuck are you doing in here?”
She stood, uncurling from her perch on the chair. Her hair was down but curled expertly. The long coat she covered her body with prevented her from emphasizing the sway of her hips or the curves of the body she’d gone under the scalpel for.
When she shrugged it off her shoulders, revealing her nudity, I saw it all.
She was throwing herself at me. Breaking in, trespassing in this room that Nina belonged in, and offering herself without any modesty.
“I’m here to show you what you’re missing,” she purred as she approached me.
“I’m not missing anything. How did you get in here?” I refused to lower my gaze and notice her naked body. Keeping my stare locked on hers, I waited for her to see the severity of how she was fucking up with this stunt. I was livid, and only a slight purse of her lips suggested that she understood that.
“Who let you in?” All the staff knew not to permit her past the gates.
“I let myself in.” She slowed at a table and picked up a key. “Daddy had a copy made for me.”
Mother fucking Stefan. He went too damn far. “Get out of here.” I’d just told Reaper that at the gambling rooms. It seemed tonight was all about exorcizing the idiots I didn’t have patience for.
“Dante, you don’t know what you’re saying.”
“I do.” I shoved my hands in my pants’ pockets, too familiar with her tendency to reach out and grab my hands to pull herself closer to me. It was a trick she did all the time in public settings. I would do anything I could to remove her ammunition or access to slinking up too close for comfort.
“Please, Dante.” She did it now, stretching her hand out to wrap her fingers around my elbow.
I turned, shoving out of her reach. “No. You’re not going to gaslight me. You’re not going to seduce me or manipulate me. You never have. I told you every fucking time you approached that I wasn’t interested, and you’re overdue to understand that when I say no, it means fucking no.”
“Please!” She dropped to her knees and reached for my zipper.
Jumping back, I twisted my hips so she couldn’t make another grab for me like that.
She scrambled back to her feet, lunging at me. “You need me,” she pleaded. Her arms winched around me, and I quickly shoved her back.
Nothing worked. She did nothing for me, and this desperation that she showed seemed too bizarre. Too unhinged.
I held her at arm’s length, not trusting her not to come on to me and grab me again. Although I hated to have any physical contact with her at all, I had to keep her where she could look at me and listen.
And explain. Red flags were flying with her behavior, and I started to assume the worst.
If she was here, the one time Nina wasn’t… What else did she plan? It was no coincidence, her letting herself in when Nina wasn’t present.
“You’ve always wanted me, Dante. You know you have.”
I shook my head. “I want Nina.”
She grimaced, annoyed. “She’s gone.”
Fuck! I gritted my teeth and adjusted my stance with her. Instead of gripping her upper arms, the rage burning inside me fueled me to slide my fingers around her neck. Hoisting her up, choking her, I waited until she set her panicked gaze on me to see that I wasn’t playing around. Her legs kicked and flailed, and she clawed at my fingers over her throat.
“What did you do?”
She tried to shake her head. Tears glossed over her eyes, and as she struggled to breathe, deprived of the ability to inhale, she smacked at my hand.
“Tell me!” I released her with a fling. She flew back, down to the floor, and wheezed for air as she sat there.
“Tell me now .”
She crawled toward her coat, coughing and catching her breath. “Stefan needs your help.”
“He’s not getting a single fucking thing from me. I’ve made myself clear.”
She swallowed hard as she pulled her coat on, avoiding me. “He lost too much money from allying with the Domino Family. When they were finished, broken up or killed, he lost all the investments. He’s had to give up many of his assets to stay afloat.”
I shook my head, wondering why she was giving me this sob story.
“If you marry me, he can have some of your money.”
“There isn’t a chance in hell of that ever happening.”
“And if I don’t get you to marry me…” She sniffled as she stood. “He’ll give me to the MC. He’ll hand me over to the Devil’s Brothers. They put a price on me, but Stefan seems to think they’re lowballing.”
This woman was forced to discuss her price . To own up to a future of being sold. I shook my head, frustrated and furious that Stefan would stoop this low. With his own daughter. With his former friend. I hadn’t needed any other reasons to cast him out of my life, but he was giving me more and more motivation to hate him every day.
A soldier rushed to the open doors. He stopped short, volleying his gaze between me and Vanessa. “The gates reported?—”
I pointed at her. “Get her out of here.” I shoved past him, having heard enough.
I had to get Nina.
If Vanessa had timed her break-in and seductive act for tonight, it meant she’d counted on Nina being gone and staying out of the house long enough for her to try.
I ran downstairs, ready to drive to the spa Eva had chosen for a girls’ night. With every step, fear and anger mixed into a heady swarm of violent emotions. And I let it shroud me. I let the rage seep through my bones and give me the drive to capture and kill.
If anything happened to the woman I wanted to spend the rest of my life with, no one would be able to stop me from burning down the world in retaliation.