Chapter 2 #2
I step inside and close the door behind myself.
I’m surprised he wasn’t asking to speak with Ashton as well, but perhaps he’s got him running other tasks—hence putting our clothes together to burn.
Everyone has their own role, I suppose.
My gaze moves over Dante’s desk. There’s a stack of papers in the corner and an envelope that remains sealed. The return address is clearly from a bank; that’s not the unsettling part. It’s who the envelope is addressed to, a PO Box from out of state.
I recognize the name: College Athletics Hockey Foundation.
That’s the foundation that granted me a full hockey scholarship.
Why is Dante receiving mail addressed to them?
I grab his letter opener and tear the envelope open in one smooth motion, retrieving the letter.
The office door squeaks open, and I don’t so much as blink. “Why do you have a bank statement for the College Athletics Hockey Foundation?” I glare at Dante, demanding to know what he’s gotten himself involved in.
My father hates hockey.
He hates even more so that I play hockey.
“Why don’t we first discuss your wife?” Dante gestures for me to take a seat in the chair opposite his desk.
“Harper told me she found the stuffed dragon. What the hell were you doing bringing it up out of the basement? Zeke could have seen it!”
Dante clears his throat. “He did see it, thanks to your wife sneaking into my office and stealing from me.”
I toss the bank statement across the desk at him as he takes his seat, expecting me to do the same. “Now, you explain the scholarship foundation. Are you behind it?”
He strokes his jaw, silent.
“Well?”
Why can’t he just answer me when I ask him a damn question? His silence is guilt. Except the man has not an ounce of remorse in his blood for anything that he’s ever done.
“I may have wanted to ensure that your future and mine were protected.”
He can’t be serious. “What the hell does that mean?” What did he do? My stomach drops to the floor, like being on a rollercoaster heading straight off the track.
“It means that I wanted to make sure the other children of mafia families were around you, protecting you, making you see the light.”
I fall back into the chair behind me. “You expected that they’d convince me to join your little crew and become just like you.”
Dante smirks, proud of his plan and his accomplishments. “It worked, just not like how I had planned. Consider it an added bonus, me paying for your friends’ tuition for four years.”
“You’re sick.”
He clasps his hands together on the desk, watching me intently. “I’m a lot of things, but unwell is not one of them.”
I can’t even fathom the lengths that Dante went to do this. It stuns me that he would plan so elaborately when he knew how much I despised him. “Do Ashton and Liam know?”
“Their fathers are aware of the circumstances and agreed, considering my investment in their children’s futures. Besides, it ensures they, too, join the family business. Ashton works for me, which is pleasing his father greatly.”
“And Liam?” I hadn’t been aware he had been on a scholarship. He’d never mentioned it to me. He also avoided any topic in dealing with our parents, which made me unsure whether he loved them or resented them for his upbringing.
“Liam and his sister were both offered the same opportunity. Only one of them chose to accept admittance to Evergreen University.”
“Does Liam work for you, too?” I’d never seen him at my parents’ house, but that didn’t mean he may not have had orders to spy on me or Harper.
It was the kind of dirty work my father loved to hire underlings for.
“Whom I employ is none of your concern, Luca.” Dante stands and removes his jacket coat, placing it on the back of his chair.
I inhale sharply.
It wasn’t an act of denial. Liam may be on Dante’s payroll. It’s a question I’ll have to ask him when I get home.
Liam would be honest with me, wouldn’t he?
Although, I can’t help but consider that he’s been gone a lot and keeping secrets.
He had just been in the emergency room the night prior.
“Liam does work for you!”
Dante’s gaze flickers for a fraction of a second. I’m unsure if it’s because I’m right or he’s surprised by my sudden outburst.
His top lip curls up as he speaks, his tone menacing and thick with annoyance. “Quit harping on about your friend! My concern is your wife. Harper is more than an annoyance to me, she’s a liability. A problem, son, that you need to handle.”
“My wife isn’t the problem.”
“She is, because if you won’t handle her, I will.”
“If you so much as harm a hair on her head—” I threaten, standing, snarling, prepared to throw myself across my father’s desk and strangle him if need be.
The amused smile lights up Dante’s dark features. “I have men for that, boy. Don’t you forget.”
His condescending tone irks me, but no worse than the next words that pass through his lips.
“I created that marriage of yours, and I can just as quickly snuff it out.”
“You’ve done nothing to help. You wanted Harper to marry Ashton!” The rage burns inside of me, just envisioning the two of them together, blissfully wed. His hands roaming against her body, his mouth on her skin, his lips caressing her—
Heat and nausea overwhelm my senses, and I reach for the letter opener, the sharpest blade on his desk, and grip it like a dagger.
“You have a problem with Harper, you come to me,” I grit.
“Put that down before you take out your own eye.” Dante smirks, and the smile grates me even further. “I’ll have you know your wife tried the same maneuver while you were away, except she had the audacity to put the blade to my throat.”
“She should have killed you.”
Dante shakes his head, clearly amused. “She wasn’t quick enough. The girl doesn’t have the reflexes of a natural-born killer. Can’t say I’m surprised, since she went to the police this afternoon.”
“What?” The blade drops from my hand, clanking onto the desk.
That doesn’t sound right.
He’s lying.
Why would Harper go to the police?
“I received a phone call this afternoon that a girl matching Harper’s description, with a toddler named Zeke, paid a visit to the Breckenridge Police Department. Do you want to interrogate her, or should I?”
My breath catches in my throat, the room spins, and I shake my head.
“I’ll take care of it.”
“You’d better, or she’s going to send your ass straight to prison.
” Dante glances me over. “Halsey gave me the report on what went down this afternoon. You finishing the job and stopping Massimo, it needed to be done, but Harper, if she so much as comes up with anything tangible to give to the police—”
“She won’t,” I cut him off.
“You’d better hope not.” Dante stands and grabs himself a drink. “Your wife is becoming a liability, and you know what we do about liabilities.”
My jaw clenches tight. “Don’t threaten my wife.” I stalk over as he pours his scotch and swirls it around the glass.
Dante takes a sip, raising an eyebrow. “Let’s be honest with one another. You didn’t even want to marry the girl. You only did it to spite me.”
“In case you forgot, I married her to protect her. You’ve wanted her dead since thirty seconds after you first met her.”
“Not true.” Dante tsks. “She shouldn’t have gone snooping.”
Irritation claws at my skin. I reach for the bottle of scotch, pouring myself a drink. This time, Dante doesn’t even bother to object.
Harper has a habit of doing things she shouldn’t, and I’m beginning to realize it’s probably a bit more than I bargained for when I married her to protect her.
I didn’t realize she would constantly be causing more trouble. But she’s my trouble to deal with, not Dante’s.
“I’m not going to apologize for the worry that she’s caused. This time or last.” I stare at Dante and then glance down at the scotch. The scent burns my nostrils, and I take a sip, doing my best not to grimace.
“Keep her out of my office and away from the police. We don’t need local cops or federal agents digging around our home. In fact, I think it’d be wise if you took them home tonight.”
I throw back the rest of the scotch and swallow hard. The reason I’d brought her here was to protect her, little good that’s done.
“We had an unexpected visitor this morning,” I remind Dante. He’d seen the footage on the cameras of one of Massimo’s men sneaking around outside. Liam had caught him and disarmed the man before sending him away.
Dante takes a sip and then steps back behind his desk. “I have to protect the family, son. If your wife isn’t willing to be a part of the family, then perhaps it’s time we cut her loose.”
I unintentionally drop the glass I’ve been holding, and it shatters on the marble. I don’t so much as look down at the mess I’ve made. “Are you done threatening my wife?”