14. Dante
14
DANTE
Saturday, October 5
“It’s all ready for you. I’m just getting the housing sorted, but it’ll be settled by the time you land.”
Thank fucking God. I’ve been tense since Thursday, waiting for Angelo to make his move. Against my better judgement, I allowed Victoria to convince me to ignore his summons to dinner. I know the man is plotting his revenge—he can’t possibly leave the insult unanswered. Our best bet is to get the hell out of here, pronto.
I stare at the wooded backyard where my nephew is buried in an unmarked grave. Getting him out of the garage would have been too risky. All the neighbors have doorbell cameras or are constantly outside fucking around with their landscaping, so I took the next best option.
The kid will always be a missing person.
And I haven’t even told Marissa yet. Probably never will.
She can blame Angelo for his disappearance for all I care. I’ve gotten several calls and teary voicemails from her about Liam not coming home or answering his phone, but my response is always the same—he probably left her behind.
And he did.
The only reason I answered her call the first time was to avoid looking suspicious.
“I appreciate you,” I tell my old friend. Enzo came the fuck through and I owe him my life. “I’ll contact you shortly to pick up?—”
“It’s already done, brother,” he mutters solemnly. “Check your mailbox.”
I’m only slightly shocked. Enzo is a living, breathing shadow.
“When are you getting to the airstrip?” he asks, drawing me back into the present.
“As soon as we can. You remember the backup plan?”
“I’ll be prepared.” There’s a weighty pause and I can hear the drumming of fingers as Enzo considers his next words. “You still haven’t told me when we’re moving on the old man.”
Angelo.
As long as he’s breathing, Victoria will be in danger.
“The moment the money drops,” I divulge, dreading the moment that we’ve been waiting for. When the plan gains momentum and Victoria’s new life begins. When ours ends. “We’ll do it that night.”
“The sooner the better. It’s been a minute.”
I can hear the hungry note in his voice. Most addicts get high on what they can snort or shoot up with, but Enzo gets his hits from blood and men’s screams. And it sounds like he’s in withdrawal.
“You’ll get the first stab, brother,” I promise, the words accompanying the soft shhh sound of the glass door sliding open behind me. Without even looking, I know that Victoria has joined me on the deck.
Enzo releases a dark chuckle. “I’ll take it. We’ll talk soon, brother.”
And then he hangs up and I turn to find my wife beaming up at me. Her face is filled with sunshine and hope, like I just told her this was all a dream and she doesn’t need to leave the States after all.
“It happened.”
I stare at her, cataloging every detail and filing it away in my memory for the millionth time. She’s dressed in a beige two-piece, exposing a slice of torso between a long-sleeve sweater and baggy pants that look both fashionable and comfortable, like pajamas. A clear giveaway as to how relaxed Victoria feels near me, the outfit is nothing but an instrument of torture, taunting the living fuck out of my cock.
“What happened, princess?” I ask, trying to think past the roar in my blood. Every second that ticks by, every day that passes, is another step closer to the moment I have to cut her loose so she can have the freedom to start her new chapter.
While her new life starts, I’ll be working on clean-up, observing who succeeds Angelo and finding out whether they’re still hunting for us. And if they are, I’ll handle that too.
“The trust fund’s been released,” she beams excitedly, and I’m a bit confused. She’s been walking around under her own personal storm cloud for days. I’ve wanted to wipe the sullen expression from her face and give her something else to think about, but the last week has been fucked up almost beyond belief. My desperate wish to keep her, to own this woman in every way I can, has been nearly irresistible. I keep telling myself I’ve corrupted her enough, that I should step back and set her free the moment I can.
The longer this goes on, the more complicated things get. It will be hard enough to drop her off at her new Parisian flat and never see her again. She’s young, talented, and beautiful. Tying her to me is just another way to keep her caged, to set limits on the life she could live. Somewhere out there is a prick who won’t deserve her but will nevertheless treat her well.
If not, I’ll kill him.
“That’s great, princess,” I mumble distractedly. Now I need to call Enzo back and give him the green light. There’s nothing stopping me from taking care of Lombardi and boarding a plane to jump across the pond ASAP. “You’ll need to pack.”
Her blue eyes darken as she steps closer. “This… It doesn’t have to go how we planned.”
“In what way?”
I don’t need her to tell me she wants me. In fact, I’m praying to everything holy that she doesn’t, because otherwise I’ll never leave.
“Paris,” she replies. “I can go with you to Portofino?—”
“No,” I cut in, slicing my hand through the air as her smile fades. “Paris is your dream. You’ve had enough stolen from you already.”
“Dreams can change.”
I clear my throat, feeling it tighten in response to her clear invitation. She might think she cares for me, but I’ve been the only constant in her life over the last few weeks, the unwavering anchor in the storm that Angelo and Liam created. She’ll find her feet and learn to stand on her own again. She doesn’t need me. And I’m not ready to settle down in one place, not until I know all the threats to her are taken care of.
“You should call Ellie,” I pause, reconsidering. “Or maybe you should wait and call from the plane. I’d rather not risk the call being intercepted.”
Victoria doesn’t take her eyes off my face. I know it’s obvious that I’m changing the subject to avoid talking about a shared future.
I’m no good for her.
I’ve said it before, and I’d rather not say it again. But I will if she needs the reminder.
“Dante… You can keep ignoring what’s between us, but you can’t stop me from telling you how much I care about you.”
Fuck me.
I nod, clenching my fingers into tight fists at my side. There’s a sharp pain piercing my heart over and over again. An actual knife wound to the chest doesn’t hurt this badly. I haven’t felt this fucking miserable over a woman since Gabriella. I hate comparing her to Victoria, hate using her as any kind of yardstick, but she’s the only experience I have with this.
With heartbreak.
“I care about you, too, princess.” I nod toward the house. “Are you done making?—”
“ Stop ,” she orders, voice low, narrowing her eyes at me. “Let me speak. I know you don’t want to hear this, but I have to say it. I might not get another opportunity. Not with the way you’re racing to get rid of me.”
“Speak, then,” I grit out. Her words will change nothing… and everything. She’s ruined me for anyone else. I used to think the same about Gabriella, but Victoria is a fiercer woman than my ex ever was, despite being years younger.
“I love you,” she declares, stealing my next breath. My knees buckle and I just barely manage to keep standing. “I tried not to. I always knew what this was to you. I know you don’t want a long-term relationship, that you have your reasons. I’m telling you they’re trivial, that they don’t matter to me. I’d follow you anywhere and be happy. I’d literally do anything for you. Nothing makes me happier than being in your arms, than feeling your eyes on me.” She pauses, breathing hard and waving her hand between us. “This was never supposed to happen. But it did.”
“Princess—”
“Please don’t try to convince me that what I feel in my heart isn’t real. I know I’m younger than you. That you don’t think I could possibly know what I want out of life. But I’m proud to be married to you. Hearing you call me yours… I’m completely content with being your wife, with knowing you will possess me and protect me at any cost. I will always stay loyal to you. There isn’t anyone else I could possibly want.”
My body erases the space between us, but my hands are still fisted tight. This is torture. She’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. The most precious thing I’ve ever touched. This woman drives me absolutely crazy with lust and happiness. I knew I was a lucky bastard to have her and I don’t want anyone else to feel the way I do standing by her side.
“You are the best decision I ever made,” I tell her, my blood pumping furiously in my veins. My heart skitters and swerves with my next words. “I’ll never regret you, princess. You’ll always be the one thing I’ll cherish for the rest of my life.”
“Then why stop? Why not change course?—”
“Circumstances change, princess. Feelings shift. Men like me go and hide in the woods somewhere when we retire. You still have a whole life to live.”
“One that I want to live with you.”
“One that I’m forcing you to seize,” I vow. “It’s not going to be easy, Victoria. But this is how it has to be. You have decades left to experience. I’ve lived the years I need to.”
Victoria scowls at me. “You’re not eighty years old.”
“I may as well be.” Against my better judgment, I reach for her face and cup one cheek in my palm. “At least I can say I got married.”
“You still are married, Dante.”
“Victoria, stop making this harder than it already is. Please. I’m really trying here. I don’t want to hurt you. It’s never been my intention?—”
“Well, you’re killing me right now.” I expect her to step out of my touch, but she doesn’t move an inch. My girl is tethered to me, and I to her. There isn’t anything I can think of right now that would sever our connection in this moment. “You may as well have allowed Liam to murder me so I wouldn’t have to suffer through your efforts to?—”
“That was never going to happen, princess.”
“A life without you isn’t a life I want.”
“This will pass,” I reply, attempting to convince us both. “You have spent so much time and energy working for your future. I’m not going to let that all go to waste.”
“How can you be so sure of yourself right now, Dante?” Her sharp eyes narrow. “Has it occurred to you that someone else could take your place? That when I’m done crying over you, when I’ve finally started to heal, another man will lie in my bed each night?”
A million times.
I know what she’s doing. Victoria is painting the same picture that I’ve been ignoring, even while it forms in my own mind. The reality of what life would be, not only for me, but for her. How she’ll eventually move on and forget about me.
“I’ve thought about it,” I confess evenly. “But we need to be reasonable, logical. You’re permitting your emotions to lead this conversation.”
“Maybe you should pay more attention to yours. Because I’m not sure how you’re going to survive the future you’re insisting on. The idea of me spread wide, taking some other man’s cock?—”
“Stop.”
“His tongue between my thighs, lapping at me until I come all over his tongue while he demands to hear his name from my lips. Does it not kill you when you think about how he’ll want to claim me? How his goal will be to wipe out every man before him—to erase you ?”
“Victoria—”
“Don’t make me do it if you can’t handle imagining it, Dante,” she sneers, her lips twisted in a vicious snarl.
“You fucking need someone to make the hard decisions for you,” I snap back, my grip on her face tightening as I try to make her understand. “I’m trying to get you your life back.”
“No, you’re trying to give me a new one. But I don’t want it. I’ve told you?—”
“Quit arguing with me and stop being a brat,” I growl. “You know I don’t want you to go. You know it kills me to imagine… But this is the real world, princess, not a fairy tale. This is how it’s going to go. I’m not sticking around just to hold you back. A man like me will always be hunted. I have enemies and I’m always looking over my shoulder. I’ve killed important men and I’m known all over Europe for the wrong reasons. My life is incompatible with yours.”
“Then know that someday, I’ll be thinking of your name while another man takes my body and wrecks me. Don’t be surprised when your skin breaks out in goosebumps because I’m coming on his cock, pulsing around him, while he promises me his heart. When the hairs on your neck prickle as he gives me his last name to mark me as his and not yours ?—”
My lips crash into hers, stopping the poisonous flow of her words. I want to wrap my fingers around her throat and squeeze until she can’t form a single fucking sound. Until she can’t possibly remind me of what’s to come.
Just the thought of another man inside her has me reeling. I can’t function, can’t breathe, when she’s giving voice to the nightmares that plague me each night. This is far worse than when Gabriella lied to me about her divorce, about her husband. Victoria is telling the truth, spinning an evil prophecy. I may have time to brace myself for the inevitable, but it’ll never be enough. The nightmares will come to life and butcher me. I’ll never find sleep again, not without her in my bed.
Even now, just knowing our time is limited has made me restless in my own skin.
Victoria gives as good as she gets, and our kiss becomes a battleground. Her teeth sink into my bottom lip, coaxing me to fight. To try and set us on a path that I swear is closed to us.
My tongue presses between her lips and Victoria cedes to my demand for entry. She tastes like tomatoes and herbs. I’m a fucking Italian. It’s like throwing a soup bone to a dog. I can’t be expected to resist.
Not only am I fucking gone for her taste, but the tug of Victoria’s fingers threaded through my hair has me coming undone.
I don’t know how I’m going to walk away from her when it’s time. I’m not sure that I’ll have the strength.
The demon on my shoulder insists on keeping her. He whispers that we own her. That she’s ours and we’re never letting her go. No other man will claim her, will do any of the filthy things she described. Imagining my name crossing her lips even while another man’s dick fills her pussy has me tipping past the point of no return.
Victoria knows exactly what to say, what buttons to push to make me lose all sense of reason. I’m right on the edge, more than ready to throw this shit away. She’s poisoned me and there’s no fucking cure.
No antidote.
She’s become part of me, flooding my veins and taking over what’s left of my soul.
“How precious,” a male voice coos, and I jolt back, breaking our kiss as I yank Victoria behind me.
I’m ready to pummel whatever intruder dared enter our backyard, and my eyes quickly land on Angelo.
The motherfucker is standing next to the house in a pristine gray suit and crisp blue tie. My jaw ticks when I realize the color is the exact shade of Victoria’s eyes. I doubt it’s a coincidence.
His eyes are dark, the lids heavy, as his lips curve in an amused smirk. I’m beyond pissed that he’s managed to sneak up on us, that I allowed myself to become distracted enough that he could. I’m supposed to be protecting Victoria. He must have walked around the house, since I know Victoria has been diligent about locking the front door since his first disastrous visit.
“I’ve come to collect you for dinner,” Angelo states matter-of-factly. “I figured you had car trouble and needed a ride.”