21. Victoria
21
VICTORIA
Gunshots ring below and I’m not sure who’s shooting at who.
And I’m not going to look.
I’m currently lying face down on Angelo’s roof, afraid to peer over the edge and see what chaos is going on around me. I’m hoping it’s Dante’s friend but, from the sounds of it, I’m sure I’ve been dropped into a war zone.
The gunfire hasn’t stopped for the last several minutes. I’m terrified that I’ve made things worse somehow, or that things won’t go our way.
All I can do is lay low and wait for a sign that it’s safe to come down. No matter how long it takes.
I try my best to stay calm and think about anything else. Paris, Dante, getting this whole mob-shit over and done with and doing something magnificent with my life.
But with the constant shouts of men and the crack of gunshots, I’m surprised I haven’t heard sirens yet.
“Princess, I don’t know if I should be relieved or pissed.”
My head jerks to the side, immediately finding Dante waltzing toward me. He’s a massive target for anyone with eyes who bothers to look up.
“Get down,” I order quickly, unable to process that he’s here, that he’s alive , because any second now he won’t be. “You’re going to get shot.”
He lifts a brow, still striding toward me with purpose in dark eyes. His black dress slacks and white button-up shirt have seen better days, and somewhere along the way he lost his suit jacket. He looks like an exhausted mess, but the sight of him still warms me up from the inside out. “Is that any way to greet your husband?”
Maybe not under normal circumstances.
However, we are in the middle of a battle right now.
“Dante, please get down,” I beg, patting the shingles beside me.
He drops to his knees and gently drags me upward, keeping me close to his body as he cups my face with his palm. “What happened? Tell me everything, Victoria.”
“What?” I mentally shake myself out of my shocked stupor to focus on the here and now. “Did Enzo come? Is he the one shooting?”
Dante nods. “Yes. He’s here.” I sigh in relief. “Good girl, princess. You did exactly what I told you to do.”
“I couldn’t get down to run,” I confess. “There were too many men and I didn’t have a straight shot out.”
“So you climbed to the roof?”
I frown. “Where else was I supposed to go?”
He brushes my cheek with his thumb. “You did good.”
I reach for his wrist. “Are you okay? How’s your leg?”
“It’s fine. A flesh wound.”
“We need to get you to a doctor.”
“Victoria—”
“Can you get down?” I scan behind him to see where he came from, realizing he must have taken the same path I did. “Do you need me to help you?” Dante doesn’t answer, and I look back at his face. “What is it?”
His lips set in a fine line, whitening from tension, before I see him breathe out and deliberately relax his features. “What happened last night?”
My nose wrinkles in disgust at what Angelo tried to do to me. I’m so damn happy the moron didn’t find me up here.
Still, he must have taunted Dante about me.
There’s no other reason Dante would be asking about what happened.
“He came to my room,” I finally say. “And I hit him as hard as I could in the head with a lamp.”
Dante bobs his head. “What else?”
“I grabbed his phone and climbed out the window. I didn’t want to risk the hallway because I was afraid someone would catch me there. I thought I’d be able to get off the property, but that was a failure. So, I did what you told me to do if I needed help.”
“He didn’t… Did he…” Dante’s dark eyes, frantically searching my own, tell me everything I need to know. He thinks there’s more to the story. I shake my head in denial. “Victoria, you can tell me the truth. It’s not your fault?—”
“He didn’t rape me,” I reply. “He didn’t get a chance. Angelo’s too slow.”
“Are you sure? Princess, I will kill him for you regardless, just tell me if he touched you.”
“He didn’t.” Dante doesn’t look convinced. “I promise, Dante. I would tell you. There are no secrets between us.”
“Such a strong little princess,” he mutters, pressing a soft kiss to my forehead. “We should get you a piece of land and your own castle.”
“Only if you come with me.”
He pulls back from me then, a frown in place before he begins to rise to his feet. He winces a bit in the process, so I know his leg is bothering him more than he’s willing to admit. “Come on, let’s get you out of here.”
“Is it safe? Will you?—”
“Enzo will have the place cleared out by the time we hit the second floor.” He helps me to my feet and wraps an arm around my waist. “You have nothing to worry about.”
“But—”
“Watch me work,” he states as we walk toward the edge of the roof. “I’ll show you what happens when idiots fuck with what’s mine…when they piss me off.”
I understand that.
I’m pissed too.
But I don’t want to see him hurt himself when we’ve just found our way back to each other. In truth, all I want is to stay on this roof and stare. The last several hours have felt like an eternity. I can’t believe it’s only been one night, that he’s safe, that my call to Enzo worked.
I know we have unfinished business. There are things that need to be taken care of if we’re going to be able to leave the country safely.
“Dante, let’s just go. Angelo will never get to us.”
“I know. I’m going to make sure of it.”
“But—” My husband spins toward me, his face twisted in a blend of pain and annoyance.
“I can’t let shit like this go,” he warns. “Can’t you see how that got us here in the first place? I didn’t kill the motherfucker when I should have, when I found out he wanted to hold my brother’s debt against us, and he auctioned you off to some dickwad. A dickwad who, more than likely, planned to rape you while his wife slept in the next room. Did you want that, princess?”
“No,” I retort with a furious blush. “But I don’t want you to die, either.”
Dante scoffs at me. “Your confidence in me is inspirational, princess.” I snarl, mad as hell that he thinks I have doubts about him in this moment. “I’m not surprised you feel that way. I haven’t done a good job keeping you?—”
I tug on his shirt, cutting his tirade short. “Stop it. I’m not blaming you for anything. This isn’t your fault.”
“This is all my fault,” he argues. “If you hadn’t called Enzo, this would all be over. I’d be dead. You’d be fuck knows where.”
“Dante, please. I just want to be done. I want to walk away. I don’t want to take any chances.”
“If I don’t take care of Angelo, you’re going to be on the run until the fucker dies,” he informs me. “I don’t want that life for you. After all this, the last thing I want is for you to be looking over your shoulder every two minutes.”
“I understand. But I’m not willing to sacrifice your life for my peace.”
“I’m not dying.”
“Can you promise me that?”
“Yes,” he says confidently. As I feel his assurance settle over me, I also notice the serene silence that’s replaced the echoes of gunfire. “Don’t worry about me, princess. If I know my friend at all, Enzo has that fat fuck at gunpoint and is just waiting on me. It’s what we do, what we always used to do. I trust him with my life. I trust him with yours .”
The man is hell-bent on taking out the enemy and nothing I say is going to stop him. That fact hurts more than I thought it would.
I really don’t know why though. I convinced him to let things go with Liam after he kidnapped me and was going to let his junkie of a friend rape me and then he came back and made things even worse than they already were with Lombardi. Now we’re dealing with the current shitshow. If I had just let Dante handle things before, they would have never progressed to this now – with my husband being almost killed and me being sold off and almost raped again.
So, I’m not sure why I’m taking it so personally, but maybe he’s right. If Angelo isn’t dealt with, this is never going to be over. And we definitely don’t need a repeat, or worse.
And this is who Dante is.
He handles problems.
“Whatever you want to do, Dante,” I manage to force from my lips, fighting back the burn of tears gathering at the corners of my eyes.
His features soften slightly before a murderous rage transforms his chiseled features.
His fury, his desire for revenge is stronger than his commitment to me. I can’t change him. I told him I loved him, and he still wanted to ship me off to Paris. If I can’t get him to stay, then I have to accept that our story is truly coming to an end.
The man is beyond stubborn.
I guess that’s what being a lone wolf for too many years does to you.
“C’mon,” he urges, guiding me toward an open window. “Let’s get you inside where it’s warm.”
I go with him, giving up on explaining that all I want is for us to leave. I don’t want to look at Angelo again. I’m so beyond tired of all this.
I didn’t want to leave the States before, especially without Ellie, but it’s a future that I crave with all my being now. I’ll make the best of it and finish up school in France. Who knows when my best friend will be able to join me, but at least I can do the legwork of finding us a place for when she does arrive.
In the meantime, I’ll embrace the time alone as a chance to lick my wounds. To grieve the loss of my husband.
A husband who refuses to stay married to me.