22. Dante
22
DANTE
Sunday, October 6, shortly after sunrise
“He’s waiting for you. I’m working on ransacking his treasure room. It’ll look like a robbery.”
I stare at the final door between me and Angelo, rooted in place.
After this, Victoria and I are through. The threat will be gone. She’ll move on with her life and I’ll be forced to go on with mine.
I can’t lie and say I’m not relieved that Angelo didn’t touch my wife. Still, I’m beyond pissed that he even had the opportunity to try. I lashed out at Victoria as if this was all her fault.
Her fault I fell into a black hole of feelings.
Her fault I’m having a hard time accepting that this marriage is headed for divorce.
Her fault for making me fall in love with her.
That wasn’t the plan.
None of it was.
I put my shit on the line to protect her and allowed it to go too far. I fell victim to her beauty and the way her body clenched around mine. I obsessed over her moans and how she begged for more.
I imagined a life outside of this where we could live without my past haunting us.
I said I would never do something like this for a woman again. I’d sworn off love and commitment and promised myself I was only marrying an innocent girl for the sake of protecting her.
But things didn’t work out that way, and I don’t know what to do.
The not knowing is what’s pissing me off more with every passing second.
If I let her go, I’m never going to see her again. She will haunt the living shit out of me. I’m always going to be thinking about what Victoria is doing, whether she’s happy. If she’s found someone and is going to give herself to an undeserving fucker.
Someone like me.
But that’s a moot point, isn’t it? The woman told me she loved me, but I don’t know how long that will last. She’s young, she could change her mind. Internally, I shake my head. She may be young, but my wife isn’t stupid. How long am I going to keep using her age as a bullshit excuse for my own weakness?
“You got this?” Enzo pipes up from his place at my side. “Or do you want me?—”
“What’s the status of everyone else?” I press, keeping my focus centered on the brown oak door.
“Anyone that was anyone is worm food now,” he replies flatly. “We got ten minutes before we have to roll.”
“That’s all?”
Enzo grumbles under his breath, ever the impatient one.
Normally, I’d be on his side. Get in, take care of business, and get out. Fast.
However, I’d love to play with Angelo for a while. Even for one day, just to show him how serious I was about fucking with me.
“Do you want me to move him?” my friend finally asks, teeth clenched. “The sun’s up now, but if you want, I can?—”
“Too much work. I got it, brother. Thank you.” I slap his back and move for the door. I need to move quickly if I’m going to do what needs done before Victoria comes looking for me. I left her in the kitchen with some water and some crackers, the door guarded by one of Enzo’s men. “Keep my wife away.”
“I’ll try my best.”
I glimpse over my shoulder and meet his dark blue eyes. “Keep my wife away.”
He lifts a brow at my emphasis. He’s not stupid. He knows I have feelings for the woman. “I think we should let her have a swing at him.”
“She’s not like us, moron.”
“You sure about that?” He crosses his arms along his wide chest. “Where did that goose egg on his skull come from?”
I shake my head and shove open the door, finding Angelo staring out an open window. The asshole is likely debating whether his fat ass would bounce if he jumped.
“Go ahead,” I urge, showing him the gun in my hand. “Let’s see what happens.”
Angelo whips his head around and glares at me. He’s met his end, we both know that. There’s no way out but the window and, even then, he may not die. Which would not only be more agonizing for him, it’d make more work for me.
I’d have to go down the stairs to finish the job while listening to him cry like a bitch. Honestly, I’d rather not have to hear him blubbering.
“You’re making a mistake, Moretti,” he snarls. “If I die, everyone will know who killed me.”
I lift my shoulders. “I’ll take that chance.”
“You’re being stupid.” I take a step forward and he takes two back. “ Stop .”
“I told you that if you touched my wife, I’d fuck you up, Lombardi.”
He extends his arms between us. “I didn’t touch her.”
“Bullshit.”
“I didn’t,” he argues. “It was a story to rile you up.”
I smile, knowing my eyes are cold as ice. “Considered me riled.”
“Take the girl and go,” he orders, finally stopping when his back hits the drywall. “I’ve gotten enough of my money. We’ll call it even.”
Pushing my lips out, I pretend to consider that option, but I love the color red. I love the smell of blood. And it’s been a very long time since I’ve killed someone. “I don’t like the idea of seeing you again.”
“You won’t,” he promises weakly, almost whimpering. “Our business here is done.”
“You see, I don’t believe you,” I confess. “My wife has a very promising life ahead of her and I don’t want you sniffing around looking to bother her.”
“I won’t.”
Bullshit.
And we both know it.
Angelo isn’t going to just accept that my buddy mowed all his men down and I walked away with a prize he’s been desperate to claim. If I let him live, he’ll have to make a show of retaliation.
It’ll never end.
Not until one of us is dead.
And if his men can’t find the body, then they’ll wonder if he just escaped with a select few and went underground while things cooled off.
“I’ll let you choose,” I reply flatly. “Gunshot or drowning.”
His eyes bulge at me, his mouth dropping open. “What?”
“Pick.”
“I’m not?—”
“Now, Lombardi,” I coo. “C’mon. You know I’m not going to let you live. The choice is a courtesy I don’t typically offer. You should feel honored.”
“I won’t pick how I’m going to die,” he snaps. “You sick fuck!”
“Says the man that tried to rape my wife.”
“I didn’t rape her,” he shouts.
“But you tried.”
Angelo huffs and straightens his spine in an effort to reclaim some semblance of power. “Listen…we can make a deal.”
“We had one.” I lift my gun, tired of the back and forth. I want to get Victoria out of here and on a plane ASAP. “You broke it.”
“We didn’t talk details.” My index finger flirts with the trigger. “This is bullshit, Moretti. Just let this go.”
My arm drops, just enough to aim at his cock, and I curl my finger. The crack of the bullet echoes in the room.
Angelo gasps at first, then bows forward, hands between his legs as he screams at the top of his lungs.
It’s not enough.
Nothing will ever be enough when it comes to Lombardi.
He tried to sell my wife to some fucked-up politician. He tried to touch what I claimed as mine. He murdered my nephew when I hadn’t yet decided if I was going to take care of him myself.
Angelo Lombardi has been nothing but a pain in my ass.
“Maybe I should hang around and take your place,” I muse, knowing even the thought of my taking his organization will bug the fuck out of him. I step closer and lean forward. “I’d love to meet the man that bought my wife.” Then I remember the promise I made to myself and lift a foot, resting it over one of Angelo’s spread hands. Slowly, I press my weight forward, and the satisfied crunch of bones splintering is everything I imagined.
“Fuck you ,” he seethes. “No one will follow you. You’re a nobody, a has been.”
“True.” I level the Glock again and catch him in the left bicep, earning a slew of curses and a lecture on how I’m going straight to hell. “We’ll set that idea aside for now.”
“I will kill you, Moretti. I swear to God?—”
“No need to do that,” I retort evenly. “You’re not going to have a chance to see him.”
“You fucking stupid-ass?—”
“Dante.”
I spin around, finding Victoria standing in the doorway, twisting her fingers and looking at me like she doesn’t recognize me at all.
A beast.
One that kills.
A monster enjoying the agony another man is suffering.
I don’t give a shit. This is who I am, this is what she married.
“What are you doing in here?” I growl, fixing her with a glare and hoping she runs away.
She doesn’t.
No, not my wife.
The woman clearly doesn’t give a shit about any orders I give her. Doesn’t believe in doing what she’s told.
“It’s time to go,” she claims. “Enzo said we’re running out of time.”
“Then why didn’t he come in here and tell me?”
Victoria cocks a brow. “Why wouldn’t I?” I open my mouth, ready to tell her I don’t want her seeing this kind of shit, but she beats me to the punch. “I think we’re past all this, don’t you?”
“Past what?”
“This world. What I’ve seen and what I’ve experienced already. Pretending I’m not aware of it.”
“I’m about to kill this man, princess. I don’t think you’re fully grasping what I’m capable of doing.”
“I never said you weren’t.” She waves a dismissive hand at me. “Go on.”
I gape at her, stunned that she’s so calm. Maybe I underestimated her mental state, how she may be feeling about all this. It could be she wants closure. It could be she’s in shock. Or it could be I’ve truly corrupted her and she’s beginning to grow numb to everything.
Regardless, I wish I had the time to make this hurt more for Angelo. I’d keep him alive for days, let him beg me for mercy while I worked out all my rage.
I can’t get past the fact that he was in the same room with Victoria. That he made up all kinds of sick fantasies about what he’d do to her while I was tied up in his fucking basement.
It’s driving me crazy.
She said nothing happened, but my mind won’t let it go, won’t accept that there’s nothing to worry about.
I won’t be there to save her if she needs it.
I’m giving her away when I don’t want to.
“Leave the room, Victoria,” I command evenly. “I don’t want you to see this.”
She inches closer, causing my skin to break out in a heap of goosebumps. She controls me, so completely that it seems impossible.
“Take me home, Dante. Enzo was adamant we leave right away.”
Home.
I’m not entirely sure where that is, not since our last house was invaded by Angelo’s men and stained with Liam’s blood.
However, it doesn’t matter where I take her, wherever we end up will feel like home because she’ll be there.
For now.
Extending my arm behind me, I blindly unload the rest of my clip into Angelo’s body before dropping my gun.
Victoria doesn’t bother looking either, but I hear the weight of the bastard’s body slumping to the hardwood floors. One of Enzo’s men can check to make sure he’s gone for good. I can’t bring myself to bother, not with Victoria looking at me like I’m the sun and all the stars in her universe.
“Alright,” I agree, stepping forward. “Let’s get going.”
She turns with me and allows me to guide her out of the room.
I just need to get her on a plane and tucked away somewhere safe.
That’s the rest of my job.
After that, I’m done.
I just need to bring myself to say goodbye.