Chapter 56 #2
“Terrified?” Nico worked his jaw back and forth.
“Yeah, you’re fucking terrified. I watched you try to breathe life into her and fail.
We both want Giovanni dead because he hurt her.
We’re both scared he’ll hurt her again. But…
the princess is right. Fear makes you sloppy. And sloppy gets all of us killed.”
I stared at him, trying to wrap my head around this ‘we’ angle. It was confusing. It was nice. It pissed my jealous husband off even more.
Dante’s hands clenched at his sides. “The bastard has to pay.”
“And he will,” Nico agreed easily, then went back to lounging on the bedroom doorframe, as if he belonged there.
“We have a rare advantage, my friend. Giovanni will waste time looking for her body. Squeezing his spy network for confirmation. Trying to cover his tracks. That buys us some breathing room while he’s distracted. ”
“Nico’s right,” I sighed, instantly regretting my words when my husband’s glower deepened.
I pushed myself up on too many pillows. “Giovanni’s hopelessly paranoid; he doesn’t trust a soul.
He’ll wallow in uncertainty while he explores every possible scenario regarding my disappearance, but in the meantime, he’ll move the evidence, if he hasn’t already destroyed it. ”
I really hoped I was wrong about that last part.
“Right before I… drowned,” I shuddered, reliving that awful water-filled room. “There was a box stashed in an alcove, about this big,” I spread my hands. “Something tells me he won’t burn them, not yet. Which means they’re still inside the palazzo. He’d keep them close, somewhere safe.”
“Then your uncle has two problems. A missing body and documents he can’t afford to get caught with.” Dante’s voice was harder than his glare. “We need to keep him off guard, keep him guessing.”
I mulled that over. “Did anyone see you pull me out of the water?”
“There is no hard evidence.” Nico frowned as he thought back. “I kept us shielded. The cameras were turned off, and there were no Draconi guards in place.”
Yes, that security system being down should have been my first godsdamned clue that I was walking into a trap.
Rookie mistake.
“I could show up there at dawn, demanding to see my missing wife. Threatening all sorts of bodily harm and property damage.” Dante’s grin was a thing of evil. “Bet that would throw him off his game.”
“Uncle Gio would see right through you.”
His eyes flashed. “I can be pretty fucking convincing, tesoro. Especially with my bad temper and my actual need to fucking kill him. I won’t be pretending at all.”
I shivered at the idea. “Nevertheless, you’d be putting yourself at risk.”
“Consider this.” Dante crouched down beside the bed. “He knows you’re dead, but there is no body. He’s already paranoid, then I show up. Loud. Obnoxious. A brutish pit fighter he doesn’t respect. Thinking with his dick, his ego bigger than his brain.”
I gripped the covers. Just the thought of him being anywhere near my uncle made me want to throw up.
“I’ll be everything Giovanni expects me to be.
Sloppy, proud, arrogant. Demanding he produce you because you’ve been gone all night.
My runaway wife. He’ll lie about where he was, lie about you being there.
But… any suspicion he might have of you surviving…
if I play this right, by the time I leave, he’ll believe you’re really dead. ”
“And I stay disappeared while you and Gabriel and Nico continue to look for that evidence. My guess is, it’s somewhere in my father’s old office. There’s a safe in the floor nobody knows about except Enzo, me, Gio, and…”
Luca’s face flashed before my eyes—followed by an instant wash of horror.
“There’s a bigger problem,” I whispered. “What happens to my brother if I’m not around?” My fingers bunched up the blanket. “Will Giovanni get rid of him, like he tried to get rid of me?”
Dante swore under his breath.
Nico considered me for a long moment. Then he nodded once, sharp and decisive. “I’ll go there now. Keep an eye on him.”
My head snapped up. “What?”
“I’m in charge of Draconi security, remember?
The cameras were down tonight, and the city was flooded.
I’ll use that as my excuse to do a thorough check of the palazzo and make sure your brother is secure.
And as far as your plan to act the betrayed husband…
” He shot a pointed glance at Dante. “I say start practicing.”
“I already know how I’ll play my part.” Dante’s grin was terrifying. “I’ll get there at dawn, which gives me a few hours to rehearse.”
“And I’ll go check on Luca.”
Relief and dread tangled together in my chest as I looked between them, my heart overflowing. “Nico, my uncle is dangerous.”
“Yeah, well, so is breathing in this city.” Nico’s tone was light. “I’ll just tell Giovanni I’m doing my due diligence, keeping Venice safe.”
Dante snorted. “Fuck, you’re so annoyingly chipper before something like this.”
“You know what they say—enjoy the little things in life.” Nico’s mouth quirked. “Also…” His gaze softened just a fraction. “I promised I’d keep an eye on your family, ragazza. Consider this part of our deal.”
That tangle of emotions had my throat closing as Nico straightened, stepping toward the door. His shadows rose eagerly, already reaching for the darkness beyond the threshold, then he paused. “Stay put. If either of you dies again before I get back,” he added dryly, “I’m going to be pissed.”
Dante rolled his eyes. “Just fucking leave, already.”
The minute Nico did, Dante turned toward the bed, looking lost, like he didn’t know what to do with himself.
I’d seen my husband as a warrior—ruthless, terrifying. I’d seen him on the Council floor, all silk and venom, playing the brutish fighter everyone underestimated. I’d seen him standing in front of me with nothing but raw desire in his eyes.
This version of him—shaken from the inside out—felt more dangerous than all the others combined.
I lifted the edge of the blanket in invitation.
He didn’t hesitate, toeing off his boots before sliding between the covers, fitting his body along mine like we’d been carved to match. One arm slid under my shoulders, the other around my waist, drawing me in until every point of contact was warm and solid.
I pressed my face into his bare chest. His shirt was still damp, heartbeat strong and steady. For a moment, we just lay there, breathing, listening to the house creak around us.
“I thought I lost you,” he admitted. “I’ve gotten very good at not feeling anything, but tonight…
” A deep shudder went through him. “Tonight, I can’t stop myself from feeling everything.
From the moment I saw you facing off with my sire, I wanted you by my side.
I knew we were meant to fight this battle together. ”
I closed my eyes at the raw yearning in his voice.
“And then, somewhere along the line, you became everything I was fighting for. My little war with my sire… became meaningless in the face of what I feel for you.”
“You saved me tonight,” I said quietly. Dante thought he’d failed me, somehow.
“Maybe Emilia’s magic had something to do with my resurrection, but…
I was standing on the threshold of the Underworld, and I realized…
I couldn’t leave. Not without you. No matter how loudly Death called, you called to me louder. ”
His arms tightened. “Thank you for staying,” he said after a moment, his rasping voice rougher than ever.
“Because I would have gone in after you. Followed you to whatever darkness waited and dragged you back into the light. I’ll never let you go now, Emberline.
Never. That’s not a sweet promise of love, that’s a fucking oath. ”
I rested my palm against his chest, feeling the steady thump beneath my fingers.
“I don’t want sweet promises,” I told him. “All I want is you. And the truth. And for you not to go to the palazzo in the morning because that is a very foolish plan.”
He huffed a breath that was almost a laugh. “Saints, you’re bossy.”
“Well, that’s what you get for marrying a princess.”
“A DiRavello princess who keeps dying on me,” he muttered, turning me to face him, a faint gleam of amusement in his blue eyes.
“Stop exaggerating. That was only the one time.”
He shifted, urging me to his throat. “And it had better never happen again.” But his teasing tone couldn’t hide the worry in his voice, so I leaned in and pressed a soft kiss to the spot where his pulse beat the strongest. His breath stuttered.
“I’m alive… because of you.” I ran my nose down his strong throat, drowning in him, hunger carving out an empty, aching place in my stomach. “You are the only reason I came back, Dante.”
I couldn’t tell him what I’d seen when I’d died.
Couldn’t hardly explain to myself the dizzying pull of that shadowy realm, the way I’d ached to cross through that opening into darkness and leave the real world behind.
“Stop talking.” My husband’s chest rumbled, hunger turning into a need, not an urge. “I want to feel your fangs in me, wife. I want your lips on my skin. I want to know you’re taken care of. And right now, this is enough.” His arms tightened.
“Feed,” he urged, tilting his head, baring his throat in an offering.
Mine. That was my only thought as the scent of him wrapped around me, dark and intoxicating. When my lips skated up his vein, he pulled me closer, one hand splayed at my back, the other cradling my hair as if I were something precious.
He tasted like salt and spent magic, like every promise he’d just made.
My fangs sinking in, warm blood flooded my mouth in a heated rush.
I let his quiet praise wash over me while my strength returned, one sip at a time, while the male who had saved my life glued me back together, piece by broken piece.
I meant to force him into a promise to stay, to not go after Giovanni, but as soon as his blood hit my system, darkness swept in right behind, and much like the water, once it closed over my head, I was lost.