Chapter 58
DANTE
An old storage shed crouched at the edge of a dead canal in Cannaregio, with rotten shutters and a sagging roof, was not where I planned to spend my morning, but there were assurances I needed before I faced Giovanni.
Wards crawled over the clammy brick like glittering spiderwebs—Nico’s handiwork. Anyone who wandered too close would only see a narrow alleyway with a dead end, get the feeling they had somewhere else to be, and leave.
I opened the door and smelled rotten wood and brewing anger.
“I told your brother about Emberline.” Nico shot me an apologetic look. “And Giovanni. And the plan.”
Well, that explained the anger.
Gabriel stared out the window, sunlight cutting a sharp line across his face. Nico leaned against a wall, every inch the bored soldier, except for the keen way his eyes tracked me—calculating how close I was to losing my shit again.
Too godsdamned close.
“The fucker’s dead,” Gabriel agreed mildly to the unspoken question floating between the three of us. “If you don’t kill him today, that is. Not sure this is the best plan, brother, given your mood.”
I shut the door and threw the rusty bolt, wards humming as they settled back into place. “As tempting as that thought is, he has to stay alive. For now.”
Nico snorted, going still, nostrils flaring as I drew closer. “Well, well, well, listen to the voice of reason. Weren’t you the one who was talking about tearing his head off just a few hours ago?”
“I slept on the idea.” My jaw ached from clenching it so tight. “And while Giovanni’s a dead male walking, the slippery bastard still serves a purpose.”
Making love to Ember, holding her in my arms, and watching her sleep had soothed some of my temper, forcing me to reevaluate the situation, to think past my own consuming anger. This had to work. We couldn’t risk any fuckups, much less mistakes made in anger.
Even though leaving him walking around free felt wrong.
An image flashed, vivid and vicious. Giovanni on his knees before me, begging for mercy he would never get. My knife in his chest, Ember standing behind me, safe, watching her uncle’s blood stain the cold stone.
I enjoyed that image far too much.
Gabriel watched me with that too-perceptive gaze. “How is she?”
I swallowed around the jagged knot in my throat. “Sleeping. Finally.” I hesitated, then added, “She kept clawing in her sleep, like she was drowning.”
My intuition told me there was something else wrong, something I couldn’t put my finger on. The ring of silver around her dark eyes. The way she seemed half-lost in a dream. How she’d been staring at the floor around Nico, like she was seeing something I couldn’t.
My brother’s eyes darkened. “When we take him down, I vote we drown his ass. Make his dying last a long, long time.”
My fangs slid down at the suggestion.
This was why I came here instead of going straight to the DiRavello palazzo. If I walked through those doors as I was, there’d be nothing but blood splashed on the walls.
“We’re not discussing the method of execution yet.
” Nico’s tone carried the same vicious undertone I was currently feeling.
“First order of business is Ember’s safety.
And her brother’s. Luca’s fine, by the way.
I checked on him overnight. Giovanni stayed in Enzo’s study, rearranging books or some bullshit.
Acted spooked when I popped my head in.”
“Hiding the evidence,” I muttered.
“Or that,” Nico agreed.
“I should have killed him the night of the wedding.” I took a calming breath that did nothing to help.
“And now it’s too late for reckless moves,” Nico pointed out. “We thought we could exploit that alliance. And you hadn’t fallen in love with her yet.”
I shot him a look. “Who said anything about love?”
He smiled lazily. “Don’t be a lying prick, Dante. You’re completely head over heels, and you know it. You shredded half the canal wall to get to her.”
Gabriel’s mouth tilted, just a little. “To be fair, she’s easy to like. It didn’t take me long to stop looking at her like a political pawn.”
I should have been jealous of my brother… but I understood. In the beginning, Ember had been the weapon I stole out from under Giovanni’s nose, a way to both get under his skin and thumb my nose at his power.
Revenge should have been the end of it. But somewhere between our wedding ceremony and our first argument, standing in front of me with her chin up and eyes blazing, she’d become something I couldn’t lose.
Wouldn’t lose.
I dug the heels of my hands into my eyes. “Which is why I’m here with you assholes instead of at the palazzo. I need you… both of you, to promise me something. Swear to it, actually.”
“Anything,” my brother agreed with no hesitation.
“If something happens to me, if anything goes wrong, take care of Emberline. Giovanni is not to lay a fucking filthy finger on her. Neither is Marcello. If they both need to die to keep her safe, then kill them both and get her out of the city. Take her somewhere safe. Take the brother, too, because fuck knows she won’t leave without him. ”
“Sure, but nothing’s going to happen,” Gabriel chided, like he wasn’t decades younger than me. “Try not to murder the sick fuck because I want a piece of him, too.” He stepped closer, voice low. “But I can tell you this. No one will hurt her on my watch.”
“Good.” Having their word made me feel incrementally better about dying. At least my wife would be with the two people I trusted most in this world.
I wanted Giovanni stripped of everything that made him dangerous—the DiRavello name, the network of power, the influence, and the secrets—before I finally took his life. I wanted every single member of this Dynasty to watch that bastard fall.
And I wanted Giovanni DiRavello to know who brought him down.
But even more than that, I wanted Emberline safe. Protected.
Fifty years of vengeance and hate withered and died in the face of my love for Emberline, and I couldn’t do this without ensuring her safety.
“What will I be walking into? Does he have any idea about Ember?”
“Not as of this morning.” Nico grinned, lazy and sharpened intent all at once.
“His spies came and went, as expected, but he never left the palazzo.” His voice went flat.
“My guess is, he’s hidden the evidence somewhere inside Enzo’s office.
I smelled the reek of lagoon water all through that place.
You have to be convincing, Dante. Don’t half-ass this. ”
“Oh, trust me, I’ll be convincing as fuck,” I spat, disgust curling my lip.
“Point is,” Nico went on, “he’s still regrouping. Feed his doubt and give him more to worry about.”
Gabriel folded his arms. “Marcello didn’t return last night until late, something Giovanni could easily verify. Plant that piece of information, then I’ll do my best to fan the flames of paranoia from my end.”
“Sow division between the two, sever this freshly forged alliance of theirs.” I grinned, imagining the ensuing arguments between them. “I like it.”
Nico nodded once. “Uncertainty is poison, and we’ll just feed Giovanni an enemy he’s already primed to distrust, then let his suspicions do the rest. And in the meantime,” he added, “he’ll be wasting time and resources looking for Ember.
Giving us time to sway more allies to our side. We already have Emilia. And Luca.”
“Father’s… been ill these past days.” Gabriel looked troubled, and my instincts prickled at this new information. “But you have my vote.”
“Severin is on our side,” Nico volunteered. “Rocco’s the wild card… and he always will be.” He shrugged. “Too prone to play people against each other to ever be trusted.”
“Then there’s that small matter of the arms dealer I’m supposed to neutralize.” I rolled my eyes. “I suppose I’ll be taking care of that sooner than later.”
“Later,” Gabriel agreed. “Deal with Giovanni today, put Marcello right in his path, then let the two of them tear each other apart. Dealing with the arms dealer might win Rocco over to our side, then we’d have a unanimous vote.”
“I hate fucking politics.” I rubbed my aching temples. “Right now, I’d give anything to be back in the pits with no rules and my hands wrapped around Giovanni’s throat.”
Gabriel turned from the window, meeting my eyes. “I understand. If someone had tried to hurt my…” He paused, something flickering across his features. “Someone I cared about, I wouldn’t be standing here discussing strategy either.”
I arched a brow. “Remember that, if something happens to me. I want her protected.”
He huffed out a low laugh. “She was supposed to be my wife, remember?” He stepped close enough that I could see my own anger reflected in his eyes. “I’ll keep her safe, and when it’s time to take Giovanni’s head, we’ll burn every last trace of that male’s poison from this city.”
Nico tilted his head. “I’ll bring marshmallows.”
“Saints, stop being so fucking cheery,” I growled.
He gave me a thin, wolfish grin. “Sorry, it’s my nature to be optimistic. Get used to it, dickhead.”
There were three versions of myself fighting in my chest. The son my father raised, cold and calculating.
The husband who’d carried Ember’s still body out of dark water and believed, for one blistering instant, that he’d failed her.
And the monster who lived beneath my skin, claws scraping bone, whispering, tear him apart, tear him apart, tear him apart.
The monster wanted to be set free, but in the end, only one thing mattered.
“You’ll keep her safe?” I asked, voice raw. “You swear?”
Nico dipped his head. “Consider your wife under my personal protection until such time as you return.”
I smothered another surge of irritation at the phrase your wife—because of my never-ending jealousy when it came to Ember, and because I fucking loved the way it sounded.
Gabriel clasped my forearm, grip iron. “Good luck, fratello,” he said. Brother. “Make this ugly.”
“Oh,”—I smiled, baring my teeth—“I intend to.”