CHAPTER 2
Not being hurt by Dante is no relief at all. Nor do I get relief when I finally get my son back, and we head to the car. My body trembles as if I’m freezing, but I’m full of rage. If Finn weren’t in my arms, I’d rip that damn traitor’s head off.
What are you waiting for?
A man shoves me near a car. The other vehicles leave while Dante fixes something in the back seat. Once he’s out, I look into his dark blue eyes.
Once I could’ve just stared at them for hours…
Now I want to gouge them out of his head.
“Where are my parents?” I ask through gritted teeth.
He smirks, “If I’d known, they’d be already dead, ragnetta.”
I gasp and take a step back, crashing against the same man who has a gun pointing at me. I jump away and hold Finn tighter.
I look back at the lying lunatic. He once told me he’d save my mum from my father’s claws.
He lied about that too.
“Let me go!”
He stares at the man behind me and nods. A piece of fabric covers my mouth at the same time Dante takes Finn away from my arms. Seizing the opportunity, I spin around, punch the man in the balls, and then smash his nose.
All these months of marriage, part of me planned a thousand ways to hurt my husband, but I never found the courage.
And now, he’s dead.
Honestly, I never thought that move would work.
When I turn to reach Finn, the psycho points a gun at my face, clutching my son tight against his body. His smile makes my hair stand on end. My stomach knots.
If he kills me here, he will do whatever he wants with Finn. He’ll touch him, sell him, beat him…
Tears sting my eyes. I can’t leave him alone. If he suffers, I must be there for him. If I can't save him, at least we will have each other.
I’ll think about something…
“It is your choice, Lana.” Something clicks on his gun as his thumb shifts. “Will you be a good girl, or will I have to resort to unpleasant methods?”
“What do you want from me?” I grit out. “I gave you everything I had. Just let us go!”
“Not everything, ragnetta. If you had, we would not be in this situation.”
No.
Not my son.
“You are a sick bastard.”
His gaze hardens, and his jaw clenches.
He wants Finn. He doesn’t want me.
“Get in the car, Lana.”
“No.”
“Stop being a brat and get in the fucking car!”
I narrow my eyes at him. My heart stutters, and the part of me that’s crazy in love fuses with the furious one and says, “I am not afraid of you. You would not dare to shoot me.”
Dante glances past my shoulder, lifts the gun, and fires. I jolt, Finn bursts into tears, and when I reach to hold him, cold steel presses against my forehead.
He’s going to kill me.
Oh, God.
He really doesn't love you. Everything they said was true!
My heart breaks all over again.
“You’ll do as I say, or will I have to force you?”
I swallow the knot in my throat and step closer to the man behind me, offering no resistance. Dante’s face stays rigid as he glances at the man and gives another nod. The man shoves the fabric into my mouth, and that is when I break. My tears betray me, yet I don't look away from my son.
“You will obey and stay with Finn. Do not try anything reckless, or I will take drastic measures.”
What about what I want? What about everything he ever told me? Why can’t they just leave me alone?
He hands me my son, still crying. I try to calm him, but it is difficult when I’m about to crumble.
Dante opens the car, and I slide in without a second thought.
Once I am inside, he slams the door and walks away.
There’s a baby seat next to me, but I refuse to use it.
Finn will stay with me, even if it’s the most dangerous choice.
For a moment, I consider sneaking out—But I’m unarmed, there’s no one around, the seat would be a nuisance, and Finn’s screams would give us away.
The scent of lemon distracts me from the lingering smell of blood that’s been stuck in my nose since I threw myself on my husband’s corpse.
While I neither tolerated nor loved him, he was still a person—the father of my son—and he died right before me.
He had been keeping me and my baby safe from danger.
He promised he would not let me do the things mothers sometimes do with their children.
The only time he mentioned it, he said it was a lie.
He just wanted to torture me.
I was being mistreated, but my baby was safe, and that was all that mattered.
The sound of gravel crunching makes me tense. Outside, Dante and the man speak with their backs to the car. I kiss Finn on the forehead, without taking my eyes off them.
Is this what my life would have been like if I had married him? It’s no better than with Stefan. It wouldn’t surprise me if he took me by force once we arrive wherever he’s taking me, nor if he hit me… though it would break my heart even more.
Both men get in shortly after they finish their conversation; one sits beside me. Dante climbs into the driver’s seat and starts the engine but doesn't drive away.
We lock eyes in the rearview mirror.
“The kid, in the chair”
I shake my head. I won’t let them take him away from me. Not without a fight.
He takes a deep breath. “Lana, it is safer for Finn if—”
“I don’t care!” I manage to say, though it comes out muffled—but don't care about that either.
He groans and gets out of the car. Then he opens the door, takes the child’s seat out, and throws it away before slamming the door shut again. Finn starts crying once more, and in my frustration, I feel the urge to wail like he does.
Stefan used to threaten me whenever I couldn’t calm him down.
Sometimes he forced me to leave Finn on his cot, and I had to endure his torment.
I’m scared Dante will do the same. I don’t care what he does to me; don't care how hard he wants to beat me—I will endure everything for my baby. I can’t even bear the thought of him hurting my child.
The one I loved wouldn’t do that…
But he wouldn’t have betrayed you either, and here we are.
My heart tightens at the reminder.
“If you try anything, Alonso is allowed to shoot you,” Dante says as he gets back into the car. “Move”
Out of the corner of my eye, I glance at the man beside me. He is tense but tries to ignore me while keeping his gun trained on us. I slide into the seat until I am pressed against the door. Dante drives off.
I keep my body wrapped around Finn’s and close my eyes. With him in my arms, all I can do is resign myself to whatever the future may hold.
When I think it can't get any worse, it does.
Dante brought me to the middle of nowhere. All I can see around me are trees. There is not even a light source, except for the cars—and they are Dante’s.
This is it. He’s going to kill us here and no one will ever find us—or he will leave us stranded, and I have no idea how to get back to town.
One of them takes Finn away from me. I haven’t eaten all day, and I’m too weak, so when I try to get him back, someone seizes my arm and yanks me so hard I fall.
When I look up, I find an expression on Dante’s face I have never seen before—dark, devoid of any light. Nothing like the way he used to look at me… when I thought he loved me.
“You stay with me,” he grunts, helping me to my feet.
I rip the fabric from my mouth and throw it at his face. I don't even know why he put it there in the first place.
“My son stays with me. Tell them that.”
“Your son stays wherever I see fit.” He yanks my arm again. Looking at my hand, he takes my wedding ring and hurls it away. “Now shut up and follow me.”
I can’t believe he just did that.
He drags me until we are standing beside a hole in the ground. Blood drains from my body.
He’ll bury me alive. He’ll take Finn.
He can’t do that.
“Finn can’t be without me! I’ll give you anything, please… you… you can’t kill me.”
He rolls his eyes and releases me, pointing at the ground.
“Sit.”
I lift my chin. “If I die, it won’t be…”
“Oh, for fuck's sake, don’t get dramatic on me; I’m not going to kill you.”
My jaw drops. He called me dramatic!
As I remain still, he grabs my hair and drags me closer to him. I gasp in surprise, making him smile.
“You want me to force you, sweetheart? Is that why you are so eager to anger me?”
“I want you to let us go!”
“So what? So you can run back to Daddy and his army of—”
“They wouldn’t have betrayed me like you did.”
My father was a bastard, yes, but he never deceived me… I think. Besides, he only hurt me. He loved boys; he never hurt my brothers the way he hurt me. Finn would be safe, even if it meant I had to return to that prison.
Dante releases me and snorts, pinching the bridge of his nose.
“Sit. I won’t repeat it again.”
I glance towards the car and see the man holding Finn in his arms. He is trying to distract him with a toy.
He takes the baby, looks at him for a second, and just with one move he shuts him up.
Alba’s screams pierce my ears. The little body falls limp in front of me, and before I can react, the man pulls my hair, dragging me out of the room.
Alba gets closer to her baby’s body and wraps him in her arms, screaming inconsolably. That is all I see before the man slams the door in front of me.
I don’t want to know if Dante is capable of doing that to my boy. I can’t keep risking his life.
With a knot in my throat, I kneel in front of him.
Dante handcuffs my hands behind my back. Then his dark gaze scrutinises me from head to toe.
“Oh, cara mia.5 ” He quickens his pace, his mouth capturing every gasp and moan. “Ti amerò anche quando il mio cuore smetterà di battere.6 ”
No.
There’s no trace of the man who owned my head, my life, and my dreams. The Dante I knew was a facade.
Tears fill my eyes. “I wish I’d never met you.”
He smiles.
“Are you sure? Those cheeks tell otherwise, sweetheart. Are you thinking about me?”
He pinches them and I pull my head away from his touch. I focus my gaze on Finn. He seems to like the guy. The latter even lets him hit him with the toy.
Dante stands up.