Chapter five: Dante

I had not meant to do it again. It was the damn wind or so I thought. Then I heard it. The clicking and murmurs where there used to be none.

Having ensconced myself back in the bedroom hours before sunset, I had my dinner in there and pretended this situation would pass away by the time I woke up the next morning.

That I’d be back at my hotel room come morning and leaving the city as quickly as I came.

I opened my eyes at the sound of the clicking again.

"Ughh," I groaned and rose to my feet. If this was a test or something then I would be very pissed.

My feet were socked and I padded stealthily across the floor and opened the door of the bedroom. Nothing.

My hackles were raised now and every instinct in me was telling me that something was very wrong. In my usual line of work that wasn’t an instinct I could safely ignore.

Moving through the hallway I continued to listen for any sounds.

I began to hear low murmurs as soon as I was at the base of the stairs.

Then a loud female voice akin to a banshee’s screech.

"Where’s Marcus?! Where have you hidden him?!"

I heard the cock of a gun. But that wasn’t what caught my attention then. It was the movement so sharp I could have missed it in an instant. Someone was outside under the bushes, I realized.

Pressing against the wall to evade the unknown man’s view, I moved closer to the window wishing dearly that I had my gun with me.

I cast my gaze across the room to find Nero rising to his feet across from the woman whose voice I had heard before. Then the unknown man’s movement caught my eyes again. He lifted a gun and was about to pull the trigger.

I don’t know what compelled me to yell out. Was it because I felt a sense of duty or that I simply wanted to be the one to take down the Don myself for revenge’s sake?

Either way Nero was down crouched behind a chair as the woman screamed bloody murder.

I moved quickly knowing the assailant would go for me next.

I rushed at the man through the shattered window and tackled him to the ground. Okay I held his gun aloft as he struggled and pressed the barrel against his neck.

"Dante, leave him alive!" Nero’s command made me still and I hated myself for how easy it was to obey his orders.

Pulling myself off of the man some of the guards rushed to hold the captive upright.

"Fuck you," the man struggling against the burly guards grunted followed by a stream of curse words that were not all English. "Let her go, you bastard!"

That caught my attention and Nero’s as well. He turned to the blonde banshee from earlier who paled and took a step back.

"Her?" The Don tilted his head narrowing his eyes which flickered between the two of them. "You mean the mother of my son? Why on earth would I listen to scum like you and let her go?"

"She’s my fiancée!" The captive yelled out.

Suddenly a scream tore through the air and I looked at the blonde woman who took a step back.

"I don’t know him!" The blonde began to screech again and I winced inwardly.

"Oh, but he knows you, Layla. Enough to kill for you," Nero’s glare was downright murderous. I restrained a shiver even though I wasn’t the target of his ire.

"Layla love," the captive sputtered out in shock. "But you told me you needed to be free! You told me that you would marry me if he was dead!"

"No! You lie! Nero-"

Bang!

It happened in an instant.

The man collapsed to the ground with a bullet hole in his head. The air was silent. Not even a cricket was chirping.

"So Layla," Nero was incredibly blasé as he turned to aim the gun at his stunned woman. "Give me a reason why I shouldn’t kill you."

She parted her lips and her lips trembled.

"Please..." her words were faint.

"Take her to Block A. She will be there u til I decide how to deal with her."

"Yes Don," the guards chorused. Layla let out a loud wail now.

I watched as she was dragged kicking and screaming down the front lawn and to the corner where she disappeared along with the guards.

I took a step back. I wasn’t about to spend another second in Don Vecchio’s presence if I could help it.

However before I could make my exit suddenly I felt Nero’s eyes on me.

"I made the right choice picking you out," he murmured. I could hardly breathe with the way his eyes were fixed on me. "Dante Solace."

Suddenly the realization that he knew who I was hit me. He knew whose son I was.

I took a step back warily and glanced around. We were alone. Not even a guard in sight.

"Are you going to kill me then?" I expected he would.

I remembered seeing my father’s body laying in a gutter out in the open years back. A bullet hole in his head and heart, and his guts spilled out for the birds to pick at until the police could take the body to the morgue.

Would mine be left like that too?

To my surprise his expression remained inscrutably relaxed as he chuckled.

"And why would I do that?" He was closer to me now, so close that I could smell his cologne. It unfurled something inside me, dark and tempting that I wished I could find out what his lips tasted like.

Revulsion ran through me. Had I become so blinded by his words and charms in less than a day? Was I so fickle?

That thought coursed through me and jolted me so badly that I clenched my hands into fists. I turned away from Nero, barely able to think but suddenly his hand was on my chin and forcing me back to meet his gaze.

"You’re mine, Dante. A precious asset. And I don’t harm things that belong to me," Nero finished with the most devilish smirk.

I was speechless. A part of me wanted to give in, to believe his words. But then I remembered Layla. The mother of his son.

If he could do that to her then what would he do to me if he knew that I hated him the most in this world?

Just wait Nero Vecchio, I promised myself. If you think I’m going to be your pawn then you’re mistaken. I would be your poisoned chalice. I would end your life the same way you ended my father’s.

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