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CHAPTER 023

Author: MattyWrites
last update Last Updated: 2024-12-20 08:08:19

CHAPTER 023

Dante watched Lucia cross the courtyard of Nero’s estate with his back pressed to the rough brick wall. She moved precisely, each step deliberate, and her sharp eye kept moving across, almost as if she still expected trouble. She was always prepared and vigilant. Dante caught himself staring at her and admired the way she was so calm, focused, and touched in a place that didn't have light, let alone a breeze.

Dante scowled and could almost hear Leo; it was the same in his head from their last conversation: “You’re stalling, Dante." “This isn’t complicated. Find the weakness, follow her, and deliver her. It’s business.”

It wasn’t business anymore. He’d seen something different in Lucia the moment he noticed her again. The Vulpin mafia had described her as a fragile girl, but she wasn’t. Now in her she possessed strength formed by a source of pain and resilience, and it made Dante hesitate in a way that he hadn’t in ages.

There was no sound in the alley around him; the shado
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