Page 22 of The Gangster King

“No.” He turns, rubbing the back of his head, looking stressed as hell. “No, it’s...fuck. Mia Mancini.”

Mia?

“What about Mia?”

Mia Mancini—now Barrett—recently married the billionaire Connor Barrett and left the crime world. Okay, so that’s a very simplistic way of putting it. If the rumors are correct, she was kidnapped by her brother after becoming engaged to Connor. He found her and demanded her father let him marry her.

At the wedding, one of her father’s men turned on the don and it turned into an absolute blood bath.

Her entire family was slaughtered.

All except Mia, who was in hospital for months recovering from being shot.

She’s lucky to be alive.

Trust me, I followed the entire thing closely because I was so envious that she was getting out. Not the part where she was kidnapped or the horrendous actions of the men at her wedding, obviously.

But living in wait, knowing my father could pawn me off to some stinking gangster, while I was still building up the funds to leave, I had to wonder if Mia wasn’t secretly relieved.

Although she loved her father, I know that.

Like me, she’d lost her mother early in life, and while we weren’t close—our fathers have always been less friendly than the other dons—I’ve always felt that I understood her.

I’ve wondered if she fell in love with Connor and then decided to rebel against her family. Or did life throw them together and offer her an escape?

I have questions.

Which will probably never get answered, as I’ll be gone in fifteen days. No one will find me. I have a contact in California who sells fake identifications and then I’ll start a new life.

“Gianna said she met him at a girl’s night or something.”

They’re having girl’s nights and not inviting me?

Rude.

“Not much of a girl’s night if the guys were there.” I shrug and go back to my book, feeling miffed.

“Missing the point, Addy.” He growls and I glance back. “Gia said he was a friend of Mia and Connor’s, and our background check cleared him.”

“Maybe it wasn’t him then.”

“It was him. I watched him deceive us. Right fucking there in the middle of the warehouse as he looked me in the eye.” He growls darkly.

His gaze locks with mine as I swallow, imagining how terrible it would have been to see your father killed right in front of you. What they do is bad, but love is love.

“Then why didn’t you kill him?” I frown because this is what gangsters do.

Dante doesn’t blink.

He doesn’t even swallow.

Neither do I, as I wait for his reply.

“Because Gianna loves him,” Dante finally says.

He tears his eyes away from me and walks back to the computer while I stare at his back, wondering if I really know who this man is.

Even after almost twenty-six years.