Page 6 of Damaged & Deadly
“I don’t.”
She still looks confused. “You don’t what?”
“Lounge around.”
“But what about when you’re not working?”
Most of my life is spent working. “Then I’m at the shooting range or sharpening my skills or doing something else for the Famiglia.”
“And when you’re not doing any of that?”
I shrug. “Then I’m trying to catch a few hours of sleep.”
She just stares at me like I’m an alien before shaking off whatever she is thinking. “Whatever,” she says dismissively, making her way toward the door.
“Where the fuck do you think you’re going?” I snap, jumping up from the bed to intercept her.
Despite the threatening aura radiating off me, she crosses her arms over her chest daringly and glowers up at me. I like it—the fact she’s not afraid, even though she knows full well what I’m capable of. “I need food, and we need to talk to Enzo. And I need to get my brother away fromyourfather.”
She shifts to move around me, but I once again step in her path. My eyes rake over her. “Not dressed like that.”
“Seriously? That dress you put me in to go to your father’s was more revealing than this. Not to mention the fact Enzo’s seen me in my underwear. I think we’re well past the point of normal social decorum.”
“I couldn’t give a shit about social decorum. What I do give a shit about is him getting an eyeful of what’s mine.”
Anger flares in her eyes, and her lip curls up in a snarl. “Let’s get one thing straight, Dante. I married you because I had no other choice. I might be wearing your ring, but that doesnotmake me yours.”
In a flash, my hand is wrapped around her throat—a move I envision repeating a lot in the near future—and I drive her backward until she hits the wall. “Except that youaremine,” I argue back. “You were mine the second you stumbled into that alley. I might not have killed you, but you forfeited your life to me. Don’t you see? I wasn’t supposed to let you go that day.”
She just gapes at me, and unable to think of a better way to explain that this is fucking fate, I instead show her. My body pins hers to the wall as I devour her lips. I swear I can hear the crackle of electricity as the air around us heats, and she writhes against me, my dick growing hard.
When we’re both worked up and breathless, I pull back to look into her eyes. Her pupils are blown, her lids heavy with lust. Still, her sharp words are cutting. “Maybe so, but youdidlet me go, and my life is not one I’m willing to give up for you.”
“Maybe I just need to tie you to my bed and fuck you until you agree otherwise.”
Even with the dark shadows that are no doubt clouding my face as anger boils just beneath the surface of my skin, she tilts her head back and stares brazenly back at me. “You can tie me to your bed, lock me up in here, and keep me as your own personal sex slave, but that still doesn’t make me yours.” In contrast to her sharp words, her tone softens ever so slightly. “You want me to feel for you whatever it is you feel for me? Then you have to allow me to get there on my own.” She holds my gaze, and for a brief second, she lowers her guard. It’s nothing more than a flash, so quick that if I’d blinked, I’d have missed it before she rights her armor and straightens her spine. “And unless you want me sneaking out the window and disappearing into the night, then I suggest you play by my rules. You might think you know me, Dante, but trust me, you’ve barely scratched the surface of who I am.”
I’m still trying to wrap my head around the meaning of what she’s said when she slips out of my hold on her throat and ducks under my arm, making a beeline for the door. “Now, as I said, I’m starving, and we have shit to do.”
Chapter 3
I throw the half-full glass of whiskey at the wall as a furious snarl rips out of me. I can still hear that fucking wedding music, the hopelessness in her voice as she all but gave herself over to that monster. How the hell did this happen? How did weletthis happen?
As soon as we got back from the church, Oliver went out in search of answers to those very questions, while I’m in here because I can’t get my shit together long enough to be any fucking help. Collapsing into my chair behind the desk, I bury my head in my hands as despair consumes me. Everyone around me eventually suffers, and the lead weight of guilt hanging like a noose around my neck has me wanting to down the entire bottle of whiskey sitting on the desk and sink into the blissful oblivion it would provide for a few short, sweet hours. I keep letting people down. People I’ve promised to protect. How the fuck can I be responsible for protecting an entire club of men when I can’t even safeguard those closest to me. Evie. Luc. Red. The list just keeps growing longer. Who will be next? Oliver? I should never have convinced him to come back here. Or perhaps it will be someone else I care about? Red? If only I hadn’t pursued her or got her involved in any of this. Luc? I should have kept a closer eye on him and ensured he had better protection.
I sigh in defeat. I should have done a million things differently. And absolutely none of it fucking matters anymore. Thewhat-ifsonly serve to drive me insane.
My thoughts swing back to Red as I wonder what she’s doing now. It’s only been a few hours since we left her. Is she back at the house withthem? Anger burns hot in my veins. She should be here withus.Where she belongs. Today should have been the happiest day of my life. I was finally supposed to get my revenge and gain some peace. Rid myself of the suffocating weight of guilt I’ve been carrying around all these years. Instead, I’m being crushed beneath that weight. I can feel myself sinking into the depths of a bottomless void, drowning in guilt, grief, and my growing list of mistakes.
Since I just destroyed the glass, I grab the whiskey bottle by the neck and chug a good quarter of it while I lean back in my chair and stare at the far wall. She married him. I can’t believe she fucking married him. From the second she told me this nut job wanted to marry her, I was against it, but her plan made sense. Now my desire for revenge has resulted in the woman I love marrying into a family I’ve spent my entire adulthood working to destroy. How fucking ironic is that?!
Why the fuck would he even have proposed such an idea unless he wanted her? I don’t claim to know anything about Dante other than the fact that he’s the son of the devil, and in my experience, the apple never falls far from the tree. However, I don’t believe for one second his proposal was purely selfless. Heclaimedit was the only way to protect Red from his father, but why was his father even after Red? How did he even know who she was? All questions I never thought to ask because I didn’t think any of them mattered. None of it would have mattered if today had gone as planned, and now I realize I don’t really know what the fuck is going on with those two Antonelli scum and my girl.
I can still hear Red’s hesitant tone as clear as day as she practically pleaded with me to spare their lives. Why? What sort of mind fuckery have they pulled to make her empathize with them? To have her begging me not to kill them, knowing full well how difficult an ask that would have been for me.
Grabbing my phone off the desk, I pull up the tracking app. There’s a tracker hidden in the back of her burner phone—there was no way I was going to let her go running back to them without being able to trace her—and I navigate it now. The blue dot shows she’s somewhere just north of the city. In the exact location she’s been in since Dante kidnapped her from the club. Every time I look at it, I itch to drive up there and steal her back. That same need arises now, stronger than ever after the events of today.
Now, I find myself just staring at the screen. Hoping the dot will move or give me some sort of excuse to go to her. It doesn’t, and I’m still staring when the door to my office opens and Oliver appears. He looks as weary and as strung out as I do. His hair is disheveled as if he’s been repeatedly running his hand through it all day, and he barely manages a quirk of his lips in acknowledgment as he drops into the chair opposite me.