AllFreeNovel
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Dante is standing next to the garage by the time I make it outside. He’s bent over with the hood of his sweater obscuring his face, but I’d recognize those wide shoulders anywhere. He softly yanks on the ancient door handle to try and pry the garage open.
I chuckle and roll my eyes. “You never could get this thing open,” I whisper.
He silently shifts to the side, giving me room to slink in beside him. We grab the handle together and pull, moving the door slowly to avoid any loud squeaks on the track as it opens.
“Thanks,” he says with a grunt.
He turns away from me and walks back to his car.
I pause with concern, instantly noticing the limp in his step. “Dante, are you okay?” I ask.
He doesn’t answer. He grabs a small duffel bag from the passenger seat and takes it with him into the garage, his hood still pulled up over his head. As he walks past me, I notice the red and black bruises on his knuckles. The stains on his clothes. The smell of sweat and blood.
“Dante?”
He gestures me into the garage. “Come on,” he whispers.
My heart is racing as I follow him into the dark garage. Dante sets the bag down on Gramp’s workbench in the very back and flicks on the lamp beside it.
He drops his hood and I gasp. His bottom lip is busted open. I can hardly see the whites of his eyes, they’re so swollen and bruised. A butterfly bandage rests along the bridge of his nose.
“Oh, my god! Dante—”
“I’m fine,” he says, quickly blocking my hand when I try to touch him. “It looks a lot worse than it is. Believe me.”
“What happened to you?”
He opens the duffel bag. Stacks of money rest inside bound together by worn rubber bands. A lot of them. More than I’ve ever seen in my life.
“Dante, where did you get all that?” I ask.
He smiles. “I won.”
“You won?”
“Remember the fights I told you about?” he asks. “The tournament?”
“That Alpha thing?”
“I won,” he says again. “The whole damn thing.”
“Wow,” I say, genuinely proud as his smile grows. “That’s amazing.”
“And that’s not all. After the fight, there was this guy there that wanted to talk to me. Told me I had potential — great potential — and he wanted to recruit me into his squad.”
“Recruit you for what?”
“I’m not sure. I’m gonna meet him again tomorrow to talk, but...” He exhales excitedly. “Lilah, this is it. My ticket out of here. He said I’d get to travel the world, hone my skills, be someone important.”
I cringe inside. “You’re leaving again?”
Dante pauses. His shoulders sag as he studies my expression. “Lilah, I have to go,” he says.
“Why?” I ask.
“I can’t stay here, you know that. Gramps said he didn’t want me around you guys anymore.”
“Okay, but...”
