Page 86 of Vow of Hate

I find his room and stop in the doorway. He’s in bed, eyes closed, breathing with a tube in his nose. His heart rate is steady.

He survived. It really is a miracle. Dante is not a man who goes down without a fight.

I take my seat beside him and hold his hand. Never has he looked so weak and so strong at the same time.

Tears hit me again – this time of relief – and I bow over him.

“Why are you crying?” Dante’s groggy voice asks.

With a gasp, I sit up. Dante is staring at me, looking confused. “Because you survived. You just came out of surgery.”

“I’m alive?”

“You’re alive. You didn’t go down easily.”

“I never do,” he says with a small smile.

Without thinking about it, I say the thing I need to say to him. “I love you.”

Chapter Twenty

Dante

Hearing Sienna tell me that she loves me… it’s something I never thought possible. That someone could be capable of loving me.

“I don’t deserve it,” I say. My body aches. My mind is still foggy from the anesthesia. But despite all of that, I’m here, in the moment with Sienna.

“I know you don’t deserve it. But it’s how I feel.” That fire in Sienna’s eyes I love so much returns. “I’m glad you’re not dead. I want to be married to you, Dante. You agreed to make peace with Gabriel. Do you still intend to honor that?”

“I do,” I say, surprising even myself. “I was almost killed because of us. I don’t want you to be my weakness any longer. I realized, while I was on that table and Gabriel was cutting and hitting me, that you didn’t have to be my weakness if I made peace with him. That I could have you. But Gabriel better stick to his word and not try and control me. As long as he does that, I’ll be happy. With you.”

The light in her eyes makes my chest fucking squeeze. “You really mean all of that?”

“Yes.” I grab her hand. It’s so small in mind. “I want you in my life, Sienna. I do want to marry you. I just didn’t want Gabriel controlling me.”

“I understand that. I don’t want Gabriel controlling me either.”

“I…” Before I can tell Sienna that I love her also, her mom arrives in the doorway. “Henrietta.”

“Dante,” she says in a clipped tone. “You’re alive. I’m happy for my daughter’s sake.”

“But not for your own, I take it.”

She sighs and enters the room. “You threw yourself in front of that bullet. For my daughter. For me. I don’t understand it. You shot me before.”

“I know. And I am sorry for that. I was intent on hating everything. You were in my way. I know you’re not going to want to hear it but it wasn’t anything personal.”

“You’re right,” she says flatly. “I don’t want to hear that.”

“I’m just being my honest self. But I threw myself in front of that bullet for you and Sienna because… it just felt like the right thing to do. I’m an asshole. I’m not going to pretend otherwise. But I’m an asshole who cares about your daughter and is sorry I shot you.”

“That’s the best I’m going to get from you, isn’t it?”

I shrug, even though it hurts. “Yes.”

Her eyes flick over my body. “Well, at least you paid the price. You were shot too. For my daughter’s sake, we’ll call this even. But if you ever come for me again, I will shoot you.”

“I wouldn’t expect anything less. I see where Sienna gets her fire from.”