Page 60 of Revere: A Legacy Novel

The underboss glanced away, but stayed quiet.

Cross didn’t even care, as his attention went back to Dante. “Yeah, that’s right. We all know what I’m talking about. You came into my home, beat my face in with your gun, laughed at me, and threatened me. Not just me, though, no. Anyone around me, too. You shot my shoulder and told me it was a parting gift. Then you fucking left me there like it didn’t even matter.”

He pulled Dante up slightly from the table just to smash him back down onto it again. The blade of Catrina’s knife went with him, and cut the slightest slice through his skin. He could feel the warm trickle of blood staining the collar of his shirt. “Now do you fucking remember?”

Dante let out a hard breath. “You will be lucky to make it out of this place alive. I hope you under—”

“That’s why you did it,” Cross repeated, “because of Catherine.”

The man under him stiffened.

Catrina’s knife pressed harder.

Cross swallowed against the feeling. He wasn’t fucking moving. “Because of Catherine.”

“Yeah,” Dante grunted under his breath.

“Because of what she did.”

“And I would do it again.”

Cross just wanted to hear the asshole say it. He instantly let Dante go and took two huge steps back as the man quickly righted himself and turned to face him. Catrina dropped her hand poised with the knife, and stepped to her husband’s side. Dante’s green eyes blazed with rage and swirling violence, but Cross didn’t finch away.

“You almost killed me because she tried to kill herself,” Cross said.

Dante’s hands twitched at his sides. Likely deciding whether he wanted to hit Cross, or reach for a hidden gun. Cross didn’t move either way.

“Because you fucking blamed me.”

“Who the fuck else caused it? Who else hurt her like you did?” Dante’s shouts turned quieter when he hissed, “Again and again. You were lucky I even let you live long enough to do that to her. It won’t happen again, I assure you.”

“Instead of telling me what she had done,” Cross murmured, unaffected and cold in his fingertips, “so that I knew, you beat the shit out of me, shot me when I was down, and forced me out of this city. You’re a piece of shit that turned me into a coward. You didn’t tell me—you made me run.”

“And you should have stayed gone, Cross.”

“You should have told me!”

“So you could get her to do it again?” Dante roared.

“Daddy?”

Cross’s head snapped to the side.

Catherine stood in the entryway of the private dining area with downcast eyes, and shaking hands resting limply at her sides.

“Catherine,” Dante said quietly.

Betrayal stared back from her when she looked up. She didn’t move an inch.

“Did you do that, Daddy?”

“Catty, I …”

“You did,” she whispered, accusing.

Pain echoed back.

Cross’s chest hurt from the way his heart constricted under his ribs. “Catherine, it’s—”