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beside the hotel suite. Dante’s throat hurt from roaring.
Leonardo Marchette took someone else from his life. Someone else he loved. He had no one now. He’d taken everything. If it was the last thing he ever did, it was going to be squeezing the life out of Leonardo’s neck with his bare hands.
“I’m calm,” Dante gritted through his teeth.
“I don’t believe him,” Elliott closed the door behind him. “And I’m running out of cash. I’m starting to believe these bellboys are taking turns coming up here just to get money. I’m giving away singles like I’m at a titty bar.”
“Like Iman would allow you,” Jerraud joked.
Death was a constant in their world. Either you walked away from love or it was taken away from you. Humor helped, as well as the company of the brothers, but Dante was in no joking mood or ready for some kum-ba-ya shit. He wanted blood.
“I’ll get the door next time,” said TJ, “he’s fucking pulling my arm out of the socket.”
“Dante,” Cole said with his calm mannerism again trying to get Dante to focus. His leader’s words registered through the pounding in his head. “If they get up do you promise not to break anything?”
Tito’s news brought out the beast in him. The only thing he wanted to break was Marchette. Unfortunately for those who tried to restrain him from getting out of the door now sported the hail of Dante’s fists.
“I’m not letting you up until you promise not to break anything,” Roman grunted, his weight pushed down on his legs.
“Or any of us,” TJ touched his jaw.
Dante couldn’t believe in her death. She was the toughest woman he ever met. Tito had his story wrong. He craned his neck so he could see Tito once more.
Tito gave a hesitant sigh. “Leonardo pulled his weapon and shot. She went through the window. The bastard didn’t even bother letting anyone in the room check to see where she landed. We went back to business as usual. If I’d gone to check on her I might have given my position away. I came here as soon as possible.”
No body meant no death. Dante thought about the next move. “Where is the next meeting?”
“Dante, you need to take yourself off the case,” said Elliott at the door.
“The fuck I am.”
Cole sat calmly and blinked. “Can you stay focused?”
“The man killed my wife,” Dante growled. “The only thing I’m focused on is getting that bastard once and for all.”
TJ spoke up, “I say let his anger fuel him.”
“The government wants him alive now,” said Cole and added before Dante could get another slew of curses out, “they want his father, Bobby Marchette, who just happens to be here on the island.”
The information processed through Dante’s brain but only angered him more. His fists clenched to the point his body shook.
“He’s gonna explode.” TJ shouted and braced down for another fit of anger.
In the ring Dante and his sparring partners often took turns winning. Dante met his match with three big ass guys sitting on him. He kicked. He bucked. He tried everything to get them off him until his muscles hurt from struggling.
“They’re not letting you up until you settle down. I need you to focus.” Cole went on, “The best way to settle the score with Leonardo is to put him behind bars. Let’s take this bastard and his father down.”
Bobby Marchette may have been embarrassed by his son’s behavior but family was family. Bobby Marchette being in Villa San Juan meant he was coming to take care of his son personally via sending him away. So what, they expected Dante to sit around for a year or two and wait for Leonardo’s exile to be up? Bobby would whisk Leonardo off to some hidden place in Italy and take him off the grid. The team needed to get to Leonardo before his father did. Dante relaxed.
“I’m all right,” he said understanding the seriousness. Believing him, TJ, Roman, and Jerraud got off Dante on the count of three. “Tito, where are they meeting?”
“A building in town in the wharf district, I don’t know which one. Alfaro still hasn’t trusted me as much since the incident in his café.”
Dante’s lungs ached when he inhaled. His brain still tried to process what happened with Harley. He refused to believe in the possibility of her death. His heart told him something different. Getting to his feet, he limped over to the balcony window. Across the bay the tide rose. Fire trucks swamped the entrance and into the sand around the back. The red and white flashing lights illuminated the yellow police tape around the endless pool over the water. A few floors up, uniformed officers scratched their heads at the jagged glass scene in the empty room.
For an average person the drop may have been far. Anyone untrained in the world of espionage might not have survived the fall. Harley could. Until the guys across the street pulled a body from the water or the gulf, he refused to lose faith. Dante swore if she survived the fall he’d make things right with her, starting with getting married in front of a priest, someone other than his cousin.
“Rossi,” Cole brought Dante out of his daze, “are you listening?”
