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Dante shook his head as if I’d gotten it all wrong. But I hadn’t. Things I couldn’t imagine were true. I knew what I’d heard! It all seemed to fit. I should have been in complete shock, but I wasn’t, and I was confused as to why.
“No. That’s not entirely accurate. I am heavily invested in the stock market, but I’m not a broker. I never was. And I’m not a hitman. I’m an assassin.”
“Assassin?” My tongue tripped over the word. “Aren’t they the same thing?”
Dante answered me with a sigh and a look of disdain. “No, they’re not the same. A hitman is low class. Unevolved.”
I couldn’t help but snicker at his tone. Being a hitman was beneath him. The absurdity hit me. His arms had wrapped around me with a demanding passion that I never knew existed, but also with a surprising tenderness I didn’t know he was capable of. Those same hands took the life of others in exchange for money. The man I loved was a ruthless, cold-hearted murderer.
“Why?” I blurted out, my mind working fast to reason through it. How could I have fallen for a killer? Dante was intelligent, the smartest man I knew. He could do anything.Beanybody. And this was what he chose? “Why do you... dothis?”
Dante tilted his head to one side. At first, I thought he wasn’t going to answer me.
“Because, baby girl. Evil men lurk in the dark. Someone must hold them accountable. That someone, sometimes, is me.”
“So, it’s some kind of noble cause? Vigilante justice?”
“That’s not it at all.”
His voice lowered and his eyes darkened. This was the Dante I barely knew. This man scared me.
“When a bad man has to die, you need a badder man to kill him.”
Anti-social. Confused. Emotionally stunted. Dante was many things, but bad? No. I didn’t believe that. Even knowing that he was a hired killer, my heart could never think of Dante as a bad man.
“Is that what you are? A bad man?” I asked softly.
He cupped my cheek, a shadow passing through his eyes, then he turned away. I watched his body change. His shoulders straightened: his fists clenched at his side.
“The worst.”
“I don’t believe that.”
He turned back to face me. “I don’t care. Who and what I am isn’t defined by your beliefs. No man is just one thing. I know that better than anyone. You’ve only known the man that I’ve shown you.”
“I watched you kill someone, Dante. You never intended to show me that.”
“An unavoidable coincidence.”
What did that mean? “Coincidence?”
“You were supposed to be asleep.”
“You knew, didn’t you? You knew those men were coming for us and you didn’t tell me?”
“Yes. I made that decision, just like you made the decision not to reveal to me, until now, that you knew about the other two men.”
“Those pills weren’t ibuprofen, were they?” I asked.
“No.”
“What were they?”
“Sleeping pills.”
What the—? “You drugged me?”
“Are you fucking serious? Sleeping pills aren’t the same as drugs. These were all natural, over-the-counter sleep aids. With the wine, they should have helped you stay asleep until our visitors were dealt with,” he snapped at me. “Now, I have a question.”
