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Chapter Twenty-Three
-Noemi-
HE SAID HE’D NEVERkilled an innocent person. When I asked him how he knew the people he killed were guilty, he said it was because he thoroughly vetted all his contracts. He investigated each person and knew they were guilty and deserving of the fate.
I blinked up at him as he turned to stone next to me.
“You said you didn’t do it. That you didn’t kill them.”
“I didn’t,” he said in a lethal tone.
He was close to becoming that man again: the hard, implacable man who was brutally honest and didn’t care who got hurt in his wake because he didn’t have enough empathy to stop himself.
“Then how do you know all the facts? How do you know so many details that no one else does? The parties, Lydia, McKenzie - my mother!”
My tears started again. It seemed I couldn’t keep them at bay for long. My mind played tug-of-war with my heart. I wanted to believe everything Dante said, but unless he made it all up, there was only one way he could have all the details. He knew them too well, told them too convincingly for it all to have been a lie.
I lost my cool thinking what it all could mean.
“Damn you, don’t just sit there,” I screamed at his continued silence. “Tell me how you know all of this! If you didn’t kill them, if it was all my mother’s fault, then why do you know so much about it!”
He stood up, shoving his hands into his pockets. The cold demeanor returned, but I wasn’t afraid of this Dante anymore. Not when I had gotten to know the other one. Not when I had fallen in love with both of them.
“I think you already know the answer to that.”
He turned his back on me and walked to the bank of windows that ran along the back wall. He pushed the curtain to the side and stared out into the darkness.
With one arm braced on the wall, he let out a breath. “I’ll say this for the last time. I know I’m a murdering bastard, but I didn’t kill your parents, Noemi.”
I started to ask him more, but without turning to look at me, he put up his hand for me to stop talking.
“I’m only telling you this information now because I promised you that I would. I think you’ve had enough for one night, but since you’re determined to have the truth, I’ll give it to you.”
He turned to face me. “I didn’t kill your parents, but it was possible that I was going to kill your father.”
He might as well have grabbed the beating heart from my chest. My knees grew weak even though I was already sitting down. I swallowed hard, wanting an explanation but for the first time that night, I was too terrified to ask for one. Dante ran his hand through his hair, but he didn’t back down.
“There was a contract out for your father. As soon as I saw it, I was curious. I wasn’t interested in fulfilling it, but knowing your father and his family life, my curiosity was piqued. As I told you, I conduct thorough investigations.”
“That’s why you have all those documents and the pictures. You investigated my father?”
“Yes. But it was unofficial at the time. I never met with anyone or negotiated for the contract. I started my investigation and with the information I found, I decided not to go any further.”
That caught me off guard. From what he had told me, this ring of men preyed on vulnerable females.
“I thought these were the kind of men you ... deal with.”
I didn’t know how else to say it. I didn’t know if I’d ever reconcile the Dante I knew with a cold-hearted killer.
“They are. And I used that information later. For other purposes. But in the scheme of what he’d done, your father’s actions, while disgusting and immoral, were not deserving of my retribution.”
“So, what he did wasn’t so bad that you thought he should die for it?”
“Yes, but there was one other factor that influenced me the most.”
“What was that?”
I watched it happen that time. I watched the expression in his eyes change as his humanity gained control again.
