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And who else would he be in trouble with if not Dante?
I can’t believe this. It’s like jumping out of the flames of Hell and landing in the river of fire and brimstone.
I need to call Dante. He wouldn’t hurt me. I know he wouldn’t. He’d help me if he knew someone was after me.
I’ll call him when I get in the car. Right now it’s best to get out of here.
With that reasoning I shove the phone in my pocket and run faster when I see the elevator ahead. It leads to the multi-level parking lot the gallery shares with the other buildings.
I jump in to the elevator and press the button to go down. Although it takes mere minutes to reach the level I parked on it feels like forever.
The doors to the elevator car slide open and I rush out, but then my eyes connect with a large bulky man with Russian tattoos all over him.
Having been well versed in Bratva tattoos over the last couple of weeks, I don’t think twice before I run in the opposite direction. I also don’t recognize him as one of Dante’s men.
When he chases me, I realize my first instinct to flee was completely right.
I run with all the strength I have to go as fast as I can, but then a white van tears around the corner and catches up to me.
The side door opens and the next thing I know, someone grabs me and pulls me right inside while I’m mid-flight.
I scream but there’s no point. A large hand covers over my mouth and the doors.
They got me.
ChapterForty-Four
Dante
This is the moment of reckoning.
Igor will be here in a matter of minutes.
I spoke to him less than an hour ago, so even though a lot has happened over the last few hours, I’m hoping I still have the element of time on my side.
I’m sitting at the garden table in the courtyard of my father’s home.
When I came here that first week after I got out of prison, I hoped to return and make the house into the home it once was. I never knew my second visit would be this—my chosen location for war.
As I look around the rows of flowers before me that look like a sea of blood, I think of the painting at Igor’s house of Dante’s Inferno.
I now have the answer to the question I asked myself when I last saw it.
The question was, who was the real devil in my story? Who would I meet when I reached the last circle of Hell?
The answer is me.
I truly had to become the devil to fight in this war.Mywar. A war I didn’t even know the full details of.
This beautiful courtyard that looks more like the Garden of Eden with its rare red roses and the waterfall running down into the river has become my makeshift setting for that last circle of Hell.
The scenery is the complete opposite of the frozen wasteland depicted in Igor’s painting and described in the classic story, but once he gets here, he’ll bring the element of Hell I’m going for.
The two of us here together, both harbingers of death, will create that infernal state of mind. We will be the juxtaposition in a place that was once built on the hopes of starting a new life.
I chose this house and the outside location because it will give me the upper hand. I have Virgo and his men hidden away in the hedges of the moor. They can see me from there and will provide backup if I need it.
The only member of staff who is here is Anton, the head of security. He will usher Igor in and be on the lookout for a while we’re out here.
