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“What’s so special about me?”
He gives me a hot look, then grins. “Where do you want me to start?”
It’s tempting to go with the flirting. To stay in the moment and take what Dante’s offering. But I need to know… and damn, I like Dante even better when he figures that out without me having to say so.
He doesn’t make me work for it, obviously seeing something in my face that has him dropping the charm and giving me a look that’s somehow even more appealing. That’s morereal. “You know about Sienna?”
I nod. “Maddoc’s ex who’s now with Austin McKenna.”
I half expected her to make some kind of scene when she showed up with him at Saraven, but beyond hanging off Austin’s arm and shooting a few contemptuous looks toward us, she was mostly silent.
“That’s right,” Dante says. “And that shit really fucked Maddoc up when it happened.”
“He loved her?” I ask, something barbed and ugly twisting inside me.
“Huh. Love?” He cocks his head to the side, squinting a little, like he’s replaying it all in his head. “I don’t know about that,” he finally says, “but she was definitely the only other woman he’s ever been serious about.”
My heart trips, my hands suddenly sweaty. “The onlyotherwoman?”
Dante gives me a long look, but doesn’t actually answer. “It was bad enough that she cheated on him,” he says instead. “That shit was…” He shakes his head. “You know how he feels about loyalty.”
“I do.”
It’s one of the things I’m attracted to the most… although I definitely don’t hate how hot he is, either.
Dante nods, continuing. “He demands it. Fucking deserves it. And since he doesn’t give his own trust lightly either, finding out about the cheating after he trusted that bitch, plus the way she defected to West Point afterward—not just choosing McKenna, but betraying our whole organization like that? Let’s just say it’s left Madd with some trust issues, especially when it comes to getting close to someone like that again.”
Again.
It’s that last word of his that sends my stomach into a little spasm of jitters. I wipe my sweaty palms on my thighs, then lace my fingers together to try to keep my hands from shaking.
Everything Dante is saying makes me hurt for what Maddoc went through, but it also feeds that tiny spark of hope inside me in a way that the shitty realities of life have always taught me was too dangerous to put any faith in.
People always let you down, and good things don’t last. Those two lessons are ones I learned early, well, and often, and I’m not sure which idea is more frightening right now—that the Reapers are still playing me, or that, this once, things might actually be different.
Dante’s watching me carefully, and I know without him having to spell it out that he’d never share details about his brothers like this lightly. And that if he thinks I’m not respecting the information in the spirit he’s offering it, he’ll shut it down hard and fast.
I lick my lips carefully. “So, you’re saying Maddoc doesn’t trust me. None of you do.”
Dante trails the backs of his fingers down my cheek, then cups it. “That sharp mind you’ve got is hella sexy, not gonna lie. But yeah, that’s what I’m saying. And Maddoc’s trust issues hit pretty close to home when it comes to you, which makes it interesting to see him trying.”
I snort. “This is him trying?”
Dante laughs. “More than you probably realize. Hell, more than he’d probably admit. Even Logan…”
He cuts himself off, shaking his head.
“Logan doesn’t trust me either? Of course he doesn’t.” I answer my own question before Dante has the chance. “But why? It’s like he hated me from the start. What did I ever do to him?”
“Nothing, but believe me, he has his reasons. But you know how private he is. You wanna know those reasons, if you want the whole story, you’ll have to ask him.”
“Would he actually tell me?”
Dante shrugs. “If he wants you to know.”
A few weeks ago, I would have said there was no chance in hell. I wouldn’t even havewantedto know Logan’s story, I’d just have wanted to get the fuck away from him. But now, I do. I want that and more. I want something I’ve never even honestly believed in before. Something I caught a tantalizing glimpse of at Saraven that can’t exist unless Logan is a part of it too.
Unless they all are.
