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Still…
“Is that what this means?” I ask a little breathlessly, goading him anyway, just a little, because this new possessive side of him that’s come out now that he’s finally admitted his feelings for me gets me fucking hot.
He grins, seeing right through me and giving me what I want anyway.
“Fuck yeah, that’s what it means. And it’s too late to back out now, wild thing. You belong to me and my brothers, and since this shit is permanent, I guess you always fucking will.”
He’s not wrong. And no matter how much uncertainty awaits us when we step out the door and back into the shitstorm brewing with West Point, having this one forever-thing to hold on to means something to me.
And having Dante understand that means even more.
26
RILEY
Dante murmurssomething to Nico when we reach the front of the shop, then slips him some money.
“That wasn’t the deal,” I say, pushing my way between them. “I can cover my own—”
“I know,” Dante interrupts, grinning down at me. “But let me.” He runs the backs of his fingers down my cheek, leaning close to whisper. “And I can’t wait to mark you up with a few more tattoos. Seeing you get inked like that was fucking hot.”
I hide a grin of my own as he finishes up business with Nico, taking a moment to look at some of the art they’ve got on the wall. I might as well, since I’ve got a feeling Dante’s going to follow through and convince me to get a lot more ink in the future.
An idea that I definitely don’t hate.
“Ready, princess?” he asks, putting a proprietary hand on my back as we head out the door but then pausing before we exit to tug the low neckline of my shirt up a little higher, smoothing it over the new ink. “Gotta keep that shit out of the sun for a while.”
“I know.”
“Oh you do, do you?” he asks, a playful note to his teasing that I’ve really fucking missed.
We step out of the shop. “I was actually listening to the aftercare instructions.” I tease him right back.
“Well, shit.” He pulls me against him and presses a kiss against my temple. “Guess I didn’t do a good enough job of distracting you then. Next time, I’ll need to—what thefuck?”
He shoves me behind him so fast that I stumble, managing to keep a grip on my arm at the same time so I don’t actually go down, but then immediately releasing me once I’m stable so he can surge forward and address the threat.
Sienna Morgan.
“What the fuck?” I repeat, echoing Dante as adrenaline surges through me.
I don’t know where the hell she came from, since we’re deep in Reaper territory. The last time I saw her, she was sneering at my captivity and telling me how her boyfriend, Austin McKenna, planned on killing me once he was done with me.
Dante recovers from the shock of her sudden appearance before I do. He lunges at her, shoving her into the alley next to the tattoo parlor and pinning her against the wall.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” he demands, his voice as cold and deadly as I’ve ever heard it. “Even if we weren’t in the middle of this shit, you know you’re not welcome. Did McKenna send you?”
“No,” she whispers, her voice hoarse.
“Then you can turn around and get the fuck out of Reaper territory,” Dante says before she can get another word out.
“Dante,” she bursts out in protest, earning not even a hint of sympathy despite the fact that she looks like shit. Her hair is a hot fucking mess, there are puffy circles under her eyes, and the clothes she’s wearing look just as unkempt as the rest of her, even though they don’t do jack to hide the fading bruises visible on her face and body.
I can relate to how few fucks Dante gives, though. The bitch deserves none of them.
“I don’t want to hear it,” he says, pulling her away from the wall and spinning her body so that he can bend her arm up behind her back and use it to propel her forward. “Fastest way for you to be gone is to head toward 26th and Jefferson. Go.”
He shoves her, but she stumbles and then turns back to face him. “Do you know how fucking hard it was to make it here? Fuck no, I’m not going. I need to speak to Maddoc.”
